Dash Beyond
Dash Beyond was an interactive career exploration game and college application tool developed for the Indian market of high school students. Using the student’s psychosocial inputs through academic questionaires, algorithms expose them to potential career matches and higher educational roadmaps.
FAQs
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93% of high school students in India knew of less than 5 careers before applying for college
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To create an engaging way of showcasing careers and colleges to students 13+
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Nov 2017 - Jan 2020
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Aakaanksh Pothukutchi (CEO)
Mischa Pouyavand (Chief Experience Officer)
Akhil Chowdary (Chief Storyteller)
Nikhil Srivatsa (CTO)
Ewan Kromhout (Chief Operations Officer)
Rhea Mokari (UX Researcher)
Michaela Kromhout (User Research Intern)
Tanisha Kulkarni (UI/UX Designer)
Rohit Mondal (UX Design/Strategy)
Kunal Bhosale (Illustratrator)
Max Gonzales (Illustratrator)
Raghava Ram (Tech Project Manager)
Yogesh Soundaraj (Content Editer)
Vishnu Varghan (Full Stack Dev)
Ramesh Kumar (Middle Ware Dev)
Rajeshwari Kesam (Frontend Dev) -
-Conducted Market Research
-Competative Analysis
-Created methodology for User Research (Workshops, Surveys, Interviews) and train user research and interns
-Facilitated Design Sprint with entire team
-Created Product Roadmap
-User Journey Mapping
-Wireframes
-Communicated with Engineers about features, timelines, and limitations
-Branding, Style Guides, Creative Direction
-User Interface Design
-User Testing and Iteration
-Recruited, trained/directed, and managed team of creatives
-Created MVP, Pitchdeck, Pitched to Angel Investors, Raised Funding in SF
User Research
Our users were students (9th-12th grade), their parents, and school cousellors. Our aim was to find out the wants, needs, goals, aspirations, constraints.
In order to conduct this portion, each user was given a survey, interviewed, and tested utilizing prototypes and early iterations of the platform.
We conducted in person workshops in 43 schools all over India with over 2,650 students. 100 Parents, 65 counsellors, and 41 principals.
USERS PERSONAS
USERS PERSONAS
FINDINGS
Everytime we conducted research and tested the product with users, we gathered valuable insights that lead to the following findings which we took into consideration for each iteration of the product.
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1. We need to create a way to take inventory of the users (sign up)
2. We need to make relevant suggestions for careers of their interest (sign up academic questionaire - collect data - suggest career profiles on their dashboard)
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1. We need to make it sticky - have them come back (gamify it with badges and coins)
2. Have them spend more time on the platform exploring careers, courses, and colleges
3. We need to provide data flow between the students, parents, and counsellors (create separate landing page and sign up for parents, counsellors, and schools.
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We need to make them actually comprehend the career profile video and read the career profile write-up (create a quiz that they must take after watching the video)
User Journey
Wireframes
The skeletons of a website or app, the wireframes have been an integral step in the process throughout the evolution of dash. Whether drawn onto a whiteboard, rendered directly on adobe XD, carefully drawn onto a piece of graph paper, or scribbled onto a napkin, they have allowed us to see what works and get insights from other team members and re-iterate before any coloring or more importantly coding has taken place.
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Branding
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Typography
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Colour Palette
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Illustrations
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Stylistic Decisions
Sign Up
As the students sign up, they are prompted to answer a series of questions to better determine their dreams, aspirations, passions, and goals. With this input we are able to recommend career choices and higher education options that suit them. With each step of the journey, students are rewarded with badges to encourage them to learn and explore more about what’s possible education and career-wise.