Summary
My role
End-to-end product design
Duration
2 weeks
Collaborators
Product manager, engineering team and 2 other stakeholders
Responsibility
Research analysis and design
Problem
At Upraised, students were overwhelmed with figuring out who to contact for help. Counselors? Mentors? Career coaches? They messaged everyone, hoping someone would respond.
Result?
Delays, confusion, and a team drowning in repetitive questions. Counselors alone spent 70 hours a week addressing issues that often had simple answers.
I stepped in to fix this by creating a centralized system that helped students get answers fast—and let the team focus on what mattered most.
How I Tackled It
First, I dove into the data: 500 queries logged over 130+ calls. Here’s what I uncovered:
- Categorized chaos:
Queries fit neatly into six types—Learning Content, Program Logistics, Mentorship, Job Search, Mock Interviews, and Miscellaneous. - Spotted redundancies:
40% of questions were repetitive and could be solved without human interaction. - Mapped solutions:
Identified what could be automated versus what required human support—and matched queries to the right team member. - Estimated the impact:
Automating common questions would save the team 50+ hours a week.
I can show the entire process in more detail over a quick call,
let's connect.
The Solution: A Smarter Help Center
I designed a Help Center to give students answers faster while reducing the team’s workload. Key features included:
Key Design Decisions
After analyzing the data and understanding the chaos students were navigating, it was time to turn insights into action. The solution had to be simple enough for students to use quickly, but flexible enough to handle a variety of issues and be scalable with any changes in the product.
1. Creating the Side Drawer Help Center: Keeping the Context
Users didn’t want to be interrupted or taken out of context when looking for help. So I designed the Help Center such that it stayed within the student’s workflow—no need to leave the page.
Why this approach
A side drawer kept the experience seamless by allowing them to find help without leaving the page they were on.
Design principle
Minimize disruption and keep users in their flow.
2. Auto-Filtering FAQs Based on Context: Predicting Needs
Students needed immediate, relevant answers to reduce the frustration of sifting through unrelated information. So I ensured that relevant answers appeared based on the page they were on.
Why this approach
This eliminated the need for students to dig through irrelevant content, reducing frustration and helping them find answers faster.
Design principle
Predict user intent and present relevant information proactively.
3. Clarifying Roles and Response Times: Setting Expectations Early
Ambiguity about who to contact was causing students to over-communicate and stress unnecessarily. So each category included who to contact and how long they’d take to respond.
Why this approach
By setting clear expectations upfront, we reduced confusion and the urge to over-contact multiple team members.
Design principle
Set clear expectations to reduce anxiety and guide users to the right person.
4. Prioritizing Self-Service Options: Empowering the User
A large portion of queries were low-complexity, high-volume, which could be solved without human assistance. So I prioritized simple solutions via self-serving FAQs before escalating the query to human help.
Why this approach
This approach reduced the number of direct interactions students needed to have with human support.
Design principle
Empower users to help themselves before reaching out for direct support.
5. Modular FAQ System: Easy to Update and Scale
The platform’s content and user needs were likely to change over time, so the Help Center needed to evolve with them. This design provides a modular FAQ system that could grow with the platform.
Why this approach
A scalable support system meant the Help Center could evolve without requiring major updates.
Design principle
Design for flexibility and scalability to ensure long-term usability.
The Impact: 50+ Hours Saved Weekly
After launching the Help Center, the results were clear:
- 50+ hours saved per week:
Counselors spent less time on redundant questions and more time on high-value work. - Reduced anxiety for students:
Clear guidance on who to contact and when. - A scalable system:
Easy to update and adapt as the platform evolved.
Key Takeaways
After completing this design project in 2 weeks, I had a few takeaways:
- Data-driven design works:
Insights from query analysis directly shaped the solution. - Simple can be impactful:
Instead of going with complex solutions like a chat bot, a simple Help Center streamlined operations and improved user experience. - Collaboration matters:
Partnering with counselors and PMs ensured the solution addressed real pain points, and made me more empathetic towards their problems.
Wrapping It Up
This project wasn’t just about building a Help Center. It was about creating a system that served both students and the team, improving communication and efficiency across the board.
Super stocked to hear your thoughts on this design project.
