Improving the financial aid experience

project Summary

Navigating financial aid is notoriously difficult. Every year, nearly 18 million students apply for financial aid, and many of them encounter confusing information, complex processes, and a lack of transparency that can hinder their education. Having personally struggled with late disbursements, repayment demands, and unclear eligibility and timelines, I approached this challenge as both a designer and someone with real-life experience.

Through student interviews, staff conversations, and surveys, I uncovered a consistent pattern of unmet expectations and frustration. The insight was clear: financial aid doesn't fail because students don't care. It fails because the system doesn't communicate in ways they can easily understand.

My solution was to take a proactive approach. Reframed financial aid from a bureaucratic process into a guided, human-centered service. By creating a step-by-step financial aid guide, an enhanced student portal with real-time updates, and a dedicated staff-facing tool, the experience becomes easier to navigate for students and more manageable for staff. Together, these improvements aim to empower students with clarity and confidence while reducing the operational burden on CU Denver's financial aid office.

Design process

Design
process

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Phase 1: Discovery & Research

I began by drawing on my own experience, five years of struggle with late payments and unclear eligibility. I complemented this with structured research. I conducted three in-depth interviews with students, a conversation with the Assistant Vice Chairman of Financial Aid, and a survey of 20 students. This research revealed three recurring themes: confusing information often written in legal jargon, lengthy and convoluted processes, and a lack of transparency about timing and eligibility.

To visualize this complexity and gain a better understanding of the average student's experience, I created a student journey map. The journey map highlighted key emotional valleys, including stress, confusion, and frustration. This step was critical in framing the problem not as a lack of resources, but as a design gap in clarity and support.

Phase 2: Defining the Opportunity

From these insights, I identified four critical student needs: understanding what financial aid is, selecting the right option, staying informed throughout the process, and getting help when it's needed. These became the "four major moments" along the journey.

The design question that emerged from this was:

How might I transform financial aid into a transparent, guided experience that empowers students rather than overwhelms them?

By narrowing the focus to these four high-impact moments, the project shifted from being about fixing everything in the system to designing targeted interventions that could meaningfully improve the student experience.

Phase 3: Ideation & Concept Development

I explored multiple ways to address each of the four moments. Concepts ranged from simplified guides to AI-driven help systems. After testing many ideas against research insights and feasibility, I developed four interrelated solutions:

Financial Aid Guide: A step-by-step resource that breaks down what aid is, the types available, and what students need to apply.
Aid Breakdown Tool: An interface that compares options with clear pros and cons, helping students decide what's right for them.
Improved Aid Portal: A redesigned student portal with status tracking, action alerts, and transparent timelines.
Help Systems: A chatbot, appointment scheduler, and staff-facing dashboard to streamline communication and support.

Together, these concepts formed a cohesive ecosystem that supported them at every stage of their journey.

Phase 4: UX Design

keep going

On the UX side, I began by sketching out designs for all the moments I had identified, then I developed wireframes. I designed flows that emphasized simplicity and trust. Each touchpoint needed to achieve a different goal while still feeling like part of a cohesive package that intuitively flowed from one to the next. The Financial Aid Guide used plain language and helpful videos to avoid jargon and confusion. The Aid Breakdown used the students' information to help them decide what kind of aid was right and helped them understand how to apply. The Student Portal prioritized proactive communication, showing not just "where you are" but "what comes next." Finally, the Staff Portal helped keep financial aid staff informed by displaying upcoming appointments and key student concerns.

All of these tools focused on helping students gain a better understanding and a more personalized experience. And aided in staff organization and support.

Phase 5: Visual Design & Prototyping

Moving into high fidelity, I created prototypes that showcased how the guide, breakdown tool, and portals would look and feel in practice. Utilizing Figma to bring them to life, these designs emphasized simplicity and accessibility, featuring a clean and straightforward visual style that further reduces any potential confusion along the way.

Aid Guide

aid breakdown

improved aid portal

staff portal

Phase 6: Presentation & Reflection

The final deliverables framed the work as more than just interface improvements. They demonstrated how service design could transform an intimidating and bureaucratic process into something that empowered students and improved their experience. By tying design back to research and showing how it addressed both student and staff needs, the project positioned itself not only as a usability improvement but also as a strategy for reducing operational strain and confusion.

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Expected Outcomes

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While this project is only conceptual, it was informed by research, both my own and that of others, which shows that interventions like the ones I introduced have measurable impacts, significantly improving students' and staff's navigation of financial aid.

More Informed Students

By providing clear, tangible breakdowns of aid options, students gain the ability to make informed choices.

Reduced Stress & Confusion

Uncertainty is a major source of student anxiety. Studies of online learning environments show that stress and poor performance often result from unclear communication. Interventions with real-time updates, notifications, and timelines significantly reduce stress and confusion [1].

Additional research links academic stress to mental health decline, further underscoring the importance of transparency [2].

Operational Efficiency

Automation and transparent status updates reduce repetitive inquiries, freeing staff to focus on complex cases. Evidence shows that improved aid portals and staff dashboards can reduce communication volume and processing delays [3].

Higher Retention & Completion Rates

Multiple studies confirm that the clarity and timing of financial aid strongly influence enrollment and persistence. Students are more likely to stay enrolled when aid processes are transparent and disbursements are predictable and consistent [4].

For example, Georgia State's proactive completion grant initiative increased graduation rates for at-risk students from 30% to 80% [5].

closing

back to the top

In short, this is not just a conceptual design; it is a strategic, evidence-backed example of how service design grounded in accessibility, transparency, and human-centered communication has measurable and meaningful outcomes validated by research. Not only could these improvements help the student, but they could also help the staff and the university as a whole.

Research

National Library of Medicine (PMC7911682) - How students' lack of timely feedback increases academic stress
ASU Prep Digital - Stress in Schools
LiaisonEDU - Smarter Financial Aid Strategies for Higher Education Yield and Student Retention
Financial Aid Services - The Innovation: Financial Aid Timing Impact
National Library of Medicine (PMC12068876) - Completion Grants and College Graduation: Evidence from Georgia State University

Improving the financial aid experience

Executive Summary

Design process

Phase 1: Discovery & Research

Phase 2: Defining the Opportunity

Phase 3: Ideation & Concept Development

Financial Aid Guide: A step-by-step resource that breaks down what aid is, the types available, and what students need to apply.
Aid Breakdown Tool: An interface that compares options with clear pros and cons, helping students decide what's right for them.
Improved Aid Portal: A redesigned student portal with status tracking, action alerts, and transparent timelines.
Help Systems: A chatbot, appointment scheduler, and staff-facing dashboard to streamline communication and support.

Together, these concepts formed a cohesive ecosystem that supported them at every stage of their journey.