Product Designer
UCAS: UK's national Universities Admissions Service, serving 350+ Universities and 3M students
Cost of Inaction
Inflated cost of acquisition: With three distinct audiences: students, recruitment agents, and UK universities, the new 'Myriad' brand required significant marketing and sales resource to manufacture brand authority from scratch.
Market Stagnation: Without action, Myriad would continue failing to convert students at the velocity needed to justify the original acquisition, conceding market share and compounding financial loss.
482% increase in App and Play store conversions
326% increase in sign ups after downloads
294% improvement in active daily users
A Visual Identity Students Could Believe In.
Over several weeks, marketing, sales and I worked closely with Hybrid to develop a creative that established a recognisable ‘international’ identity, relevant to the main UCAS brand architecture.
After several iterations, the favoured concept used distinctive pink, blue and purple colours from the UCAS master brand. You can see these colours demonstrated in the graphical brand background, a ‘layered’ or ‘stacked’ pattern, intended to symbolise a smooth progression through the steps of the international student journey.
01.
Improve App and Play store conversions
02.
Increase sign ups to the app
At least 20% more app sign ups after download.
03.
Increase active daily users
At least 20% increase in daily activity from users.
Bringing the vision to life.
With less than a month to update all 3 international products, I worked quickly in collaboration with developers to apply and integrate the new aesthetic, prioritising the app first.
The updated designs were well received internally, and sales and marketing teams were enthusiastic to show off the refreshed product suite.
Designing for Conversion from the First Screen.
With a well-defined visual direction, our collaboration with Hybrid shifted towards the articulation of the value proposition and brand messaging. Starting with a targeted approach for learners, we focused on the following key themes:
Conciseness: Messages should be brief, clear, and instructional.
Aspirational Tone: Elevate messaging to resonate with learners’ dreams and aspirations.
Transparency: Emphasise UCAS’s commitment to transparency, reinforcing its position as a trusted brand.
To effectively convey these messages, I worked with the marketing team to find opportunities to integrate and emphasise them within the product. One easy target I immediately identified was onboarding screens, recognising that the first screen a student sees after download was the highest-leverage moment to convert aspiration into action.
Designing these screens, I focused on incorporating the messages that guided students from aspirational ‘Find your dream’ sentiments to a more detailed feature exploration, culminating in conversion-oriented calls to action.
Leveraging the luggage tag image containers on screens 1 and 3, I wanted to build a first impression that quickly and visually associated students with travel. On Screen 2, I introduced the new illustration style to add a bit of variety and intrigue.
The recommended bold, uppercase font served well to maximise the impact of the lead messages, I used Roboto for the supporting content as this was more accessible at smaller sizes.
Stakeholders loved the designs and felt the flow captured the intended tone of voice well.
Exponential Growth.
In December 2023, the revamped app was successfully released on schedule. Stakeholders were pleased the new aesthetics achieved the intended goals of aligning better with the UCAS brand, whilst being attractive and engaging to the intended audience. However, the proof of the rebranding success would be in the numbers.
12 weeks after the rebranded product launch, I examined the available data;
Increased visits to the Play and App stores and continued steady download figures signified that the updated branding and refined value proposition resonated with international audiences, which was promising.
Furthermore, the substantial increase in conversion rates in both the App and Play Stores, and over 300% surge in sign-ups post-rebrand, validated the impact of the revamped onboarding screens and associated messaging. Indicating that these screens were successful in converting users and encouraging action.
Further testament to the project’s success was seen in the increase in user activity, and a consistent rise in daily active users was sustained consistently in the months following the initial release, averaging 311 active users per day. This increase remained significant when accounting for the larger user base, so even without any product functionality or feature changes, the new aesthetic appeared to be better at engaging and sustaining user interest.
