Redesigning Indiana's largest community college enrollment portal to reduce drop-off, support first-generation students, and make the path from interest to first class day feel possible — not bureaucratic.
01 — CHALLENGE
Ivy Tech Community College serves over 150,000 students annually across Indiana — a significant proportion of whom are first-generation college students, working adults, and individuals navigating higher education for the first time. The existing enrollment portal had been built around institutional process flows rather than student mental models, resulting in a confusing sequence of steps that required students to make decisions they weren't yet equipped to make.
Enrollment abandonment was a measurable and costly problem. Students who started the enrollment process but didn't complete it represented significant revenue loss and, more importantly, missed educational opportunity. Exit surveys pointed consistently at confusion about program selection, financial aid sequencing, and the opacity of "what happens next." The system communicated bureaucracy at every turn when what students needed was guidance and momentum.
"I started signing up three times and gave up. I didn't know what I was supposed to pick for my program. I thought I was going to mess something up."— Prospective Student, Research Interview
02 — RESEARCH
We ran research in two settings: on-campus at an Ivy Tech enrollment center (where we observed in-person advising sessions) and remotely with prospective students who had started but not completed online enrollment. The combination revealed a stark contrast — students who had access to a human advisor had a fundamentally different experience of the same information. The system wasn't impossible to navigate; it just assumed context that first-generation students often didn't have.
31 prospective students
In-depth sessions with first-time enrollees, returning students, and transfer students — exploring their motivations, anxieties, and the specific points where the process felt overwhelming.
18 months of data
Analyzed enrollment funnel data step by step to identify the highest-abandonment points and correlate drop-off with specific page interactions and form fields.
8 advising sessions
Observed in-person advising to understand what guidance advisors provided that the system didn't — capturing the knowledge, reassurance, and decision support that advisors gave informally.
03 — PROCESS
Our research insight was clear: the in-person advisor experience was fundamentally better, not because of the information presented, but because of how it was sequenced, contextualized, and reassured. Our design challenge became: how do you build the equivalent of a human advisor into a digital enrollment flow? We ran a content-first design process — rewriting every step of the enrollment sequence before touching a single layout decision, ensuring the voice, sequence, and decision scaffolding matched how advisors actually guided students.
04 — SOLUTION
The redesigned portal reframes enrollment as a guided journey rather than a form-filling exercise. Each step is introduced with context — explaining not just what to do, but why this step matters and what happens next. Program selection was rebuilt as an exploratory "career interest" quiz that narrows options before asking students to choose, eliminating the paralysis of an open dropdown with 200+ programs. Financial aid steps were resequenced to match how advisors actually explained them, with estimated aid shown before any commitment is required.
The flow was designed mobile-first from the start, reflecting the reality that the majority of Ivy Tech's prospective students were accessing the portal from a phone. A persistent progress indicator and a "save and continue later" feature addressed the reality that first-time enrollees rarely complete the process in a single session.
A 5-question exploratory flow that narrows 200+ programs to a personalized shortlist — replacing the paralysis of open program selection with a guided discovery experience.
Estimated aid and cost-of-attendance shown upfront before any financial commitment, giving students the confidence to proceed rather than abandon at the money question.
Persistent progress saving with mobile-friendly session restoration — designed for the reality that enrollment happens across multiple sittings, devices, and life interruptions.
05 — RESULTS
The redesigned enrollment portal launched for the Fall 2023 semester. Completion rates across all steps improved significantly, with the biggest gains at the program selection step — where the career interest quiz eliminated the plurality of abandonment that had defined the previous flow. Advisors reported a qualitative shift: students arriving for in-person advising after using the portal were more informed, had already shortlisted programs, and required less foundational explanation.
06 — LEARNINGS
Running a content-first design process on this project changed how I approach every project since. The biggest UX improvements came from rewriting microcopy, resequencing information, and adding contextual framing — not from layout or visual design changes. Words matter more than most designers want to admit.
Designing for first-generation students who are anxious, time-constrained, and accessing the portal from a phone with a slow data connection made the experience better for everyone. When you design for the edges, the middle takes care of itself.
We tracked enrollment completion rates obsessively during the project — but the most meaningful signal came from advisors reporting that students were arriving better prepared. Good UX downstream can change the quality of a human interaction, not just eliminate the need for it.