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INTRODUCTION
The Breif
Arc is a digital copilot assistant designed to help students streamline their academic workflow. The product curates study material based on users' timelines, energy levels, and familiarity with the subject, alleviating mental clutter and fragmented tools.
The Challenge
A 100-hour deadline to design Arc, an intuitive, emotionally supportive system that functions alongside their daily academic routines.
My Role
Sole UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Timeline
4 Weeks
The Problem
Students experience cognitive overload from managing fragmented planning tools. This results in stress, missed deadlines, and decision fatigue. Our target audience, college students balancing academics and extracurriculars, need a system that reduces friction in planning and promotes wellness.
The Solution
Arc addresses this problem by acting as an intelligent study copilot that lives alongside the student's current workflow, gently guiding them through task prioritization, study planning, and emotional support without overwhelming them with features.
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Mapping the Mental Chaos: Interview Insights
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To ground the design process, I began with a competitive analysis of tools like Notion, Quizlet, and Google Calendar to understand current solutions and user pain points.
APPROACH
Methodology​
In-Person & Online.
Number
5 participants
GOALS
01. Understand how students organize academic task.
02. Identify moments of stress or breakdown.
Duration​
30-40 mins
Age
18 - 23 years
03. Learn what support they desire from organizational tools.
QUESTION STRATEGY
01. Open-ended prompts focused on their current tools.
02. Assess emotional responses to deadlines
03. Definitions of organization
04. Discussing their dream support system
Affinity Mapping
With the findings from my user interviews, I produced an affinity map to look for any patterns or themes which started to emerge. Based on the information gathered, I began grouping it into three main categories:
Key Findings
01. Emotional Burnout
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Most tools require effort to maintain and don’t help with emotional load.
02. Decision Fatigue
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Students are overwhelmed by task prioritization.
03. Productivity ≠ Wellness
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Tools that only focus on output often ignore mental health.
04. Lack of Feedback Loops
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Current tools don’t respond or adapt to setbacks.
05. Patchwork Systems
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Students mix multiple tools that don’t sync or share context.
Define
"Meet the Students Behind Arc
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From the research, I developed user personas representing different student experiences
Riya (overcommitted CS major) reflected variations of burnout, lack of focus, and a desire for structure + emotional ease.
Ideate
Brainstorming Solutions
With user needs and pain points clearly outline, I now can outline and plan solutions. After brainstorming and looking at potential market research, I decided on the following key needed features.
Oppurtiny Areas
Flashcard Generator
Study Folder System
Course Generator
Paste content and auto-generate flashcards; edit or save to a study folder.
Organize flashcards or notes by course or project. Track what’s reviewed vs. pending.
Generate all study material for topic
Search Topic vs Upload textbook
Manual + Smart To-Do List
users get a choice of uploading textbook or choosing topic.
A flexible space to input tasks or accept AI-generated ones. Tasks are editable and can be tagged by class or effort level.
MVP Feature Set
Visualizing their current journey, alongside exploring the potential of AI-assisted planning, helped me identify when and where key pain points arise. This revealed the need for features like intelligent candidate comparison and informed the direction toward a more responsive, tech-enabled design
User Flow
After knowing the MVP features for Arc, I mapped out core flows to understand the interaction architecture and ensure every touchpoint addressed a core need. Flows focused on onboarding, course creation, study prep, and mood check-ins.
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(Click on image to Expand)
Lo Fi-Wire Frames
Where Arc Began: Sketches & Structure
I began with hand-drawn sketches and iterated on multiple variations of homepages and subpages to test navigation clarity, visual balance, and emotional tone.
Initial sketches focused on simplicity and approachability, mirroring soft, curved visual motifs inspired by education platforms like Quizlet. I explored multiple UI directions before narrowing to a calming, single-column layout.
Design and Branding
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Validate
Usablility Testing
Now that we had a good idea of how the information would be organized on the screen, I began conducting usability tests. The primary goal of this usability test was to identify areas where users experienced uncertainty, encountered design issues, or felt overall confusion.
APPROACH
Methodology​
In-Person & Moderated.
Number
5 participants
Duration​
20 minutes.
Age
18 - 23 years old.
GOALS
01. Validate concept & design decisions.
02. Measure task completion.
03. Discover potential usability issues.
04. Evaluate effectiveness of comparison feature.
OBJECTIVES
Objectives:
Pass/Fail:
Measurable Results:
Add a Course
5/6
Most users successfully began with textbook upload; 1 tried searching web first
Upload Textbook
6/6
Generally smooth; some wanted feedback on successful upload
Name the Course
4/6
Several users found prompts vague or unclear
Review Materials
6/6
All users completed easily; some wanted edit options
Before and After: Usability Testing
Adding a Course: Uploading
Adding a Course: Form of Information
Adding a Course: Form of Information
Reflection and Key Insights
Reflections
Why This Topic?
I chose this project because I’ve experienced firsthand the tension between academic productivity and personal well-being. I wanted to explore how technology could meet both logistical and emotional needs.
Why This Project Challenged Me:
This project pushed me to design for complexity without clutter. Balancing automation with user agency was particularly hard.
Growth as a Designer:
I learned how to translate emotional pain points into actionable, usable interfaces. I became more confident in qualitative synthesis and designing with both logic and empathy.
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