Prospective
(02)
Matching Students to Money
Finding scholarship opportunities for school shouldn't feel stressful and overwhelming. Prospective is a web app that helps students cut through the noise by matching them with scholarships that fit their specific skills and grades no endless searching required.
My Role
Lead Designer
Timeline
6 Weeks
Project Type
MVP Pitch
Designing for the late night grind
Imagine a student on their phone at 11 PM, stressed about tuition. The app lives here—on mobile, in the margins of a busy life. Designing for this context meant balancing trust with simplicity, ensuring students knew the money was real and the process manageable.
A mockup of the interactive Blend Explorer page.
Constraints
Trust is non-negotiable
The system handles sensitive data like grades and financial status, so it had to look secure.
Mobile-first design
Students do almost everything on their phones, so the design had to be fully responsive.
Information density
Scholarshipare text-heavy. The challenge was making them readable on small screens while maintianing the same level of information.
Framing the Issue
It’s not that there aren't enough scholarships; it’s that finding the right one is a nightmare. Students are missing out on thousands of dollars simply because the search process is confusing, outdated, and riddled with dead links.
Pain Points
Am I eligible?
Students waste hours reading fine print only to realize they don't qualify.
Deadlines are the enemy
Managing 20 different deadlines across 20 different websites feels impossible without a tool.
The legitimacy gap
Many scholarship search platforms have dated designs and fake listings, making students hesitant to invest their time and share their personal information.
Flipping the model
Instead of the student searching for the scholarship, the scholarship should find the student. We moved from a database query to a personalized concierge.
Solutions
Gamifying Data Entry
Profile setup is usually tedious. We added a "Potential Money" counter that ticks up as you answer questions, turning data entry into a reward loop
Visualizing Uregency
We replaced static dates with a color-coded timeline. Yellow means "approaching," Red means "tonight." It acts as a project manager, not just a calendar.
Borrowing from the bank
To reinforce a sense of legitimacy, design patterns from banking apps were incoporated, such as clean layouts, clear calls to action, and reassuring microcopy.
Final Designs
Screens
Onboarding flow
Scholarship information view
Integration with university application portals.
Printed Materials
Business Cards
Brochure Design
Onboarding Flow
The onboarding flow is designed to be quick and engaging. Students answer a series of simple questions about their academic background, interests, and financial need. As they progress, the app dynamically updates the 'Potential Money' counter, providing immediate feedback and motivation to complete the profile.
A mockup of the interactive Blend Explorer page.
Scholarship cards
Each scholarship is presented on a card that highlights the match percentage, deadline, and key eligibility criteria. Students can quickly scan through their matches and prioritize applications based on fit and urgency.
Scholarship card design with match indicators.
Detailed scholarship view with application steps.
Scholarship cards
Each scholarship is presented on a card that highlights the match percentage, deadline, and key eligibility criteria. Students can quickly scan through their matches and prioritize applications based on fit and urgency.
Business card design for Prospective.
Brochure layout highlighting app features.
Printed Materials
To support our MVP pitch, we designed a set of printed materials including business cards and a brochure. These materials maintain the app's clean and trustworthy aesthetic, using the same color palette and typography to ensure brand consistency.
Business card design
Informational brochure
