GYUHO Lee © 2026
"Why can’t we see all the university's Info at once?"
Diruni
Timeline
Aug – Nov 2025
TEAM
Individual
MY ROLE
UX Research
Concept
Visual Design
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
This case study shows how the German study abroad system (DAAD) was optimized to reduce strategy planning time and improve processes. Explore the strategies implemented through the mobile solution ‘Diruni’ and the school overview summary model.
“Why can’t we see all the university's info at once?”
Diruni, our mobile solution, solves this by providing a clear, concise overview of German universities and all their essential information in one place.
01. Highlights
Application Guidance:
Fully Personalized, Optimized for Efficiency
No more confusing instructions, inaccurate information, or scattered resources. From school search to application management, Diruni streamlines the entire process for students preparing to study in Germany — all in one clean, unified interface.
Make the best approach
Information for study-abroad prep is scattered everywhere, so it’s easy to get confused in the early and middle stages. Diruni pulls together only the essentials into one clear screen, helping you start the first step of your preparation with confidence and clarity.
Effortless management
Until now, managing potential schools meant juggling messy spreadsheets, notes, and bookmarks. Diruni keeps everything in one place, making the whole application process easier and way more organized.
Be confident in your chances
Because acceptance rates and difficulty levels aren’t officially provided, it’s natural to feel anxious. Diruni reduces that uncertainty by visually showing difficulty levels for each school using the latest admissions data.
And more.
Save schools. Skip the re-search.
Diruni keeps your shortlist, so you can move straight to comparing and deciding.
02. Design Challenge
Taking on the Problem
This shouldn’t be this hard.
But it is.
Before solving anything, I wanted to understand why the study-abroad process feels so overwhelming. These pain points became the foundation for designing a clearer, easier journey.
⌛
Too much time wasted in the preparation phase
😵💫
Inefficiency caused by scattered information
💲
Low UX quality leading to extra costs
Designing an Intuitive, Efficient
Experience
Principles
Primary Audience 🎓
Non-EU applicants
Secondary Audience
EU students (including exchange and local applicants)
Design Objective
Streamline DAAD’s complex admission workflow into a clear, user-friendly interaction model.
Data Principle
Maintain accurate, up-to-date entry requirements — with Non-EU criteria set as the default standard.
My Challenge
Strategy, Turbo Mode
Helps study-abroad applicants quickly set up their initial strategy
Info at a Glance
Essential information can be grasped at a glance
Solution
'Focused, Fast, Intuitive'
Redesigning the UX priority model based on DAAD
Simplifying the information flow : optimizing the path from information to results
Focused curation : concentrating on core user needs and removing unnecessary information
UX Priority Model
Challenge
DAAD offers a ton of information for studying in Germany, but it’s scattered and overwhelming. Finding what really matters can be a hassle. My challenge was to tackle this head-on and make key information easy to find and use for students preparing to study abroad.
Solution
To simplify complexity, I developed a UX priority model by mapping basic requirements and highlighting core user pain points. This streamlined fragmented sources into a single interface, enabling students to complete tasks efficiently with clear guidance at each step.
Problem Framing
Before defining solutions, I clarified what needed to be solved first rather than trying to fix everything at once.
Although the study-abroad process is complex, not every step carries the same UX priority.
Constraints — What limits the experience?
Each university follows different rules
Non-EU students must meet additional requirements.
DAAD information is scattered across multiple formats and languages.
➔ Ensuring data accuracy and consistency became the top priority before any UX improvements.
Success Criteria — What defines success?
Students can find essential information quickly
Tasks can be completed with minimal verification
Navigation feels intuitive across all flows
➔ Ultimately, the goal was to enable faster, more confident decisions.
The Hardest Part — What blocks users the most?
The biggest issue was not information overload, but fragmentation.
Students wasted time jumping between sources and repeating the same verification work.
UX Priority Model
Principles Behind the Model
User-Centered Thinking
Design decisions start with the user’s real needs and behaviors—ensuring the experience aligns with how students naturally explore and plan.
Clarity Over Complexity
Even with large amounts of information, the structure stays simple, visual hierarchy stays clear, and navigation remains effortless.
Iterative Problem-Solving
A cycle of modeling, testing, and refining ensures the system continuously improves and adapts to actual user feedback.
Focused Curation
Unnecessary details are removed so users can concentrate on the information that truly impacts their study-abroad decisions.
Efficiency & Flow
The path from “information” to “actionable result” is optimized to minimize cognitive load and save users time at every step.
03. Discovery
Mapping the Chaos: Uncovering
the Student Journey
Studying in Germany is a journey tangled with fragmented information and complex procedures. I engaged with the process firsthand, observing it closely to gain a deep understanding of the experiences users go through.
Research Timeline
Students spend 1–2 weeks on typical tasks, and 3+ weeks for complex cases, finalizing their study-abroad strategy.
Fragmented Resources
Different university systems and requirements fragment information, requiring students to consolidate multiple sources.
Personal Insight
I navigated this process myself, taking about 2 weeks.
04. Design Priorities
Hidden Challenges Shaping
the Journey
In this exploration, I analyzed the root causes of user experience issues and identified shared inefficiencies that disrupted workflow.
I then synthesized insights from surveys and experiential data to inform the overall design direction and strategic priorities.
UX Outcomes
Observation Framework
Analyzed key Insights
Three core drivers of inefficiency
Guiding Questions
Even though the service is well-designed, I was curious why it still doesn’t fully enable efficient workflows. I started with two key questions:
Q1
Are DAAD services fully supporting students in their study-abroad journey?
Q2
Are students able to make the most of the DAAD services?
Key Insights
Survey Findings
Based on the two guiding questions, this survey aimed to validate the previously identified pain points and capture real user experiences. The results not only contextualize these issues but also provide clear, data-driven insights that support the design direction.
71% - dissatisfied with the DAAD portal
8 in 10 - faced missing or unclear information
Hardest step - Searching & Document Interpretation
2 in 3 - delayed decisions due to low clarity & confidence
Core Causes of Inefficiency
Ultimately, the inefficiencies users faced can be traced back to 3 primary factors:
Complexity, Accessibility, and Accuracy.
Complexity
Accessibility
Accuracy
No personalization, filtering, or save options
Varied university websites → difficult to consolidate info
Multiple links (3–4) needed to reach results
Information scattered across university sites, DAAD, uni-assist, forums, PDFs
Diruni’s direction focuses on reducing these operational and cognitive burdens to create a smoother, more intuitive experience.
05. Diruni’s Strategy
A Streamlined Journey
Users repeatedly faced difficulties—not because information was missing, but due to structural inefficiencies starting from the earliest planning stages. Diruni’s UX strategy tackles these root issues first.
This section shows how I analyzed the problem structurally and defined criteria for designing solutions, setting the stage for the design phase.
UX Outcomes
Key Problem Definition
Hypothesis & Design Principles
Solution Overview
Key Problem
Definition
After analysis, the diverse issues users faced converged
into two structural bottlenecks :
Specificity Barrier
Problem : Confusing Starting Point
The split between “International” and “All Degree” forces students to guess where to begin.
Impact
Limited Choice: Students may assume “International” is a subset and narrow their options.
Inefficiency: Switching between two searches creates duplicated work.
UX Strategy
One unified search with a clear, automatic overview, supported by quick onboarding to clarify the system.
Clarity / Findability
Problem : Unclear Requirements
Different formats and terms require users to interpret and reorganize information manually.
Impact
Errors & Rework: Inconsistent files lead to misinterpretation and delays.
UX Strategy
Use summary cards and standardized patterns to reorganize information for quick understanding.
💡 Insight Highlight
“Information exists, but no strategy is generated.”
“Hard to find, hard to verify, and easy to make mistakes.”
Hypothesis & Design Principles
How can international students plan their application strategy
faster and more accurately?
Diruni approached this question with two core hypotheses :
Hypothesis 1
➔ Integrated information accelerates strategy planning
Users previously had to manually combine scattered information.
Key Structures : Search tab, summary cards, procedural tables, school-specific checklists
Goal : Reduce Time Cost
Hypothesis 2
➔ Personalized management reduces errors, omissions, and rework
Each user’s schools and requirements differ, requiring a personalized view.
Key Structures : Application Manage, Saved, checklist templates
Goal : Reduce Cognitive Load & Verification Cost
Design Principles
Simple & Immediate
I made minimizing the Time-to-first-answer and reducing unnecessary friction the core principle of Diruni’s design.
To achieve this, I focused the design on reducing three key burdens users face in practice. Time, Cognitive, and Verification Costs.
UX Efficiency Kit
🕑 Time Cost — Save Time
💭 Cognitive Load — Understand Instantly
✅ Verification Cost — Eliminate Errors
Solution Overview
Feature Sprint
Core Feature Structuring
Collected and prioritized core features, then grouped the most essential ones through a card-sorting session with 4 international students.
This became the foundation of Diruni’s main journey: compare → decide → plan.
View PDF
IA & Flow Design
Built the information architecture around user priorities to better match how students actually search, compare, and prepare.
Structured the main flow into a clearer sequence: search → review → plan → manage.
View PDF
Wireframe Validation
Created an early wireframe to validate the initial structure and core user flow before moving into high-fidelity design.
View PDF
The architecture was later refined through user testing and multiple iterations.
06. Exploration
Minimal Clicks, Maximum Clarity
Interface at a Glance
Diruni simplifies complex application processes for international students through iterative design refinements based on user testing and AI-assisted insights.
Time Cost
Problem
Application preparation took longer than necessary. Duplicated searches across DAAD’s split paths (International vs. All Degree) forced users to repeatedly filter and recheck the same information, delaying decisions.
One small decision often required multiple checks and repeated searches.
Direct Access to Core Information
Resulting Flow
Search first → Immediate clarity → Deeper exploration
User Testing Insights
Placing search upfront reduced time-to-clarity and helped users orient faster
Removing secondary features minimized distraction during early decision-making
Icons communicated section purpose faster than text alone 😄
Saving Progress, Faster Revisit
Users had no lightweight way to mark schools for later, forcing them to restart their search every time.
To solve this:
Added a quick-save (heart) action on each school card
Built a Saved section to collect shortlisted schools
This allowed users to revisit and compare options instantly, without restarting.
Save the schools you’re interested in
Add your final candidates to My Uni
UX Impact
Fewer repeated searches
2. Decisions progressed instead of restarting
Filter Redesign — Fewer Options, Clear Intent
Users didn’t need more filters — they needed meaningful ones.
The original system overwhelmed users with options that did little to support better decisions.
Can you go through all the options without any issues?
The original filter felt overly complex:
Over 10 options
Many filters didn’t really help
Hard-to-understand terminology
Example — Overly Complex Term System
Although DAAD was simply indicating when enrollment was available, it used a mix of labels such as Quarter, Trimester, and Semester. The issue wasn’t that users didn’t care about terms — it was that the term system itself was unnecessarily complex.
As a result, what should have been a straightforward choice became confusing.
Users had to decode terminology instead of making decisions
Students don’t think in academic structures like “Is this a quarter or a trimester?" ❌
Seasonal options were over-segmented, expanding into 12 checkboxes
Logically unclear combinations became possible (e.g. Summer only + Winter only )
What users actually wanted to know was simple:
“I want to apply for a specific term.” 🙋♂️
Simplified Filter
Improvements
Removed unnecessary terminology
Prioritized key criteria at the top
Simplified choices into clear availability logic
Design Focus
Remove non-essential options
Surface core criteria first
Streamline the flow: Explore ➔ Save ➔ Decide
Result
By reducing repeated actions and clarifying key paths, users spent less time searching — and more time deciding.
Cognitive Load
Intuitive Information Structure
The original DAAD portal scattered information and mixed priorities, making it hard for users to understand what actually mattered.
Common issues are..
Nearly identical EU / Non-EU information split across pages
Missing key details or overly long explanations
Ambiguous label - “Without admission restriction” (eligibility vs. intake unclear)
Deadlines buried in inaccurate links
What User Testing Revealed
Users slowed down when too much information was presented at once, even if it was organized. (Left)
By hierarchizing key information and breaking it into clear, step-by-step stages, users moved forward more quickly. (Right)
Final Design (Refined)
Overview first : keyword-focused, easy to scan
Clear separation : Actions · Dates · Documents
Consistent flow across all schools
Structured Flow
Stage 1 → 2 → 3
Overview → Process → Documents
A standardized structure allows users to understand everything at a glance without switching pages or reinterpreting content.
At a Glance
The Process
What You Bring
By showing only what each step requires, the flow becomes easier to follow and mentally lighter.
Key Info Card : 5-Sec Scan
Before (DAAD)
After (Diruni)
Only the information needed to decide whether to explore further.
Included
➔ Name, degree, major, dates, semester, logo
Excluded
➔ Secondary details that slow down first understanding
In testing, users understood the card in 5 seconds on average, with no missed or conflicting details.
Verification Cost
Stronger Confidence – Trust & Action
After reducing confusion, the next step was building trust in the information.
User testing revealed two clear needs:
Verify information at the source
Act on it immediately
Checklist: One-tap action to move forward
Visit Website: Access the official source in one tap
Error-Free Verification
Each school offers a clear checklist with live progress and updates — no guesswork, no errors.
Clear steps. Never miss.
Always up-to-date
Afterglow
After defining the core UX, I introduced a set of experience boosters—lightweight features designed to make the application journey faster, clearer, and easier to act on.
Competition Insights — When Official Data Is Missing
Not all universities publish admission data.
For many art schools, NC or official difficulty indicators simply don’t exist.
NC data available
Art students, no need to worry
To reduce this gap, I designed an alternative benchmark based on real applicant experiences and online student feedback.
(AI-assisted pattern analysis + student review data)
UX Impact
Reduces uncertainty even without official data
Enables faster judgment of competitiveness
“I want to quickly understand how competitive this school is.”
Open Now — Schools You Can Apply to Right Now
For users without fixed target schools, the priority was clear:
“Show me what I can apply to today.”
So instead of a browsing list, this section became an action-first view.
Key UX Decisions
Removed sorting ➔ the list is already filtered to what matters now
Defaulted to Non-EU criteria, with a simple EU toggle
Designed as an action-first view, not a browsing list
UX Impact
Immediate action ➔ Apply-first flow
Faster clarity on eligibility
One tap to move forward
07. Design Outcome
Numbers That Changed
the Journey
Small structural changes led to clearer decisions, faster progress, and less friction.
These outcomes are based on lightweight prototype testing and comparative task observation, designed to validate directional behavioral shifts rather than production-scale KPIs.
Testing day. Four friends preparing for university, powered by kebabs.
Later stages vary widely by individual context, so evaluation focused on early, comparable steps. The comparison uses the TH Ingolstadt admission workflow as the reference model.
Clearer Decisions, Less Rework
Information verification dropped from an average of 12 checks per school to 3, helping users move to the next step with greater confidence.
“I didn’t feel the need to go back and confirm things again.”
Benn
22, Congo
Navigation Complexity ↓
The time required to understand a school’s key requirements and preparation steps dropped from an average of 55 minutes to 15, making the school selection process significantly more linear.
Lower Cognitive Load
To minimize errors and confusion, a simpler process was needed.
Reducing the number of tabs from an average of 8 to 3 during requirement checks and document preparation significantly lowered cognitive load caused by fragmented information and repeated verification.
What Actually Changed
The journey shifted from 'navigation-heavy' to 'action-driven'.
Why This Result Matters
The problem was never the amount of information — it was knowing what to do next.
By reshaping the journey into an action-first flow, Diruni helped users move forward without second-guessing or getting stuck.
“It feels like something is guiding me forward,
instead of making me fight through information.”
Gabriel
21, Spain
Reflection
Full of Love.
What this project taught me
This small, personal project grew through real user testing and constant iteration.
By refining the information architecture, checking my assumptions, and experimenting with AI-assisted iteration and validation, I was able to make meaningful UX improvements — even with limited resources.
💭 It reinforced one core belief:
Good UX isn’t about reducing information.
It’s about reducing uncertainty.
A Studio Filled With Ideas..🧠
My workspace was always covered with sketches, post-its, and messy flows. Seeing them slowly come together, week by week, was the most rewarding part of this project.
Gratitude to the Test Team.
My endless gratitude goes to all the friends who spent their valuable time helping me improve my UXUI craft.
For a better product.
"NEXT ARCHIVE"
Fixie AI
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