Objective
We are trying to understand the experiences of applicants when going through the Federal Financial Aid assistance program offered through Federal Student Aid, a system that helps users planning to pursue higher education in affording university expenses.
Through our user research we hope to narrow down our space in order to create a design solution that will enhance the experience of Federal aid users.
About Federal Student Aid (FSA)
Historically, financial aid systems have been a tripartite approach of philanthropy, scholarships, and need-based aid (loans and grants) (The History of College Financial Aid 2023). Financial aid departments are not only a mediator for federal financial assistance, but for state-level scholarships, donor and alumni-funded scholarships, external scholarships, and need-based aid from the school itself.
However, despite their best intentions, financial aid departments do not always fulfill their offerings in a timely or optimal manner. Most colleges are not following best practices for providing clear and standard information in their financial aid offers.
Solution
A downloadable plugin that users can use during the completion of the FAFSA application in order to receive tips and resources on the same page as the form and save questions if they would like to revisit later. In addition to the plugin, there is an associated website database that users can reference when looking over saved questions from the FAFSA form and interact with parents when understanding and finding the answer to a question.
Website Database
Plugin
My Contribution
I took the lead with recruiting both users and stakeholders by reaching out to those who I was aware had experiences with FAFSA and FSA services. I also participated in interviewing three of the users recruited and one of the stakeholders recruited by facilitating responses beyond the predetermined questions in hopes of receiving more insightful information not yet considered by the team. I was responsible for assisting in designing the survey, questions for the semi-structured interviews and building one of the task analyses to better understand the behaviors and actions users take part in when experiencing the narrowing problem space. For the presentation of the second deliverable, I was responsible for creating the storyboard narratives, writing about one of the task analyses, developing the panel review statement and assisting with finalizing the presentation. I also made sure to update the team calendar in order to ensure the presence of every team member when meeting to discuss the project's progress.
Research and Findings
Research Methods
Stakeholder and User Interviews
Survey
Stakeholder Interview
Descriptions
1-on-1 semi structured Interviews
Conducted with one of the most important stakeholders, parents.
Goals
Understand how stakeholders, primarily parents, affect the success and challenges of the federal financial aid prcess
Students that did not complete the application entirely alone are not reliable narrators for system operation
Why this method? Interviews gives agency to the user to guide the interview flow
Method of Data Analysis: Affinity mapping
Stakeholder Findings
Parents and students participate in different collaboration models.
Communicating with financial aid entities can be variable.
Accurate information about FAFSA/financial aid is challenging to acquire.
Parents are divided on whether students should be responsible for financial aid applications.
Navigating financial assistance applications is tedious and exhausting.
Alternative aid options are not necessarily easier options
Survey
Descriptions
A survey with 38 questions.
24 multiple choice, 14 free response.
Disseminated to our target users at this stage, prospective & current federal financial aid recipients (PCRs).
Goals
Understand the end-to-end experience of different types of students through each step of the federal financial aid process.
Discover if one particular stage of the process and/or user group experienced the most adversity
Why this method? Narrow down the scope of our design space by uncovering users’ most pressing needs and pain points in order to develop the questions to probe further in user interviews .
Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
Survey Findings
Filers who figure out the financial aid application independently are most vulnerable.
Collaboration between support system and first-time filers is key to application success.
Federal financial aid application is confusing and onerous.
The loan repayment process is a secondary yet significant area of concern.
User Interview
Description and Goals
Semi Structured Interviews
User Interviews
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User goals
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User practices
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User abilities
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User motivations
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User constraints
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User relationships
Federal Financial Application
Final User Goals and Needs
Semi Structured Interviews
Family Interviews
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Parent involvement
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Parent values
Why User Interviews? Gain deeper, more detailed insights into students’ current practices and challenges when applying for federal student aid while looking for individual characteristics and contextual factors in users.
Why Family Interviews? Understand parents’ involvement in the federal financial aid application process.
Qualitative Analysis
Interview Findings
Students struggle to understand questions on FAFSA due to limited financial literacy.
Students lack a general understanding of how loans work and when they are needed.
High schools lack financial education to prepare students to apply for federal financial aid.
Students consult online resources extensively and frequently to understand the application process better.
Students feel that applying for financial aid is a long and onerous process.
The FAFSA application process is most complicated for first-time applicants.
Though students can work alone throughout the application process, having a support network provides comfort and reassurance.
The way FAFSA currently presents the application fails to address the needs of visual learners.
Students are concerned with the accuracy of information they put into FAFSA due to potential financial consequences.
Dependent students consistently require support for family financial information, but FAFSA’s solution of dividing parent and student sections creates new confusions when completing the application.
Students tend to skip through important information on the application, because they believe they can delay understanding the key financial topics to the future.
Parents, whom students rely on to help accurately complete FAFSA, are not always able to offer support due to a language barrier or low financial literacy.
Task Analysis I: Completing the FAFSA Application
Descriptions
A task analysis on the steps students take to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Goals
Trying to understand how students interact with the FAFSA application logistically
Task Analysis Mapping
Task Analysis II: Student Preparing for Application with Parent
A task analysis on the steps students take to prepare for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid with their parents
Goals
Assess how the student comes to understand the financial aid process, given the support of their parent(s).
Analyze how students prepare to apply for federal financial aid, specifically how they come to determine the parent’s level of involvement.
Task Analysis Mapping
Findings
Findings to Design
Design Requirements were made from the final research findings found in order to provide us with guidelines to follow when beginning to sketch our sample designs.
DR1
System should use simple, jargon-free financial language to accommodate financially illiterate users.
DR2
System should help students understand personal financial information as they go.
DR3
System should incorporate visualizations of financial aid information to accommodate visual learners.
DR4
System should centralize diverse resources for completing the application efficiently and accurately.
DR5
System should enable students without parental support to identify and locate financial information independently.
DR6
System should facilitate seamless transfer of financial data between students and parents.
DR7
System should prioritize most important information and provide emotional support for first-time applicants.
Design Sketches
What I Learned
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Multiple perspectives offer insights that users may not be able to share on their own experiences
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A few methods can provide a lot more insights than originally through
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As much as I thought I knew how the results would go, there is always something new to learn about users experience
