Utbildningsbarometern /
MagazineSOON
MicrositesSOON
Touchpoint MappingSOON
NPSSOON

SCHOLARSHIP EXPERIENCE

How do you turn complex, inconsistent scholarship data and eligibility rules into something a student can actually search, understand and use?

Problem framing · UX/UI · Interaction design · Product development

As the sole designer, I worked across research inputs, data and technical constraints, information structure, interaction design and product decisions.

The problem

Students were searching for scholarships, but the existing experience was difficult to search, maintain and scale.

The opportunity was to turn scholarship information into a more useful part of education discovery.

From data to experience

A scholarship wasn't a single piece of information. It was a collection of eligibility requirements and other information that needed to become understandable and searchable.

Not every available data point belongs in the interface.

The directory

I designed a searchable directory that brought the underlying scholarship data into a structure students could navigate and filter.

The scholarship page

From the directory, students could explore individual scholarships and their key requirements and information.

Scholarship Directory with its search results and filters
Original desktop Scholarship Page showing The Danish State Educational Support scholarship

The killed darling

We explored making origin and destination part of the filtering and card experience, but dropped it from the first release because the underlying data and localisation complexity made it difficult to support reliably.

Explored scholarship filter: for students from anywhere studying in anywhere, with origin and destination connected

Ready to build

The UI was ready for development and was shared with the PMs, where it received very positive feedback.

The project was subsequently deprioritised as business priorities shifted.

© Nina Loana Lindell

MAKING ROOM FOR
STUDY ABROAD

How do you create one cohesive student experience for three distinct brands?

An experiment in bringing Keystone’s study abroad businesses into the studentum.fi experience.

Information architecture · UX/UI · CMS implementation · Lead follow-up

I worked directly with the agent teams to understand their needs, shaped the information architecture and user flows, designed and implemented the experience within our existing CMS, and followed up on how the resulting leads performed.

The opportunity

The Business Unit Manager for studentum.fi saw an opportunity to create a Study Abroad destination and bring Keystone’s agent businesses into the experience.

Agents could previously be represented like schools, which did not reflect how students used their services. Study Abroad campaigns also needed a relevant place to send students.

Three brands,
different needs

Blueberry, Asia Exchange and Keystone Sports were all Keystone brands, but separate businesses with different offerings, audiences and definitions of a useful lead.

I spoke directly with the teams about what students needed, what information made an enquiry useful, and where their flows needed to differ.

studentum.fiStudy Abroad

General study abroad

Academic programmes in Asia

Student-athletes / sports scholarships in the US

Common infrastructure.
Flexible experience.

Very little room
to design

The experience had to work inside the existing studentum.fi CMS and infrastructure, with very limited control over layout and UI.

How could we create a new product relationship without creating a new product?

Making room

I designed and implemented a shared Study Abroad destination within studentum.fi. It gave students a coherent starting point while preserving each brand’s own role.

Blueberry remained Blueberry. Asia Exchange remained Asia Exchange. Keystone Sports remained Keystone Sports.

One backbone.
Different flows.

The shared destination supported different actions depending on the partner and student need. The page was only one part of the experience.

Shared where useful. Different where necessary.

  • Request a quoteA quote request flow with a dedicated thank-you page.
  • Book directlyIframe-based booking for partners who wanted direct bookings.
  • Arrive from a campaignThe Study Abroad section gave campaigns a relevant destination.

Follow the lead

I made myself a recipient of the incoming leads so I could follow what happened. Follow-up conversations with the teams helped us adjust the flow.

For some partners, lead volume became strong enough that additional qualification was useful to make enquiries more relevant.

More leads ≠ better leads.

A bigger hypothesis

The design team saw this as a small experiment around a bigger question: could Keystone’s different businesses create more value for students when connected more deliberately across the product ecosystem?

An exploration of that possibility, rather than a validated conclusion.

© Nina Loana Lindell

LOGGED-IN
EXPERIENCE

What would make logging in actually worth it?

Research · Concept exploration · User flows · Product design

I worked across research, concept exploration, user flows and product design, helping turn a broad initiative into something more concrete.

The bigger question

The logged-in experience existed, but offered little meaningful value. The real question wasn’t how to improve an account page, but what would make students want to log in at all.

What we were hearing

Research pointed to saving, comparing, messaging and personalisation. Login became more relevant when it helped students do something.

LOGIN IS NOT THE VALUE.

WHAT IT UNLOCKS IS.

Exploring the possibility

I helped test an early concept exploring how student preferences could create a more guided path through education choices.

THOUSANDS OF OPTIONS

  • Destination
  • Subject
  • Timeline
  • Budget
  • Career goals

A MORE RELEVANT PATH

Then: reality

The vision depended on legacy systems, external development and limited messaging infrastructure.

Finding an entry point

Rather than treating the whole vision as one product, I worked on flows and screens that made parts of the logged-in experience concrete.

Making it concrete

Registration and sign-in flow overview across modal, full-page, desktop and mobile
Registration screen: Let’s get you ready for your next study adventure

A reason to return

Saving was a small feature with a bigger purpose: giving students a reason to return.

Saved Programs design with saved programmes, personalised recommendations and Matchmaker

Where we got

Research, concepts, flows and designs made a fuzzy initiative more concrete. Parts of the login flow were moving toward development when I left; the wider vision was not fully realised.

The bigger vision helped us understand where we wanted to go. The logged-in experience gave us somewhere more concrete to start.