Case study / UX master's thesis
An AI-powered platform guiding Indian students through smarter, more transparent study abroad journeys.
EdAbroad is a platform designed to help Indian students confidently plan their study abroad journey, starting with the most underserved group: design and art students. It replaces biased consultancy advice with personalized program matching, mentorship, and application tracking. Built as my UX master's thesis, EdAbroad was validated through user research, lean experiments, market validation, and multiple rounds of testing.
01 / The problem
Indian students in creative fields (like design, fine arts, and architecture) often face misinformation, biased consultancy advice, and a lack of personalized guidance. My research showed:
02 / The challenge
how might we
help Indian students misguided by traditional consultancies make better decisions about studying in the U.S.?
03 / The opportunity
India's study abroad landscape is dominated by profit-driven consultancies and generic, one-size-fits-all advice. Students lack trusted tools for independent planning, leading to confusion, misdirection, and missed opportunities.
There's a clear gap for a transparent, student-first platform.
04 / The solution
EdAbroad is a personalized, AI-powered mobile platform that helps Indian students, starting with creative fields, plan their study abroad journey with clarity and control.
Expected impact
05 / Design outcomes
AI recommends programs based on quiz data, like preferred programs, goals, academic background, and test scores like IELTS and GRE, and gives transparent match scores. This replaces guesswork and biased suggestions with clarity and relevance, addressing the core issue of program and university misalignment.
Students are paired with alumni-based mentors who studied similar fields, solving the problem of isolation and generalized advice by providing real guidance from those who've been through the process.
In-app application support, personalized task breakdowns, and reminders ensure students stay on track and meet deadlines without stress. This reduces deadline anxiety and prevents delays, a common failure point reported in user interviews.
06 / Research, phase 1
07/12
Students faced financial loss
“I ended up paying them ₹7000 and I got my certificates back, and I did not work with that consultancy anymore.”
11/12
Students received irrelevant guidance
“So they were trying to hook me up to this technical courses like information systems or computer science, which I had zero interest pursuing.”
09/12
Students faced stress, regret, and mental health strain
“They demotivated me… they were like, you won't be getting into this college… I had to raise my voice for them to apply it.”
07 / Research, phase 2
31.1%conversion, 14 of 45 signed up
I launched a simple one-page landing site to explain EdAbroad's benefits and measure interest. In 7 days, the page had 45 unique visitors and 14 signups, giving a 31.1% conversion rate. Since this was above the 25% success threshold, the experiment is considered a success.
3/3trusted the AI matches
To simulate AI recommendations, I manually curated university matches for 3 students based on their profile inputs and presented them as AI-generated, with a short explanation for each: “Why is this a good match for you?” Surprisingly, 2 out of 3 students had already shortlisted some of the programs I suggested, reinforcing the match accuracy. After 30 days, I followed up to check if they had considered or shortlisted any of those programs. All 3 confirmed they had and expressed greater trust in AI-based suggestions over consultancies' generic advice.
1/4completed the form flow
I created a long Google Form that mimicked the full application process, asking for profile details, academic history, interests, and preferences in separate forms linked internally. Half of the participants dropped off midway, saying it felt like “just another boring form.” But after I showed them the EdAbroad app flow (same steps, but designed interactively), they were impressed and felt more motivated to complete it.
08 / Research, phase 3
I tested the EdAbroad prototype with 5 students. Each completed 7 tasks designed to simulate real usage.
5/5 users missed the AI-powered program matching feature.
4/5 users didn't notice the mentorship feature unless guided, because it was hidden in the side menu.
What changed
09 / Business and strategic vision
EdAbroad is more than an app: it's a scalable ecosystem. Starting with creative students and the USA was intentional, but it supports other fields (CS, medicine, business) and global expansion (Canada, UK). Designed to align with ethical partners and scalable through community trust.
Revenue model
EdAbroad 2.0
loading…10 / Key learnings
Creative students faced the most pain, which gave the product immediate relevance.
Pretotyping helped avoid wasted design cycles.
AI only worked because the match reasoning was explained clearly.
Confidence and structure were just as important as clean UI.
Avoided affiliate revenue to maintain user-first integrity.
Thank you for reading! :)
