Out With the Old in With the New
Redesigning the BYU-Idaho Financial Aid Experience
Introduction
The original financial aid website at Brigham Young University–Idaho wasn’t meeting the needs of its users. Students were met with dense, jargon-heavy pages that made even simple questions feel complicated. Instead of finding answers, many abandoned the site altogether—opting to call or visit the office in person.
This created a ripple effect. During peak times—like the beginning of semesters and finals—the financial aid office became overwhelmed with preventable questions.
Our goal was to fundamentally rethink the experience. Rather than layering improvements onto a broken system, we reorganized the site from the ground up. We prioritized clear, student-friendly language and intuitive navigation, aiming to help users find answers independently and confidently.
From early research, we focused on two primary personas:
- Students who need guidance: those who benefit from a structured, step-by-step experience
- Students with specific questions: those who want fast, direct answers
To support both, we built the experience around a step-by-step guide as the core structure, complemented by a prominent search feature and robust FAQs.
Designing the Step-by-Step Experience
Ideation & Direction
User research made one thing clear: students naturally think about financial aid as a process. The steps themselves—applying, submitting documents, receiving aid—were already intuitive. The challenge wasn’t what to show, but how to present it.
We explored multiple design directions, including tab-based layouts and more visually complex navigation systems. While these concepts were interesting, they often added friction instead of reducing it.
We ultimately chose a simple card-based design. Each step became a clear, scannable card—breaking down the process into manageable actions without overwhelming the user.
Designing Within Constraints
One of the biggest challenges was implementing this vision within Brightspot, our web builder. Its strict design and layout limitations forced us to rethink how our ideas could be executed.
Rather than compromising the experience, we simplified. We adapted the card design into a format that worked within the system’s constraints—focusing on clarity, hierarchy, and consistency. This constraint ultimately strengthened the design, forcing us to strip away anything unnecessary.
A key limitation was how cards could be structured and spaced. Each card required consistent spacing between elements, which meant we couldn’t rely on tighter, more compact layouts like some of our initial mockups explored. While this reduced flexibility, it pushed us toward a cleaner, more scannable interface where each step had room to breathe and felt distinct from the next.
Another constraint was interactivity. We weren’t able to use traditional buttons—instead, all actions had to be handled through text links. On top of that, links were required to remain in an active state at all times, unlike our mockups which used hover and inactive states to guide interaction. To adapt, we leaned heavily on clear labeling, visual hierarchy, and placement to signal clickability, ensuring users could still intuitively navigate the experience without relying on conventional button patterns.
Reorganizing the Information Architecture
The original site was structured around internal logic—how the office thought about financial aid. We shifted this to reflect how students think.
Content was completely reorganized into the step-by-step framework. Instead of scattered pages and redundant information, users could now follow a clear path from start to finish. Each step contained only what was necessary, with supporting links for deeper exploration.
This transformation turned a fragmented experience into a cohesive journey.
User Testing & Validation
We conducted extensive on-campus user testing with students to validate our decisions. Watching real users interact with the redesigned site provided immediate insight into what worked—and what didn’t.
Students were able to navigate the step-by-step guide with minimal confusion, but testing also revealed gaps. In particular, users with specific questions often looked for a faster way to find answers.
Iterating Based on Feedback
One of the most impactful changes came directly from testing:
we moved the search bar to the top of the homepage, making it immediately visible.
This small adjustment had a significant effect. Students looking for quick answers no longer had to navigate the full experience—they could jump directly to what they needed. This ensured the site served both personas equally well.
Conclusion
The redesigned financial aid website represents a shift from complexity to clarity. By centering the experience around real student needs, we created a system that is both structured and flexible.
In user testing, students achieved a 90% success rate in finding answers—even for more complex questions. The site has now launched, and we’re eager to see its impact during peak periods like the FAFSA season.
This project reinforced a simple but powerful idea:
when you design for how people actually think, everything else falls into place.