UReady
Your Personal Guide
to Study Abroad
UReady is an application designed to support international students during their transition to the UK, aiming to provide reliable, student-centred guidance on key topics like visa, banking, housing, and healthcare.
Clients
Worked with Sparck GCI for Triodos Bank
Context
Team Project / 6 Weeks
My Role
Researcher, UX & Service Designer in a group of 5 people
Methods
Secondary Research / Interview / Market Research
Affinity Maps / HMW Statements / User Journey Map / Personas / Storyboard
Value Proposition Canvas / Ecosystem Map
Tools
PROBLEM
The Gap No One Talks About: Practical Guidance for International Students Transitioning to the UK
International students moving to the UK often struggle to find practical, reliable, and relatable information about daily life, education systems, cultural differences, and what to expect both inside and outside university.
40–60% of international students report difficulty finding reliable practical information.
1 in 3 students struggle with essential tasks like visa, housing, banking, or healthcare registration (UKCISA).
Over 50% of students rely on unofficial sources (friends, social media), leading to confusion.
SOLUTION
All You Need, in One Place
No more searching through multiple sources for reliable information. Everything you need during your visa and transition process is right here in U Ready.
Your Custom Timeline for Each Step
Personalised Timeline: Key tasks and deadlines tailored to your process.
Tailored Guidance: Reach all of the necessary information about banking, visa, housing and more through one platform.
Navigate Your Visa Process with Confidence
Visa & Document Guidance: Clear, step-by-step instructions based on your country.
Verified Sources of Truth: Reliable, up-to-date information you can trust.
Simplify Your Finances from Day One
Digital Bank Account Setup: Start opening your account before arriving in the UK.
Currency Conversion Support: Understand and manage your money effortlessly.
How Does the Service Work?
With the storyboard, we visualise the pain points of our primary users and how our design solution provides tailored support.
Through the ecosystem map, we identified opportunities to promote our service and create value for the stakeholders we collaborated.
Finally, we mapped the ethical considerations and ways to mitigate them for the sustainability of our service.
Expected Impact
Reduce stress levels, especially in the first 3–6 months, when students report the highest confusion about practical tasks and cultural adjustment.
Prevent common arrival mistakes (banking delays, housing issues, GP registration problems), which currently affect 40–60% of new international students according to UK student support data.
Validation
Interviews with 9 international students confirmed the issues with information overload and difficulty trusting online sources.
All 12 participants, including international student support staff, confirmed the need for a single, reliable, personalised platform and showed strong interest in UReady.
Broader Potential
Universities can integrate it into their welcome package to offer more accessible support.
Partnerships with banks, housing platforms, healthcare providers, or migration support services can create a more seamless transition ecosystem.
The model is scalable across the UK and adaptable for other countries with similar challenges.
PROCESS
TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES
Deciding on the Roles
To ensure this concept is scalable and user-centred, I developed a set of strategic tools.
We determined roles using LEGO Serious Play, Belbin Test, MBTI, Manual of Me, and Clay Monster Workshop.
We gained insights into strengths, challenges, work preferences, and communication styles.
We assigned tasks based on strengths for maximum efficiency.
1.0 Exploration
Who Are the Current Stakeholders?
We created a stakeholder map based on the existing system.
We aimed to understand the bigger picture and find early collaboration opportunities.
We identified services, interactions around international students, and potential stakeholders to test and shape our idea.
We are Designing
For Who?
International students
moving to the UK
Why?
To help them settle and adapt to differences between their home country & life in the UK
How?
By offering practical and reliable advice on various topics
2.0 Research
Methods
Secondary Research: It was conducted to explore existing challenges and inform the interview questions. The data was collected from articles, forums, and surveys.
Our Own Experiences: As international students, we went through similar challenges during the transition to the UK, which helped us identify the existing problems.
Primary Research: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 9 students, 2 university staff members and 1 parent to investigate further the underlying causes and perspectives behind the challenges.
12 Interviews with
9
Students
2
University Staff
1
Parent
MARKET RESEARCH
Information Is All Over the Place Without Any Focus
We explored existing products to identify gaps and opportunities.
We found that most products are topic-specific with limited personalisation.
Users have to rely on multiple sources to get tailored information.
3.0 Analysis
How Did We Analyse the Findings?
The data collected through primary sources were analysed using Affinity Maps, helping us collate participant responses under similar groups.
We created 3 affinity maps in total for different participant types: parents, students, and university staff.
The findings from research helped us generate insights which were later prioritised through a 2x2 Matrix based on Importance & Impact
2x2 Importance & Impact Matrix
Affinity Diagram of Students
Prioritised Insights
1- Limited Knowledge in Opening a UK Bank Account
Delays in opening a UK bank account caused payment issues, high fees, and stress.
2- Complex Visa Process & Documentation
The complex process and documents lead to relying on consultants, increasing costs.
3- Unreliable Accommodation Information
Distrust online info due to scams and complex contracts, causing hassle & delays.
4- Complex Registration Processes
NHS and NI registration is difficult, leading to delays, confusion, and peer reliance.
5- Scattered Information
The info gathered from many sources makes it hard to verify, which shows a need for reliable, single-source support.
4.0 Ideation
Creating the Proto-Personas
From the insights, we created personas based on who our users might be. This helped us understand their pain points as well as end goals and work towards them.
Pain Points to Opportunities
We developed an ideal state customer journey map of international students, which helped us map out user actions along the way and analyse potential pain points & early opportunities.
From these pain points, we generated How Might We statements, which were then prioritised using an impact-feasibility matrix and reduced into three statements.
International Students’ Ideal UK Transition Journey
HMW help users to filter out irrelevant information and easily locate visa rules, based on their nationalities?
HMW simplify the process of searching for and collecting reliable information?
HMW simplify the process of setting up bank accounts and international payments for students?
Creating the Feature Set
The HMW Statements lead to ideation of various features.
Ideated Features were mapped using a Value Proposition Canvas to create value for our key stakeholders.
The generated features were prioritised with a 2x2 Impact & Importance Matrix and Triodos Values to align with the company vision.
Impact & Importance and the Triodos Values 2x2 Matrix
Value Proposition Canvas
5.0 Testing
Usability Testing
User testing helped us uncover problems we might not have noticed, helping us deliver a product that minimises users’ pain points and enables them to achieve their goals.
6.0 Final Design
Site Map
Final UI
Custom Timeline
Application Details
Document Guide
Forum
Profile
Design System
REFLECTION
Limitations
Limited time due to module schedule.
What I’d Do Differently
Explore more user research methods, e.g., card sorting, to define a more tailored feature set.
Conduct interviews with potential partners, such as local sustainability-focused businesses and charity shops, to test feasibility and gather feedback on our solution.
Mindset Change
I improved my presentation skills while presenting our work to our clients.
I have further experience working in a professional setting with designers from the sector and learn how to work collaboratively.