Kymari Bratton

Social impact

Develop for Good x Immigrants Rising

A redesign of California's In-State Tuition Tool to make a high-stakes eligibility experience clearer, more supportive, and easier to navigate for undocumented students.

My strongest contributions were leading user research synthesis, leading the review page design, and championing accessibility considerations throughout the experience while also supporting broader product decisions across the redesign.

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Launched with Develop for Good for a mission-critical education resource.

Immigrants Rising tuition tool redesign screens

Overview

Reducing overwhelm in a high-stakes flow

The original tool was long, dense, and difficult to scan. Because it supports students making important education decisions, the redesign needed to build trust, reduce confusion, and make next steps easier to understand.

Project details

Type

Develop for Good social impact redesign

Timeline

October 2024 - February 2025

Role

Student Designer

Focus

Research synthesis · Review page · Accessibility

Problem

Clarity and trust were everything.

The problem

Users had to process too much information at once, which made the tool feel overwhelming and reduced clarity around eligibility, unmet requirements, and next steps.

Design priorities

  • Reduce overwhelm. Break the flow into clearer sections.
  • Improve readability. Support accessibility across devices.
  • Clarify outcomes. Make unmet requirements easier to understand.
  • Support review. Let users check and edit answers before submitting.

Users & research

Testing showed what mattered most.

Primary users

Undocumented students in California who need to understand whether they qualify for in-state tuition and what steps they can take if they do not.

  • User testing
  • Research synthesis
  • Accessibility review
  • Responsive iteration

My contribution

I led user research synthesis to translate testing feedback into clearer design priorities around trust, readability, results clarity, and the need for a strong review-and-edit experience.

66% Found the introductory instructions clear and informative.
100% Liked the layout and organization of the form.
33% Felt the emojis reduced the experience's trustworthiness.
100% Agreed the review page was essential for double-checking information.

The review page is necessary and makes it easy to go back and fix mistakes.

The form looks professional and well-structured, but the emojis made it feel less serious.

Process

Design changes rooted in comprehension.

North star

Help students move through a high-stakes eligibility process with more clarity, confidence, and support.

  • Research synthesis
  • Form restructuring
  • Review page design
  • Accessibility refinement

What I led

  • Research synthesis. Helped the team prioritize where users were losing trust or feeling overwhelmed.
  • Review page design. Focused on fast scanning, mistake catching, and clear edit paths back into the flow.
  • Accessibility advocacy. Pushed for stronger readability, hierarchy, spacing, and responsive behavior.

Final solution

  • Multi-section form flow. Reduced cognitive load by breaking the tool into clearer steps.
  • Clearer eligibility results. Highlighted unmet requirements and paired them with actionable next steps.
  • Review page with edit controls. Let users confidently verify and revise answers without losing context.

Impact

What improved

Testing showed strong response to the clearer structure and especially to the review page. The redesign gave students a more readable, more trustworthy experience for understanding their eligibility and next steps.

Client feedback

"Develop for Good supported us in refreshing and updating our CA In-State Tuition Tool, a key resource that contributes to our mission of education access."

Madeleine Villanueva, Interim Director of Higher Education at Immigrants Rising