Navigating Clearing under pressure

Clearing is a time-sensitive and high-pressure process, where prospective students must quickly understand their options and take action.

A Higher Education institution partnered with the Squiz team to deliver a digital solution to support the Clearing application journey, with a clear brief to improve usability within existing technical and budget constraints. The existing experience lacked clarity at key moments, with information spread across multiple pages and structured around internal priorities rather than user needs. As a result, users struggled to understand what Clearing involved, where to start, and what steps to take next. This created confusion and hesitation at critical decision points, increasing the risk of users dropping off or making rushed, uninformed choices.

The challenge was to bring structure and coherence to the experience, helping users navigate the process confidently and take action with certainty, while working within feasibility and budget constraints and responding to a clear direction to “think differently.

Identifying User Pain Points

To understand the Clearing experience, I synthesised existing discovery insights alongside industry research, competitor analysis, and user interviews to identify where users struggled to make decisions under pressure.

These insights were reinforced by both quantitative data and user feedback:

User voice

Together, these findings highlighted a consistent pattern: users needed clearer guidance, stronger reassurance, and a more structured path through the process.

Creating User-Centred Solutions

We translated these insights into user journeys and prioritised key moments where users needed the most guidance, ensuring content and interactions were designed to support decision-making under pressure.

Initial wireframes explored how information could be structured more clearly, introducing a more consistent layout and prioritising key actions at each stage. Close collaboration with the development team ensured these solutions were feasible and aligned with existing technical constraints.

As the designs evolved, additional opportunities emerged to further support users, particularly through clearer pathways to course discovery and more guided interactions within the journey. These decisions informed the structure of the Clearing hub, shaping both the overall layout and key interaction patterns:

Key areas of impact

These improvements laid the foundation for further iteration and scaling, driven by real user behaviour post-launch.

Scaling the experience in Phase 2

Phase 2 focused on scaling the experience through reusable components. A standardised course page template enabled efficient rollout across priority courses, reducing manual effort and giving the client team greater autonomy over content creation.

Metrics and Behavioural Impact

The 2025 Clearing campaign provided a clear opportunity to measure the impact of both the new hub and the scalable content approach. Analytics data showed notable improvements in how prospective students engaged with the experience. Key metrics from the peak Clearing period, during the week of results day:

These results indicate stronger engagement and clearer progression through key journeys, with users more effectively finding information and taking action.

Another key improvement was the introduction of flexible components that supported richer media content, particularly video, helping explain the behavioural shifts observed.

Drivers for improvement

Behavioural data indicated that these changes would contribute to higher engagement across key sections and more confident progression through the Clearing journey.

While formal user testing during the Clearing period was limited, feedback from both current and prospective students highlighted improvements in clarity and ease of navigation. This included:

Behavioural data and heatmaps showed stronger interaction with primary calls-to-action and more consistent engagement across key content areas. Compared to the previous experience, users progressed more decisively towards searching for courses, applying, or signing up, indicating a shift towards faster, more confident self-service journeys.

Reflection

This project reinforced how critical structure and guidance are when users are navigating high-pressure, time-sensitive decisions. While the initial solution focused on simplifying access to information, the real impact became clearer post-launch, as user behaviour highlighted where further support and refinement were needed.

Working within technical and time constraints required prioritising clarity and usability over complexity, ensuring the experience remained focused and actionable. Rather than relying heavily on upfront validation, this project emphasised the value of iterating based on real user behaviour, using analytics and feedback to continuously improve the experience.

The transition into Phase 2 further shaped my thinking, highlighting the importance of designing not just for a single journey, but for scalability. Moving towards reusable components and structured templates enabled the experience to extend beyond the hub, supporting long-term efficiency and consistency across the platform.

This experience strengthened my approach to designing for both immediate user needs and future growth, balancing user understanding, technical feasibility, and scalable design systems.