About
General Information
Path to Work is a companion online tool that aims to guide UC’s international students who are enrolled in a non-STEM major co-op program through the process required for their work authorization (Curricular Practical Training & Optional Practical Training).
Timeframe: May - Aug 2024; Jan - May 2025
Role: UX/UI & Brand Designer, Researcher
Category: Identity System, Interaction Design, Design Research
OVERVIEW
The Space
International students MUST have authorization to participate in co-op and internship in the U.S. Additionally, they also impacts your ability to stay in the U.S. and find post-graduation job opportunities.
Stakeholders
For this project, I had to be proactive in seeking out to my stakeholders (F-1 international students) to gather feedback. I checked in with the career advisor at UC for practicality feedback to identify any limitations or updates and proposed solutions to any roadblocks. I received creative feedback from critique sessions from peers and instructors.
DESIGN PROCESS
Initial Observations
Over the years working as an e-board member of UC's Vietnamese International Students Association, I have seen many recurring questions from freshmen, who are most likely to be applying for CPT for the first time, consequently this might also include SSN, or juniors, who are most likely to be applying for OPT (pre-OPT) for the first time.
This made me questions why are students seeking out other students for informations that are readily available to them online?
“I think it’s really complicated for students to navigate everything—they’re consuming so much information at once.”
- Co-op advisor interviewee
“I often feel unsure if I have everything in time, and finding the right information. I didn’t want to burden my peers, but sometimes it felt like it’s faster to ask them for help when I was already behind schedule.”
- Senior Computer Science international student interviewee
Translated text messages from Vietnamese freshmen about the work authorization process
2023 annual professional workshop for Vietnamese freshman and sophomore by UC's Vietnamese International Student Association
(image taken by me)
(image taken by me)
Framing the narrative
How might we demystify the work authorization process for F-1 international students?
F-1 international students struggle with overwhelming, text-heavy resources filled with complex legal language, making it difficult to navigate work authorization while managing important dates for their co-op experiences.
Benchmarking
From an online survey with 50 participants, I was able to look into the most popular resources for students to research the topic.
Due to the big difference between number of advisors (22) and students (6,276) according to UC's 2024 report, there are usually long reply time during a short turn-around for paperworks due to the current timeline of a co-op job search.
Design Opportunity
Synthesizing inputs from stakeholders through survey and interviews with research from AEIOU observations, benchmarking and qualitative content audit. I was able to draft users pain-points and design opportunities to concentrate on.
Ideations & Iterations
From there, I started to gather and design my content for the final design prototype, keeping an eye on any changes on USCIS information page.
I started to work on wireframes, visual studies, and back-end codings on the Spring 2025 semester. After trying to build the prototype in Readymag, I ultimately pivot to Framer for their CMS capabilities.
PROPOSED DESIGN SOLUTION
Path to Work is a companion online tool that aims to guide UC’s international students who are enrolled in a non-STEM major co-op program through the process required for their work authorization.
This platform uses easy-to-understand language, and step-by-step to help students become confident in their decision.
