reducing counsellor fatigue
overview
Webyapar Solutions was pitching a student-management SaaS platform to a study-abroad consultancy facing rapid growth. As student volume increased by over 20% each quarter, counsellors struggled with inconsistent follow-ups, scattered information, and rising complaints.
My goal was to design a workflow that reduces counsellor fatigue and maintains consistency even as the number of students scales.
// user research
counsellor interviews
I interviewed counsellors, observed their working styles, calls, and tools to understand how they manage students.
The key insight from the discussions was the consultancy relied on a patchwork of disconnected tools since it started as a small in-house consultancy.
As consultancies grow, the informal coordination systems that once worked - a WhatsApp message, a shared sheet, a quick verbal update; become the biggest risk to student outcomes.
// problem framing
how might we
Replace human memory and ad-hoc communication as the connective tissue of the counseling process, so that quality of service scales with student volume?
// the 3 pillars
design principles
With a clear problem statement in hand: I grounded the solution in three non-negotiable principles.
perception
Make data easy to scan. A counsellor should know where each lead is at a glance.
Retention
Counsellors should be able to get the student history without relying on memory.
single source of truth
The system should handle document & application tracking.
// dashboard
perception & retention
My design aimed to help counsellors quickly grasp the status of each lead. This was introduced via a Kanban board that grouped students into the 4 important stages of the pipeline: SASTP plan assignment, Shortlist finalized, Documents collected & Application tracking.
The list view which was designed when student volumes grew too much for the Kanban to be any usable achieves the same via tags that communicate the statuses.
The counsellor also knows the last action they performed on the student - a crucial missing link in their previous patchwork system.
// document system
all files. one place
I designed a persistent left side-panel that communicated student details and a document storage system wherein a counsellor could store all files related to a single system resulting in a single source of truth.
// deadline tracking
Deadlines that chase you
I designed each application card with quick details and an option to set an alert on the deadlines pertaining to that university, so counsellors never miss important deadlines.
// FAILURES
We tried to replace the counsellor
Our first instinct was to streamline the shortlisting process — build logic that guided counsellors toward specific university choices based on student profiles. It felt smart.
Counsellors hated it. Shortlisting is where their expertise lives. They didn't want guardrails. They wanted a better desk, not a new brain.
We also prototyped a document-sharing system where students could log in and upload files directly. It looked clean in Figma. In practice, it meant students needed accounts, logins, and a reason to return to a platform they barely touched.
Instead, we shifted to a document storage model where counsellors upload finalized documents, creating a single source of truth for each student.
Final Outcome
We ran role play sessions where counsellors were given realistic student tasks and were asked how confident they felt in managing student docs, application statuses, etc.
Finally we asked counsellors to rate their confidence on a scale of 1–5 before and after the new design. The average score went from 2.1 to 4.1.
Counsellor confidence increased by 2x
90% fewer errors retaining incorrect info
Amartya is exceptional at converting difficult concepts into useful user interfaces. Strongly recommended for large-scale SaaS projects.
-Mihir Barnwal (CEO Webyapar Solutions)
what i learned
This internship helped me understand the importance of staying closely aligned with cross-functional teams to anticipate and prevent last-minute changes. Doing so helped us realize how a design that incorporated a full-fledged communication feature or a document sharing system would be technically unfeasible and be never pushed to development.