Project: Solo Project
Role: Product Designer
Skills: UX/UI, Product Design, Prototyping
Tools: Figma, Notion
82% faster syllabus lookups through structured parsing and tab-based navigation, giving students ease and eliminating uncertainty
"It's in the syllabus" - every student's dreaded professor response.
Problem
Students reference syllabi 3x per week on average (checking due dates, grading policies, office hours), but course info is scattered across inconsistent PDFs, Canvas pages, and Google Docs.
Finding a single piece of information takes 25-40 seconds of scrolling and searching. Over a semester, that's 25+ minutes just hunting for details that should be quickly accessible.
The real impact is in the emotional and cognitive burden of always needing to "search" for what should be easily found. It adds a layer of certainty to your academics, and robs you of confidence.
To make matters worse: some lookups happen in crisis moments, right before an exam when you don't know if it's cumulative, mid-assignment when you need the late policy now. Here, 30 extra seconds of scrambling turns into panic.
Solution
SyllabusHelper parses syllabi into a structured hub with tab-based navigation and an integrated calendar. You upload once, and then reference quickly and easily.
Impact
82% faster lookups (from 25-40 sec to <8 sec per query)
Tab-based structure eliminates scrolling and searching
50% less time per semester on syllabus tasks
zero "where do I find this…" moments
Consistent structure across all courses
Student validation
"When can I use this?" was the most common response from Berkeley students
Core Problems
Inconsistent Layouts
One professor puts email at the top, another buries it on page 6. No two syllabi are made the same.
Timed Test: Finding "grading breakdown" across 3 real Berkeley courses took 25-40 seconds per syllabus.
Scattered Syllabi
Finding your syllabi is, itself, a challenge. Professors may upload PDFs to Canvas, use Google Docs, or paste unformatted text in Canvas' Syllabus tab (and a surprising amount use the syllabus tab for anything but the syllabus...).
Usually, you're 80% sure the info is "somewhere in the syllabus," but you're much more likely to ask a friend before looking yourself.
The Solution
A central hub for all syllabi. SyllabusHelper parses each syllabus into consistent tabs: Calendar, Course Info, Contacts, Office Hours, Original PDF.
Within each tab, tiles organize info with visual hierarchy (title + icon).
Uploading a Syllabus
Upload
Review parsed content
Done - access from dashboard
On the homepage, a written summary gives you an at-a-glance look of important upcoming dates.
Find any detail in <8 seconds (vs 27-40 sec in traditional syllabi)
Design Decisions
Tabs + tiles for speed and predictability
When students need syllabus info, they already know the category: "What's the grading breakdown?" (Course Info) or "When are office hours?" (Office Hours). Tabs best match this mental model, and tiles let you quickly scan for the info you need.
Web-app over mobile app
Syllabus lookups happen during schoolwork on laptops. A web app matches the context of use and still works on iPad, meeting most use cases.
Validation
Lookup time (timed tests with real Berkeley syllabi):
Task | Before | After | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
Find grading breakdown | 27-40 sec | <8 sec | 82% faster |
Check office hours | 25-35 sec | <8 sec | 85% faster |
Verify exam format | 30-45 sec | <8 sec | 84% faster |
Per semester: 50% time reduction (25 min to 16 min total)
But the real benefit isn't speed, it's confidence
Knowing you can find course info in <8 seconds, every time, means one less thing to stress about or question. Whether it's a causal confirmation or a scramble for crucial information in a crunch, SyllabusHelper reduces stress and lets you focus on what matters.
Reflection
The hardest interface design challenge was deciding what should belong on the home screen without creating clutter.
Ideation:
I wanted to strike a balance between easily accessible navigation, a smart summary for at-a-glance information, and a clear understanding of upcoming dates. Rather than information-cram on the homepage, I went with a natural language summary - it prioritizes urgency, so students can see what matters first. A course calendar takes the rest of the page, with a color coded system throughout each block to easily track classes.
