German Academic Exchange Service
Designing DAAD's My GUIDE for Global Education
How we created an intuitive platform that helps international students navigate German study programs worldwide.
Connecting students worldwide with German education opportunities
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is the world's largest funding organization for international student exchanges. We partnered with DAAD to create My GUIDE, an all-in-one digital platform that helps international students find, evaluate, and organize their study opportunities in Germany.
Students from different countries face unique challenges understanding German education
Creating a truly global platform required navigating considerable complexity. Students worldwide come with vastly different understanding of German education, varying levels of digital literacy, and diverse qualification systems that don't easily translate across borders.
Cross-functional collaboration enriched the project with specialized expertise
The project structure provided a valuable opportunity to work alongside separate technical, research, and content teams. This direct collaboration enriched the project and allowed us to build closer relationships across organizational boundaries.
Designing for future growth while maintaining simplicity for current users
We faced the ambitious goal of creating a platform that could eventually integrate multiple DAAD products while remaining intuitive. The interface needed to scale elegantly as new features were added, without overwhelming users seeking clear educational guidance.
Transforming complex educational data into intuitive pathways for students
As the lead UX/UI agency since 2021, we've crafted an experience that works for students regardless of their origin. Our approach included:
Creating intuitive user flows that guide students step-by-step through finding and applying to German universities
Crafting an information architecture that transforms cluttered database information into clear, meaningful pathways
Developing clear visual systems to help students understand how their qualifications translate to German requirements
Building a comprehensive design system that maintains consistency as the platform grows
Facilitating smooth collaboration between technical, content, and research teams
A single platform now manages the entire international study journey
My GUIDE helps students verify eligibility, explore over 20,000 study programs, match with suitable opportunities, and directly connect with universities – all through a cohesive interface that makes the journey feel manageable.
Our user-centered design process ensured the platform works for diverse global users
Our collaborative process combines several methodologies to deliver a product that truly serves international students:
User research and testing with diverse international student groups
Iterative prototyping and design refinement based on real user feedback
Weekly workshops and stakeholder meetings to align vision across teams
Comprehensive design system development for consistent experiences
Interdisciplinary collaboration between design, technical, and content teams
Regular usability testing to validate design decisions
My GUIDE has become a vital resource for international education
880,000
active users worldwide
116,000
accounts created across different countries
34,000
questions sent to universities
20,000+
study programs searchable within the system
