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This is a process-oriented, mostly textual interface, in which each separate screen plays a specific role in the process of identifying similar schools and planning a trip. The homepage screen asks the user to input a school that he or she is interested in, along with a region in which the user would like to search for colleges. The next screen allows the user to view schools in the specified region that are seen as "good fits". The left-hand side of the page displays results that have not yet been selected by the user, and the right-hand side of the page displays results that the user has added to his or her "selections" list; these are the schools that the user would like to visit. In both the results and the selections sections, schools are represented by small preview boxes. Each preview box contains the name of the school, the average GPA and SAT scores of admitted students, and a bulleted list of reasons why that school was chosen as a potential match. The third screen is a basic screen where the user can input the dates that he or she intends to visit the schools chosen in the previous screen. Finally, the fourth screen shows suggested itineraries, with options for printing and e-mailing.

The simple homepage design is perhaps the most appealing part of this interface; typing in the name of a representative college can be much easier than the onerous process of typing in every detail of one's academic record. Throughout our interviews, the "similar schools" feature of college books (e.g. Barron's or Fiske's) was consistently mentioned as being extremely helpful in the college discovery process. This design brings that to the forefront. However, our other designs do a much better job of giving the user other exploratory tools, whether that be through other input criteria or through an interactive map. Finally, the print/email feature on the suggested itineraries page is another positive that should be incorporated into our design. Parents and other adults guiding students through the search process may have paper-based filing systems for organizing the endeavors of their children or students, and as such, it can be helpful to make print-friendly versions of the itineraries.

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This map-based solution allows users to navigate through the same process, but with more explicit freedom to explore and choose schools. The search bar from the first design by Zach persists in this design, but now, search results appear on a map of the United States and are represented by pins with colors that depend on the goodness of fit of the associated college. Clicking on a map pin offers information about the reason why the school was chosen as a good match. This design allows users to discover regions of the country that might have higher concentrations of colleges that match their interests and academic profile. The user progresses through the trip-planning process largely through interactions with the sidebar; here, they can see their selected schools and itinerary previews. The user can select an itinerary and view the associated trip on the map.

The major disadvantage of this design is that the user would then have to leave the map-based interface to view the full itinerary details (as opposed to the preview shown on the fourth screen). As the e-commerce integration associated with the fifth screen is no longer part of our intended plans, this design could be modified so that the me map is a consistent component of the interface.