AXIS
Turning exploration into clarity
Traditional education is structured around fixed paths, often narrowing what students see as possible. Axis is a discovery system designed to help students explore with clarity, by revealing connections and allowing patterns to build over time.
Mobile design
End-to-end experience
YEAR
Jun 2025 - Nov 2025
ROLE
Product Designer
Outcomes
→
88% adoption rate
Users expressed strong intent to adopt Axis if available, signaling an 88% adoption rate, indicating real product-market fit.
→
42% increase in engagement
Students actively engaged with content across multiple sectors, proving the pull of cross-topic connections.
→
All users discovered unexpected resources
Each user uncovered new content they wouldn’t have chosen on their own.
“I would have loved access to this platform when I was a student. I would still use it now.”
Usability tester,
Recent graduate
Context
Why Axis exists
Axis started from a simple observation. Many people end up in careers that look nothing like what they studied. Not because they chose poorly, but because certain paths were never visible early on.
When students can’t connect interests to real opportunities, uncertainty compounds. They stall, drift, or settle too early because something feels safe enough.
Axis intervenes earlier, before uncertainty hardens into premature decisions.
Strategic vision: Turning curiosity into signal
Exploration should build clarity. It forms gradually, as interests begin to intersect and patterns become visible.
Axis makes those intersections visible, shifting how students make sense of their curiosity.
System gap
Where exploration breaks today
Exploration today is fragmented. It’s structured inside institutions and scattered outside them.
Formal education follows fixed paths, limiting early visibility into how disciplines intersect. Outside the classroom, students turn to social platforms, clubs, and side projects to explore what’s missing.
When connections aren’t explicit, those spaces generate noise.
Research insights
What sparks exploration?
One pattern became clear.
When people see unexpected but plausible connections, they lean in.
A new approach to student growth
How Axis stands apart
Most education and career platforms work best for people who already know what they want to pursue.
Axis was intentionally designed for those who don’t.
Instead of pushing students to choose a path, it helps them see what sits around it.
How might we help students explore new fields with clarity, without settling too early on what feels safe enough?
Meet Axis, your guide for exploration
Axis is designed as a companion, backed by a system that strengthens clarity over time.
It reveals cross-disciplinary overlaps between students’ interests and industries that traditional paths often overlook.
Over time, continued use makes patterns easier to recognize and build on.
“I like how it guided me on what to read next and how fields connect. It made me want to keep exploring.”
Usability tester
Fueling curiosity through iteration
Reframing the approach
Early on, we treated discovery as exposure, assuming that more information would help students decide what to pursue.
That assumption didn’t hold. When connections weren’t clear, more content created noise rather than clarity.
We stopped equating more information with clarity and started designed for activation instead.
1st MVP: Creating a trusted starting point
The first iteration focused on helping students get started.
Instead of showing every career path, we introduced a few credible overlaps students could build from.
The goal was not coverage. It was activation.
Built trust through relevant content from reputable sources.
All participants
reported recommendations as relevant andtrustworthy.
Encouraged exploration with guided exposure to emerging industries.
88% of participants
would explore diverse topics that were shown.
Provided contextual support through Axis, an AI companion.
All participants
valued nudges & crossovers between topics.
2nd MVP: Adding structure without collapsing exploration
The second MVP strengthened how exploration holds together over time.
We refined hierarchy and how progress carries forward, so students could return to their interests, see what persisted, and recognize patterns.
Library was restructured around familiar content patterns.
Supported re-engagement by making saved content easier to revisit over time.
Powered by context
Turning exploration into clarity
Axis is an adaptive discovery system for early exploration that reveals cross-disciplinary overlaps based on students’ interests, strengthening clarity through accumulated insight.
SOLUTION 1
Early activation
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Fast onboarding to activate exploration
All participants described onboarding as fast and frictionless. Topic selection created a clear starting point that encouraged exploration and reduced initial ambiguity.
Fast onboarding
→
initial context
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open exploration
SOLUTION 2
Curated guidance & trusted sources
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Relevant starting points
85% of participants felt the content shown reflected their interests without steering them toward a specific outcome.
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Real-world context
Participants reported seeing sectors tied to their interests made exploration feel tangible and increased motivation to continue.
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Credible publications
Access to credible publications established trust early.
SOLUTION 3
Adaptive AI guide
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Trusted support
92% of participants valued Axis’ contextual nudges which highlighted relevant connections during exploration.
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Cross-disciplinary overlaps
Participants found that cross-disciplinary connections helped them understand how different interests relate.
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Evolving relationship
Guidance stays open-ended by default and becomes more focused only through continued user engagement.
From exploration to continuity
The core principle
Exploration depends on clear connections and continuity.
When progress carries forward, clarity compounds.
Designing for continuity
Future direction
As students continue exploring, Axis adapts to their evolving interests, reinforcing patterns as they persist.
Clarity compounds as exploration becomes intentional over time.
“Knowing what’s happening in big industries can influence what you decide to do. As a student, this kind of exposure is so valuable because it opens your eyes to trends and industries you wouldn’t encounter in school.”
Usability tester,
Student
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