02 · Universidad Europea · UniCorn AI guidance
Humanising higher education discovery through conversational intelligence.
Overview
UniCorn is an AI guidance platform for Universidad Europea that replaces dense course catalogues and complex site hierarchies with a conversational mobile assistant, guiding students from initial programme discovery to a confident application.
Prototype
Problem
University website
Deep menus and jargon
Overloaded subpages, PDF catalogues and forms written for the institution, not the applicant.
Blank canvas stress
An open text box with no context leaves someone unsure what they are even allowed to ask.
Drop off and abandonment
Cognitive load peaks at exactly the point someone was ready to apply.
AI assistants often fail because an open prompt creates blank canvas paralysis. The experience needed clear pathways while still feeling like a conversation rather than a form.
Replies made only of text produce chat fatigue fast. The system needed real interface components, degree cards, location pickers, deadline counters, sitting inside the conversation itself.
Educational tools have to meet WCAG properly: contrast that holds, touch targets that work, and typography that stays legible across whatever phone a student happens to own.
Strategy
To make the conversation feel natural I mapped intent pathways across the discovery milestones, so the assistant could move from an exploratory question to a decision making tool without the student noticing the gear change.
UniCorn assistant
Explore and profile
Match and compare
Apply and get support
Explorations
Exploration 01
Exploration 02
Exploration 03
System
The same components had to survive low fidelity exploration, an interactive prototype and engineering handoff without being redrawn at each stage.
Foundational tokens
Conversational components
Rich module cards
Deliverables
Deliverable 01
Opens with low friction interest cards rather than an empty prompt, tuning what the assistant knows to the student's degree level and subject before the first real question is asked.
Deliverable 02
A full set of mobile viewports covering typing indicators, message grouping, inline cards and progressive disclosure, built to keep the thread free of clutter as it grows.
Deliverable 03
A brand built around the UniCorn mark, with a colour architecture chosen for legibility across whatever screen and lighting a student happens to be using.
Deliverable 04
Architectural maps documenting intent triggers, fallback states, quick reply paths and responsive component behaviour, so engineering had the whole picture rather than a set of screens.
Reflection
A good assistant is not built on prompts alone. Structuring the underlying content into scannable cards and guided paths is what turns a chatbot into something that actually guides.
Small details, a realistic typing delay, a visible processing state, an explicit confirmation step, set honest expectations about what the assistant can and cannot do.
Contrast that holds, generous touch targets and a clear hierarchy for screen readers meant the platform served every prospective student, whatever their ability or device.
