Mārgadarshak
In development. Not yet released. Onboarding flow, smart feature registry, and exam hub are built. Student Voice surveys and AI mentor are in progress.
/01 The problem
Indian students navigate critical life decisions — stream selection after Class 10, course choice after +2, degree vs diploma, government vs private career routes — through relatives, coaching ads, and incomplete information. Parents are deeply involved but lack structured awareness of timelines, costs, eligibility rules, and backup options. The result: wrong course choices, lost time, family pressure, and regret — not because students are weak, but because they never got clear direction at the right time.
/02 The core design decision
Stage-aware guidance, not generic career advice. Every student is at a specific stage (Class 9, 10, 11, 12, Diploma, ITI, UG, PG, Dropper). The app adapts everything — available features, onboarding questions, roadmaps, exams — to that exact stage. A Class 10 student sees after-10th paths; a dropper sees exam strategy and timeline resets. This eliminates the noise of irrelevant information that every other career app forces on you. The onboarding is a 9-step flow that collects only data relevant to the selected stage.
"A Class 10 student sees after-10th paths. A dropper sees exam strategy and timeline resets. Same app, entirely different experience."
/03 The design system
Bauhaus Neo-Brutalist. Why: this is a serious decision system for families, not a cute coaching app. Sharp corners, thick borders, offset shadows. Primary deep navy (#1A1A2E), action red (#E94560) for critical actions and warnings, warm white (#FFFDF5) for surfaces. Outfit for headers (bold, geometric), Inter for body (clean, readable at small sizes). BauhausPanel, BauhausChip, BauhausButton, BauhausSectionTitle as core components. The visual language says 'trustworthy' and 'structured' — matching the gravity of the decisions being made.
/04 Information architecture
17 features across 5 groups — Goal Checks (4 features), Exam Strategy (4), Stream & Subject (3), Admission Support (4), Parent & Wellbeing (2). All managed through a single SmartFeatureCard registry that dynamically filters visibility based on education stage, goal status, role (student or parent), and target exams. Three main views: Home (stage banner, guidance cards, quick actions), Explore (roadmap browser with Explore / My Plan / Checks tabs), and Profile. The division means a Class 9 student doesn't drown in PG exam data, and a parent sees cost and safety information prominently.
/05 The ethical rule and hard constraints
No student's future can be sold to the highest-paying institution. This is not a marketing line — it shaped the entire recommendation architecture. Sponsored colleges cannot buy ranking. Payment never changes fit score, trust score, or student voice score. Every recommendation shows 3–5 relevant options. Institutions are validated against UGC fake university list and AICTE registry. The Student Voice Network collects real campus feedback with trust-weighted scoring — current student feedback weighs more than alumni, which weighs more than anonymous.
/06 What I would do differently
Start with fewer features for one stage (Class 10 only, which is the highest-stakes transition) and get the guidance quality right before expanding to all 10 stages. The Smart Feature registry works but 17 features × 10 stages creates a testing matrix that's hard to validate alone. Would also run the Student Voice surveys much earlier to build trust data before the app needs it for recommendations. The Parent Mode (Family Bridge with pair-code linking) is well-designed but added complexity that could have waited for v2.