NaviFish

Online Submission Team members: Faith Chen, Grace Yang, Jay Chan, Lucy Han

The Problem:

Navigating immigration process can be confusing, overwhelming, and isolating—especially for international students unfamiliar with local systems and requirements. To address this, we explored ways to make that experience smoother, simpler, and more supportive.

The Solution:

Our solution is a two-part system: a digital platform and a browser extension that work together to guide users step-by-step through the immigration process. The platform offers a personalized dashboard that includes timelines, documentation tracking, and culturally-sensitive guidance. Meanwhile, the browser extension enhances this experience by offering real-time support as users interact with official immigration websites—translating both languages and complex legal jargon on the spot. Together, these tools form a reliable and accessible support system that empowers users to move forward with clarity and confidence.

The Process:

We began our design process with user research, conducting surveys and interviews to better understand the experiences and challenges faced by students navigating immigration processes—both in the US and abroad. We received 25 survey responses and conducted 5 interviews that provided valuable insight into common pain points and unmet needs.

From the survey (Link), we found that 68% of our respondents have experienced difficulty navigating immigration-related websites, with most encountering at least one step in the process that felt confusing or stressful. Recurring challenges included filling out forms, understanding legal terminology, unclear instructions, and not knowing where to begin the process entirely. Additionally, while students reported relying on family, friends, university staff, program-provided documents, and online forums, they expressed a strong desire for more intuitive resources—such as step-by-step breakdowns, centralized information, translation tools, and timeline tracking.

Key Design Decisions:

Following user research, we conducted secondary research to better understand the problem space—reviewing immigration websites, official documents, and online forums to identify common patterns, confusing language, and gaps in accessibility. This helped us understand not just what information users needed, but how they needed it presented.

Website Extension: Translates and simplifies complex content on official immigration sites. Our research indicated that users struggled with navigating dense, jargon-heavy government websites. While our website platform centralizes key information, users still frequently rely on official sites; the browser extension directly supports this interaction by translating legal terminology and streamlining page content—reducing stress and confusion during a critical part of the process.

Centralized Dashboard: All required documents and resources, organized in one place. A common challenge was scattered and disorganized information. Users expressed a strong preference for a single, reliable platform to start from. The dashboard compiles all necessary documents, organized by process stage, and allows users to track personal progress—marking items as complete, in-progress, or missing—while linking out to relevant external sources when needed. This gives users a clear sense of control and direction!

Timeline: Provides a clear, step-by-step visual tracker for complex application processes. It outlines key milestones oriented to the user with estimated completion times / dates to reduce uncertainty and stress. Through user research, we discovered a strong desire for an intuitive way to track important deadlines; this feature directly addresses that need.

Approachable Characters: Fun little fish characters are designed to ease tension in a high-stress process. To counter the overwhelming nature of immigration processes, we introduced fish characters that added a touch of personality and warmth, without distracting from functionality. We hope that these characters help make the experience feel less intimidating and more human!