How To Read This Page
This sample layout is meant to represent the standard project page every build would get. The overview page introduces the project, then this linked page carries the fuller case-study story.
For smaller projects, this may be the only detail page needed. For larger SaaS-type builds, this page would stay the main entry point and deeper technical pages could be added later if one area grows beyond what belongs in the core case study.
Problem
Students often juggle course planning in spreadsheets, degree audits, and screenshots, which makes prerequisites and future scheduling hard to reason about.
The goal was to create one place where a student could see what they have done, what comes next, and where conflicts appear before registration becomes stressful.
Solution
The dashboard organizes courses into semester plans, prerequisite chains, and simple progress views so planning feels visual instead of scattered.
Instead of trying to be a full school system, the design focuses on one clear user need: helping a student make better decisions before they register.
Key Features
Semester-by-semester planning board
Prerequisite awareness and conflict flags
Progress snapshots for remaining degree work
A cleaner student-facing planning workflow
Technical Decisions
Use Next.js for one unified product surface
This keeps routing, server rendering, and future authenticated views in one framework instead of splitting the project too early.
Model course relationships explicitly
Prerequisites are part of the core problem, so the data model should treat those links as first-class relationships rather than UI-only metadata.
Keep the UI focused on planning clarity
The project should solve confusion, not impress people with an overloaded interface. That makes restraint a real design decision here.
Challenges
Planning logic gets messy quickly
Once a user can move courses across terms, the app has to keep prerequisite relationships and sequencing logic understandable instead of becoming a black box.
Student tools can become too broad
It is easy to drift into building an entire student information system. The challenge is staying disciplined around the planning problem itself.
Outcome
This project shows product judgment, not just coding. It demonstrates how to narrow a broad problem into a practical workflow.
It also gives a strong foundation for talking about data modeling, UI clarity, and the difference between useful scope and feature bloat.
Next Steps
Add a stronger course relationship model with edge-case conflict handling
Prototype a visual degree-progress map
Add persistence and user-auth flows if the concept becomes a full build