OVERVIEW
As a First-Generation College Student (FGCS), I had limited access to guidance and support growing up. I wanted to create a platform that serve as a support system where students with similar backgrounds can get guidance academically and professionally throughout their college career.
After the research and ideation process, I envisioned Husky Mentoring. Husky Mentoring is an app dedicated for current first-generation college students at the University of Washington, by providing them resources and opportunities to connect and participate in 1 on 1 mentorship programs with industry professionals and alumni.
DURATION
4 Weeks
(Sep 2020)
ROLE
UX/UI Researcher & Designer
TOOLS
Figma
KEY SKILLS
User Research
Concept Ideation
Usability Testing
Information Architecture
PROBLEM
With minimal or no exposure to higher education growing up, it could be challenging for First-Generation College students to be the first ones in their families to attend colleges. So in order to better understand the problem and their challenges, I scoped down the targeted users to just First-Generation College students at my school, and came up with the problem statement:
How might First-Generation College Students at the University of Washington (UW) get academic and career support, so that they can be more engaged within the UW community and navigate through college more successfully?
And here are the areas I focused in:
KEY RESEARCH INSIGHTS
The notes on the right in each section depicts some key research insights I found through different methods (Literature Review, Interviews, Market Research)
LITERATURE REVIEW
Validation: I first did research on studies about current challenges and struggles general First-Generation College students are facing. Studies have shown that First-Generation College students typically perform worse than traditional college students and have lower retention rates due to various barriers.
Thoughts: First-Generation College students often face cycles of challenges keeping them from receiving/finishing higher education, which could be detrimental to their future keeping them from success. I kept this in mind and wanted to understand deeper about specific challenges First-Generation College students at UW are facing so I proceeded to conducting interviews.
INTERVIEWS
Validation: I sent out a survey to 12 first generation college students at UW and further conducted interviews with 4 of them to identify their experiences as a First-Generation College student at UW, their challenges, pain points, etc. Common issues they encountered include large lecture classes with little assistance, abundant resources but lack of guidance, social difficulties with networking, and much more, ultimately making them feel left out and less engaged. Moreover, remote learning adding an extra barrier, causing many of them undue stress, which can lead to larger issues such as depression.
Thoughts: First-Generation College students often times find college very overwhelming and lack guidance on how or where to start first as they are being in a new environment without any experience from family. Without active inclusion, they can often feel anonymous, isolated, forgotten, and insignificant. These interviews directed me to think of solutions that would focus more on the interaction/engagement aspects.
MARKET RESEARCH
Validation: I researched and analyzed existing tools/platforms dedicated to First-Generation college students. A lot of existing mentorship programs are exclusive to scholars or members only, so it is inaccessible to the majority of the targeted users. Other tools like LinkedIn for example, are more focused on networking and job hunting and do not provide structured mentorship opportunities for users to get guidance and build a “more than just a connection” type of relationship.
Thoughts: I should design a product that focuses on the quality of connections rather than the quantity of connections.
SOLUTION APPROACH
During the ideation process, I got my inspiration from LinkedIn, which is a great tool targeted for job seekers with a focus on business networking and job hunting. I want to create a platform where first-generation college students can connect and engage with mentors throughout their college career. Through mentorship programs, they can get guidance and build meaningful, lasting connections that can help them achieve greater academic and professional achievements.
PERSONAS
FLOWCHART
The flowchart below showcases the basic user flow and features of the app I brainstormed before diving deep into designing wireframes in the next section.
LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
I started by creating low fidelity wireframes for 8 screens: home, mentor profile, explore new mentors, user’s matched mentors, messaging, mentor’s calendar, mentorship goals, and mentorship resources.
I then added some more wireframes for prototyping and did usability testing with 10 participants to get feedback for improvements before moving onto high fidelity wireframes. Here are some valuable feedbacks for the low fidelity prototype:
HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
These are the sign-up/log-in (Mentee version) wireframes. Users will have to sign up or log in using their UW credentials. If a new user signs up, they will be directed to the application page where they will fill out some basic information about themselves in order to use the app.
Onboarding wireframes would be displayed after a new user has finished the sign-up process. It provides brief instructions on what users can expect and do within the application.
Homepage wireframes would provide users with trending topics and resources like UW communities based on their interests when they filled out their application.
Mentors wireframes will allow users to explore and match with new mentors as well as seeing a list of mentors they have already matched with.
These are the Mentor profile page wireframes. In this demonstration, we can see that there are a lot more button options for the mentor named Colton Murillo. It is because the user has already connected with him so the user has access to more mentorship features.
Mentorship request wireframes will showcase how a user would send a mentor request to a potential mentor. In this demo, the user wants to match with the mentor Kerry Hall, so he/she will fill out a brief application and complete the request process.
These wireframes demonstrate how users can access the messaging feature. Users can navigate to the messaging interface with a connected user by tapping on the message icon next to a specific mentor on the mentors page, or navigate to the messages page and tap on a specific conversation.
Mentor scheduling wireframes allow users to use the scheduling tool inside each messaging interface to schedule a meeting time with the mentor based on the mentor's availability during the week.
Mentorship goal wireframes allow users to set up goals with each mentor and check out the progress of their mentorship. There are also tools that can help users and their mentors collaborate easier such as a To-do list and a resources page where they can share documents, files together.
RETRO
Reflection
During the process of creating my first individual case study, I struggled and learned a lot throughout the process. I was able to incorporate design methods and techniques learned from school as well as online courses, but I found myself lost and unprepared for some of the challenges I faced while designing, due to my lack of experience. An example being, that I had difficulties at first on prioritizing features tailoring to user needs. Despite having challenges and overcoming them, the most valuable lesson I learned from this project was to focus less on the design aspects, and more on the overall system structure, experience, and usability. By reflecting on this project, I hope to further develop my design skills and be able to identify scope and edge cases more quickly, and design with more clarity and empathy.
What I Would’ve Done Differently
Invest More Time in Understanding Mentors’ Point of View: While mentors are also important key users of the application, I was so carried away focusing on designing features for First-Generation College students I spent significantly less time researching mentors’ needs and perspectives on mentorship programs. I would’ve conducted similar research methods and design processes dedicated to mentors to make the application more comprehensive.
