Reimagine an effective mentorship program
A mentorship program is an effective means to strengthen the campus community by encouraging experienced students to connect with new students and adjust to campus life. However, the conventional way is for the program to assign a partner for you regardless of compatibility. It does not maximize the benefits out of a mentorship program nor ensure the experiences of users.
I wanted to design an experience that allows mentors and mentees to discover each other. I aimed at improving the user experience as well as adopting the principle of design thinking. Hence, the needs/problems of both mentors and mentees are my primary considerations during the design process.
Project Type
Design Challenge
Duration
Feb 1-7, 2020
Process
Secondary research, competitive analysis, storyboard, wireframing, information architecture strategy, prototyping
Tools
Pen & Paper, Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Problem Statement
How might we help students to efficiently find a mentor-mentee relationship that is conducive to their college life?
User story
June is a freshman from Singapore who just moved to Madison, she wants to meet a junior who's in the same major and speak Chinese so that she has somebody to ask advice from and can adapt to her new life in college in a foreign country.
Discovery
Understanding user needs represents the first step in developing a product that will work and retain users. Due to this project's time limitation, I interviewed 6 users that have attended the mentorship program and examined the current system to identify what needs to be improved in the new design.
Research Takeaways
Mentor's pain points
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4 people said “too busy to commit”
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Scheduling conflicts
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Lacking communication and unclear goals
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Lacking mentee participation
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Potential harassment or over-pressuring from one side
Mentee's pain points
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Program is limited to academic support
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Difficult to establish a true connection with mentors
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Questionable commitment by mentors
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Time compatibility with mentors
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“He kept calling me… "
Mentee's needs
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Insider tips of college life (both academic & life)
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Navigating a new city
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Guidance from the same language speakers
Issues with the current system
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Web-based
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Unknown mentor/mentee or the matching process
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Lacking metrics for a successful relationship
Design Goals
Design a mobile mentorship program app for the University of Wisconsin - Madison that provides a whole-rounded mentorship experience. The program goes beyond academic support and celebrates diversity and inclusivity on our campus. Students can easily navigate the app, find the person who clicks and get the most out of a mentorship program.
Design Process
Task Flow
From the data I collected, I created an ideal task flow as to what features the new mentorship program app would have, mapping out the information architecture and what the desired user experience would entail.
I created the wireframes and developed the user journey that helps to convey the overall direction of the product features and interactions.
Solution
Introducing the new mobile mentorship program app of the University of Wisconsin - Madison which provides the whole-rounded experience of a mentorship program. The program goes beyond academic support and celebrates diversity and inclusivity on our campus. With this new matching mechanism, students can easily find the person that clicks and maximize the purpose of our program.
Design Decisions
Card-Swipe Matching
Problem Statement
"It’s hard to connect with the right person."
Design Decision
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Without compatible matches, we cannot maximize the program’s benefits.
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To remove the extra step for partner re-application, I adopted a card-swipe matching mechanism.
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Users can see all the user profiles in “Community” with the filter functions to endorse people in the same majors or aspects.
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Then users can go to “Matching”
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“Match by Myself” mode, to see who endorses them and swipe to choose their matches.
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“Give me a surprise!” mode gives users another option by automatically creating matches based on their interests and the aspect they would like to focus on.
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To check the list of candidates you liked.
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Resolving Schedule Conflict
Problem Statement
"We can't find time to meet."
Design Decision
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This is one of the most notable complaints amongst the interviewees.
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By listing user availability on their profile page, scheduling conflicts can be considered during the matching process.
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Furthermore, the Chatbox also provides users with the flexibility to communicate online for an immediate response. Thus, eliminating the need for multiple appointments.
A holistic program
Problem Statement
The program is limited to academic support.
Design Decision
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By providing a wide range of mentorship to also include: diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
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For instance, international students may have trouble acclimating to a different culture and language.
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A lot of people are struggling with finding their own community since UW-Madison is a very big school. “Other links” is a page that provides information about different student organizations that can bring students together.
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By matching a mentor and mentee with similar cultural backgrounds, the app helps to alleviate the language barrier and aims to improve adaptation to a new life in the city.
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It is also crucial to incorporates psycho-social qualities into the design. Hence, I added the aspects of community belongingness and mental well-being support.
A safe space
Problem Statement
“He kept calling me… " - Potential harassment or pressure.
Design Decision
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It is crucial for students to feel safe in an educational environment. Safe can be defined as a sense of belongingness, personal privacy, etc.
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This app requires students to register with campus emails, so inappropriate incidences can be documented by the university. It also ensures the student account authenticity.
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The app does not require personal information such as location or phone number.
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The “Feedback/Report” section is to opt-out of the relationship. The management team will investigate and report to the UW campus police system once the cases are found sensitive.
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The chatbox feature also allows students to explore topics that they do not feel comfortable addressing face to face.
Design Style
I followed the UW-Madison official color guidelines to design and create a welcoming and friendly tone for users to match with this mentorship program's concept.
Conclusion
I aimed at improving the user experience and adopting the principle of design thinking. Hence, the needs/problems of both mentors and mentees are my primary considerations during the design process.
Due to the time limitation, I didn’t have time to conduct usability tests and further iterate. However, validation is an essential part of the design as designers are not the users.
Takeaways
Use a design system
Using reusable components could save time in a design challenge and ensure consistency.
Use dummy text
I spent a lot of time writing content on the app which is unnecessary. I could have use "lorem ipsum" to fill out the text layer instead of actually writing candidate introduction, FAQs, etc.