Creating a program to bridge the gap between students and potential mentors
PROJECT BACKGROUND
I reached out to a marketing organization I was a part of for 3 years during my undergrad to help them design and launch their marketing mentorship program. The Laurier Marketing Association (LMA) strives to support the marketing interests of Laurier undergraduate students by providing several opportunities for industry professionals and Laurier's top marketing talent to network and connect with each other.
TEAM
Taya Elezi (developer) Chetan Bhogal Marriam Mir (me)
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
RESPONSIBILITIES
User Research, Wireframing, User Testing, Visual Design
TOOLS
Figma, Pen & Paper
Project Overview
THE PROBLEM
There wasn’t an existing experience that allowed students to discover and establish mentorship relationships with professionals within the marketing industry.
THE SOLUTION
Laurier Marketing Association's Mentorship Program
Mission statement: Launch a marketing industry mentorship program that allows students to discover and connect with experienced professionals within the marketing industry. Program Goals: 01. Clearly highlight the benefits of becoming a mentor or mentee 02. Help inexperienced students connect to an industry mentor that matches their needs and career goals 03. Help mentors and mentees keep track of their progress and schedules 04. Use familiar channels for connection and communication
To kickoff, the project, I started by pulling questions from the problem statement to guide my primary research.
INITIAL RESEARCH BRAINSTORM
Establishing users and the process behind the mentorship program
Using the questions I pulled from the problem statement, I brainstormed potential user groups and the process to investigate during the research phase. This allowed me to understand how to strengthen the mentorship program for mentors and mentees.
BRAINSTORM AFFINITY MAPPING
Rapidly brainstorming "how might we" statements
To get all our ideas on the table, we created a brainstorm affinity map and organized the questions and possible solutions by user group and the process. This allowed us to identify potential opportunity spaces to guide and focus our primary research goals.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Competitive Analysis
I began by doing some research to see what’s out there currently. I conducted a competitor analysis of career mentorship programs at our university and other university career mentorship programs, taking note of features and reassessing these programs. The following were my key takeaways:
Empathize
USER SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS
To further our research we used both qualitative and quantitative methods, such as online interviews and surveys, to determine underlying patterns, wants, needs, and opportunities. We conducted a quick survey questionnaire with 70 students (business, marketing, and communications backgrounds), alumni, and marketing professionals to identify the needs/pain points of prosperous mentors and mentees.
RESULTS
Underlying problem
After conducting our research we discovered an underlying problem:
Experienced alumni and upper-year students were heavily under-utilized as mentors for non-experienced students seeking mentorship.
So why are experienced alumni and upper-year students under utilized as mentors?
There were several pain points that I discovered during our primary research:
However, Laurier students LOVE to volunteer. The university has over 250+ clubs and associations.
To address the problem moving forward, I kept these key insights in mind:
USER PERSONAS
Defining our user
After synthesizing my research, I created two personas of our main intended audience for the mentorship experience we were designing. I developed the personas by combining characteristics of those surveyed and interviewed, as well as patterns that led me to my key research findings earlier.
Ideation
After understanding our research findings and defining our users we settled on a mission statement and key goals that would solve the problem.
USER JOURNEY MAP
The mentee experience
I created a user journey map of the mentee process as a tool for ideation. Running through this exercise helped me empathize with inexperienced students and develop potential solutions to satisfy their needs and outline potential gaps of opportunities. Based on our earlier research findings, students preferred using a website due to its convenience and being easily accessible with pre-existing channels of communication.
INITIAL SKETCHES
Brainstorming and exploring ideas
Based on the understanding and findings from the previous steps, I began sketching out rough ideas of the design outlining the functionality, visualizing user flows, and any key features I wanted to include.
Design
We decided to focus our design on three main components of the experience which address the main problem of discovering and connecting with industry experienced mentors. Therefore our design solution is focused on the homepage, onboarding, and dashboards.
MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Defining design elements and visual hierarchy
After a few rounds of sketching iterations, we moved my sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes. During this stage, my goal was to keep things simple and not overcomplicate the experience for the user. I ensured that my wireframes proposed possible solutions that best matched the design goals I set previously. After several interactions, the following is the final result of my user flow for the mentees and mentors.
Test & Iterate
USER TESTING
Making improvements by identifying usability problems
We used a mid-fidelity prototype to conduct online moderated user tests. The tests were on our core target users which included 5 students and 4 industry-experienced individuals. By observing how they behaved we were able to create a much more effective experience for the intended audience. After conducting the tests we came up with the following usability iterations:
Iteration 1: View full profile details before matching
We received feedback from students that they weren't sure who they were matching with. To ensure mentors and mentees select their ideal partners, I redesigned the match screen to include full profile details of a match before officially matching with them.
Iteration 2: Add option for personality determination
Although many students have heard of either DISC or Myers-Briggs personality types, they weren't sure which type they were. To ensure the users complete the onboarding process with ease, we included direct links to resources.
Iteration 3: Add more personal interests option
Relationships are built on commonality. After conducting user testing, we found that DISC or Myers-Briggs personality types wouldn't be sufficient in ensuring mentees and mentors would have a great connection. These personality types would help with communication between them but not enough to build a personal connection. Based on primary research findings earlier, potential mentees look for commonality between themselves and their mentors. Therefore, I added the option that encourages mentees and mentors to craft a more personal profile by adding a variety of personal interests.
Design
STYLE GUIDE
Defining design elements and visual hierarchy
I created a style guide to maintain consistency while designing the high-fidelity wireframes. I opted for a clean, minimal, and modern appearance. I took inspiration from our original logo to develop a colour theme consisting of on-brand colours. I incorporated dotted grid elements and blobs to add more visual interest to the overall design.
HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS
After outlining the standard style elements I created high fidelity prototypes to address the project goals.
Landing Page
The landing page played a critical role in achieving Goal #1 and part of Goal #4. While designing it I ensured that it clearly conveyed the value and purpose of the program for both prosperous mentees and mentors.
User onboarding
To ensure the program helped students connect to an industry mentor that matches their needs and career goals the onboarding process served to meet program Goal #2. While users sign up they are asked about their overall mentorship goals, areas of interest/experience, and read they're interested in learning more about.
Dashboard
The dashboard for both user groups is key in keeping track of their progress and schedules Goal #3. The user can schedule new meeting requests and keep track of any upcoming meetings through the righthand panel. In addition, users can message their mentor or mentee through the bottom right chat bar. Their scheduled meetings and chats are connected to G-suite which enables a more convenient and familiar channel of communication and connection Goal #4.
Learn & Grow - Key Takeaways
01. Feedback is essential
Always have an answer to why you made a design decision and it helps to have data supporting your decision. UX design is centered around having a solid understanding of the user - so it's important for a designer to do the appropriate user research before making design decisions. As designers, it's crucial to constantly check in with the purpose of each element to ensure a great system is created for our users.
02. Narrow down the scope of large projects
When given a project with a wide scope, it's important to find aspects to narrow in on and prioritize. Designing a whole mentorship program from scratch with a short time frame was daunting but with an understanding of the problem and program goals we narrowed it down to first prioritizing the landing page, onboarding, and user dashboards.
03. The importance of giving back
I was a part of LMA for 3 years during my undergrad when I was in the mindset of pursuing a career in marketing. Although I've decided to pursue a career in design I wanted to use my UX skills to give back to a community that has been so supportive of me throughout my undergrad years. None of my achievements would have been possible without my amazing teammates, Chetan and Taya. This has been one of my most rewarding accomplishments, and, at the same time, provided me with an opportunity to develop my design skillset. Giving back to those who will shape our futures is quite a thrill and their energy is a true source of inspiration!
Next Steps
01. Integration with other e-learning platforms
Exploring how the program may function in conjunction with D2L platforms since most universities use it for their student portal and course management.
💖 If you're all the way down here already, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to live this journey with me!
