“I think there is a lot of beauty in putting people in touch with people who want to be gotten in touch with.”
“I think there is a lot of beauty in putting people in touch with people who want to be gotten in touch with.”
- Amy (User Tester)
My Role: UX Designer | Completed: 06/23
Tools: Figma, Photopea, UsabilityHub, Optimal Workshop, Google Forms
The Problem
For my UX Design course, I needed to create an app that connected experts with users for advice and networking purposes. After doing some research, I decided to focus my app on Gen-Zers and Millennials since they are a demographic that is technologically savvy and are looking for ways to grow within their professions. Therefore, they would be more inclined to use this type of app.
Competitive Analysis
Before I started planning my own project, I wanted to see what the competitors were doing well and what were their faults so that I could utilize their strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses.
After extensive research, a main insight that I had gathered was that there was a lack of attention on users within the Creative Arts and Entertainment field. I thought that this would be an opportunity to take advantage of this demographic.
Key Research Insights
Now that I had a better understanding of who my target audience is I would begin to conduct user interviews. Through these interviews I was able to find out both what my potential users are looking for in a mentor and in a mentor app. With this data, I created an Affinity Map that showed common themes most relevant to the users. Of the many insightful themes that were uncovered during this process, here are the five main Key Insights I've gathered:
5 Main Insights:
1. The two most common themes were the feeling of connection and reliability.
2. Key word searches will be important to users for finding commonality with their mentors.
3. The creation of a social hub would be beneficial for networking.
4. Reviews and testimonials from users will be important for users to gain that sense of reliability and credibility.
5. Users want to feel the value of the app in order to make the purchase.
User Personas
Now with an even better understanding of who my demographic is I was able to create two user personas that were based on the users that I interviewed. These user personas were an important way to really paint a picture on who our demographic is and what they would be looking for in a mentor app.
User Journey
With my user personas all fleshed out, explaining the user’s motivations and behaviors on how they would use the app was really important. Providing a User Journey could help stakeholders empathize with their users and have a better understanding of what their users are looking for when using their service.
Task Analysis and User Flow
Now that I had a better understanding of the user’s motivations and behaviors I created some task analyses and user flows to map out the users’ process of going through some of the main tasks of the app. This would allow me a framework to base my designs on moving forward.
Lo-Fi Sketches
I then sketched out some Low-Fidelity wireframes of some of the most important pages the users would utilize. Below is an example of the Mentor Search flow:
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes and Prototype
After completing the sketches, I hopped onto Figma to render my frames digitally and create some Mid-Fidelity wireframes. When creating these frames, I went through two iterations.
Once the frames were complete, I then built a Mid-Fidelity prototype.
Usability Test Prep
With my Mid-Fidelity prototype ready for use, I then prepped for Usability Testing by creating a Usability Test Plan, and a Test Script. The documents are available to download below.
Usability Testing
For the testing, I conducted 4 moderated in-person tests and 2 moderated remote tests. Results from testing highlighted some major and minor changes that had to be made as a result of the usability testing. Here are a few examples:
Pain Point 1: All participants had difficulty finding and executing the search for a mentor.
Design Solution: Eliminate the Mentor tab, replace it with a Search tab on the bottom menu bar, and reallocate information from the Mentor tab into appropriate areas within the app.
Pain Point 2: The Schedule a Session design was focused on the users’ schedule which the users thought would cause problems for the mentor with scheduling.
Design Solution: Redesigning the Schedule a Session page by adding a calendar with dates of the mentor's availability for the users to choose from.
Pain Point 3: Users were confused as to why there is a search feature on the Community Page.
Design Solution: Get rid of the search bars on the Community Page so there is no confusion.
Pain Point 4: All participants were confused when seeing the “Sign in” link on the Create Account page.
Design Solution: Get rid of the “Sign in” link.
Hi-Fi Mockup and Prototype
With testing and reiterations to my design completed, I then began to add some color and create mockups for the app. Below are the results utilizing the Mentor Search flow as my example. You can also test my prototype below.
The Mentor Hub App Demo
Takeaways
Designing The Mentor Hub app has been an exciting, frustrating, rewarding, and insightful creative endeavor. The world of design is something that is new to me. The most challenging part, currently, is the UI, and learning to manipulate the software to execute the vision I have in my head. As challenging as UX design can be sometimes, I really enjoy the process.
Speaking of processes, here are some of my takeaways and things I’ve learned from going through the design process and creating this app:
1. Creativity requires patience… but don’t wait for inspiration.
2. Express your ideas, but have trust in your users and the testing process.
3. Testing and reiteration seems to be the key to improvement.
4. As good as your work can be it never feels fully done.