Designing an app for youth community mentorship & peer group projects in Seattle
Timeline:
March 2020 - present
My role:
Competitor Analysis, Surveys, Interviews, Branding, Persona, Ideation, User Stories, User Flow, Sketching, Information Architecture, Wireframing, High Fidelity UI Design, User Testing, Video Editing, Motion Graphics, Graphic Design, Service Design
Future dots team:
Surveys and interviews (Judy, Chloe, Jungwha, Sungyun, Inok)
Target Users:
Youth, 8 - 11 graders in King county, the greater Seattle areas, WA.
Students who need mentoring and who want to get more information and resources for their future dreams and careers.
Mission
Future dots’ mission is to help youth and young adults build their future journey through self-reflection and career exploration with local career hoods.
Problem
Youth are looking for peer groups and mentors to work with and want to develop their goals and dreams. Youth needs a community where students can develop their cooperative and leadership skills.
How might we connect the Youth to their peers and mentors?
How might we help the Youth to accomplish their future goals?
Research
Preliminary Research
Users: 7- 9th Grade 25 students (7 girls, 18 boys)
Method: Summer service participant surveys
Goals: To learn about student interests, activities, jobs
Affinity Map - Youth Mentors
Future dots team wants to learn more about youth activities, hobbies, school clubs, interest areas, and general goals and plans about their future and dream jobs.
Focus Group - Youth Mentors' Interview Data
What I Learned From The Preliminary Research
Students love to join community engagement activities. They used to participate in multiple extracurricular activities but they couldn't continue because of the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
Many students are not sure about their future jobs and they want to get some advice and guidance from professionals. They also want to improve their daily habits such as planning and meeting deadlines.
"I am still in the process of selecting a specific major." - 9th grade
"I want to learn more about the profession." - 9th grade
Competitor Research
www.mentoring.org is founded 30 years ago in Boston. MA and now they have many local chapters. This nonprofit organization focuses on training mentors by providing mentoring resources and online and offline seminars for mentors.
Interesting research quotes from www.mentoring.org:
"Young adults who face an opportunity gap but have a mentor are 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those who did not have a mentor. (The Mentoring Effect, 2014)"
"Youth who meet regularly with their mentors are: 46% less likely than their peers to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking. (Public/Private Ventures study of Big Brothers Big Sisters)"
User interviews
Duration: Fall - Winter 2020
Background: During Summer 2020, Future dots conducted preliminary researches on focus groups. To understand the youth's worries and needs about their dream, we conducted interviews in Winter 2020.
Background: During Summer 2020, Future dots conducted preliminary researches on focus groups. To understand the youth's worries and needs about their dream, we conducted interviews in Winter 2020.
Gender / Age: 4 girls, 4 boys, 12 ~ 17 years old (7 ~10th graders)
Race: Korean American
Socioeconomic Background: Students in Bellevue and Issaquah, WA. Parents are working in top-tier companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon. Some parents are dentists and doctors. Many of them are recently moved from other states or Korea. Korean immigrant families want to adjust to the new environment and want to get more school and community information.
Race: Korean American
Socioeconomic Background: Students in Bellevue and Issaquah, WA. Parents are working in top-tier companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon. Some parents are dentists and doctors. Many of them are recently moved from other states or Korea. Korean immigrant families want to adjust to the new environment and want to get more school and community information.
How Might We....
How might we Future dots connects students to one another and mentors to help them better plan for future career goal?
Sample interview Questions:
1. What's your favorite topic or subject to study?
2. What kind of volunteers / internships / programs are you participating or have you done?
3. What are you doing currently to move you toward your dreams?
4. Tell me about a problem you had recently. How did you solve it?
5. How do you plan on accomplishing your goals?
6. Have you ever talk about your future with your family?
7. Have you ever worked together with your friends outside school for volunteering or any other activity?
What I learned
Needs:
1. Students want to get more professional information about their future.
2. They want to explore more to find their interest areas. Many students depend on their parents' limited knowledge and resources.
Problems:
1. Many students do not have strong goals and/or interests.
2. Students don't know how they can participate in extracurricular and volunteering activities.
Preference:
1. Students love to communicate and work with their peers.
2. Students prefer hands-on activities to lectures.
Technology:
1. Many parents monitor screening times on their kid's cellphone. They also limit apps for their kids' safety.
2. Students use popular communication tools which their friends and teachers use, such as Microsoft Teams chat options, text messages, and Discord (mostly for boys who love games.)
3. Students tend to have cheap cellphones and laptops. Many of them are using school laptops which are already protected and childproofed.
Ideation
Personas
User Scenario
Information Architecture (IA)
Sketches
Wireframes
Visual Design
Brand Platform & Style guide
Outcomes & Results
Minimum Viable Product
1. Students Interests
2. Local mentors' information
3. 1:1 meeting with local mentors
4. Peer groups
5. Goals and planning
Prototype
Home
Mentor - Request 1:1 meeting
Profile - Add more daily plan
Profile - My peers
Outcomes
I designed a Future dots APP and website to connect youth with local mentors and peers to help provide more professional guidance and local activity resources.
1. Students can choose local mentors and request 1:1 mentor meetings.
2. Students can join peer group activities.
3. Students can get useful information about careers, school life, high school activity, volunteer information.
4. Students can get some help from Future dots counselors, if they don't know their specific interest areas or cannot choose their mentors.
User Testing
Objective:
1. Initial impressions of introduction screen.
2. Opinions about Inputting basic information(interests, name, school) before reaching the main page.
3. Uncover usability problems in your red route.
1. Initial impressions of introduction screen.
2. Opinions about Inputting basic information(interests, name, school) before reaching the main page.
3. Uncover usability problems in your red route.
4. If Future dots app is easy enough to use for Youth, middle school to high school students.
5. What function should be added or revised to improve the current APP.
Testing methods: 3 onsite user testing / 2 remote testing
Participant characteristics: preteens and teens
Recruit Method: Contact local parents and friends who live in the King county, WA
Participant characteristics: preteens and teens
Recruit Method: Contact local parents and friends who live in the King county, WA
Tasks:
1. Try to join Future dots.
2. How would you learn more about a mentor?
3. How might you connect with a mentor?
4. You are able to create a list of daily to-do items in this app. How would you find and add more to do items to that list?
5. You’ve been using the app for a while and have a peer group. Your friend Jay recently left the group. How would you remove her from that group?
2. How would you learn more about a mentor?
3. How might you connect with a mentor?
4. You are able to create a list of daily to-do items in this app. How would you find and add more to do items to that list?
5. You’ve been using the app for a while and have a peer group. Your friend Jay recently left the group. How would you remove her from that group?
Reflections
Through user testing, I realized that notifications might be helpful to remind users of important tasks, meetings, and events. Students also want to communicate with their mentors and peers more actively. Adding a chatting function with available time/date and contact information will be beneficial to facilitate communication among users. Youth users are familiar with APPs that their schools and teachers are using such as Clever, Seesaw, and Microsoft Team. These APPs contain notification and chatting functions. I will research more about school communication APPs to add more communication functions for Future dots users.
Revision
I added a "Edit" option on the "All Plans" page. Users can delete and revise their plans as well as adding new plans.
Future Additions
1. Add notifications on the main homepage.
2. Switch the "Search" menu button to a "Chat."
3. Make available time/date information easier to notice on the mentor and peer pages.
4. Change like/unlike icon functions to represent favorite videos, peers, or mentors instead of removing and adding to the list.
5. Conduct more user interviews for lower class and first generation students to expand Future dots services.
6. Design outdoor meetings, activities, and projects after the pandemic.
