WHY and HOW do students seek help from peers?
5+ IU mentorship programs and 5+ off-campus mentorship programs
Services that enable users to meet others or exchange ideas
7+ participants who vary in subject, gender, race, and mentorship experiences
Takeaways
Takeaways
Takeaways
I selected diverse participants to ensure a representative sample, including 6 students and 1 alumnus to understand their experience of asking/accessing information and participating in mentorship programs. I also hoped to figure out how students seek help or provide support.
I made efforts to vary their subject, gender, race, and the mentorship expereicnes. Based on their mentorship experience and identity (mentee, mentor, or general student), I asked different questions. Here are the interview outlines:
For example, how to use the course system is more easily answered by an online resource or another peer.
Some issues such as student-parent responsibilities and career development are less accessible.
Wants to know how to plan her future career as a student in an online program
😥 Pain points
Needs to search course selection rules and housing information
😥 Pain points
How might we make experienced students accessible for different topics?
With the scenarios to the two personas in mind, I reviewed services either from the previous research or those mentioned by the interview participants and identified a few of them that exemplified my design goals.
After understanding users and competitors, I summarized 3 principles to guide the following design.
The platform should be easy to use, improving students’ efficiency in seeking information
The platform will enable people with diverse needs to share/access information in the way they feel comfortable
The platform helps people bond together
I thought about more details to add to the interfaces. For example, I included channels and tags in the forum, which enable users to find the information they are interested in. Moreover, considering the pain points of structured mentorship programs, I enabled users to have a flexible duration and interaction type.
I created 2-3 versions of a feature and quickly tested them. Therefore, I could make better decisions. Take the Forum as an example:
I quickly drew down interfaces on paper to plan the user flow. Next, I used Sketch to draw wireframes to present the main functions.
Peer Profile - Emphasize and prioritize the information that users care more about
Connection Request - Make the functions clearer
Notification - Improve the visual elements
The app recommends information and peers according to the account settings, such as Identity/Status and the topics here. It also allows users to unlink their profiles if they have concerns.
The shares on the forum can help students with similar questions at once. Users can also access official school policies.
Users can ask questions about complex issues such as student-parent or culture adaptation.
In the chat room, users can also set up a mentoring agreement. In this way, they can understand the goals and expectations of each other and agree on the length of the mentoring.
What did I learn?
Either from the interviews or the exemplars, I noticed that some functions may be helpful for peers to connect, such as groups, group chat, or follow a peer. Moreover, some functions would make users efficiently manage the information, such as “My posts” or “follow a channel”. If the project continues, I’ll prioritize the functions and iterate my design.
Users talked a lot about matching with suitable peers and mentioned diverse factors, including topics, motivation, interests, and languages. The platform could use machine learning algorithms to suggest ideal peers and identify the important factors of each user.
I/U is a user-generated content platform where people can share their experiences and information. As a result, there are some unique considerations, such as offensive content, bullying, or copyright. To prevent legal issues arising, I could add a "report" function and provide terms and policies.
I was requested to finish this project with deliverable within a week. Although I had planned a schedule at the beginning, it turned out hard to follow because I always wanted to do more and think more. In my past experience, I often act as a UX Researcher so I tend to generate a framework to explain users’ behavior and needs. However, a timeline is a vital thing to stick to especially at the workplace. I learned how to work more efficiently and move on when necessary.
I appreciate this opportunity to study the app design trend, especially about color, typography, and spacing. This project also allowed me to review my skill sets from scoping to making an interactive prototype.
Crafted with love and a touch of matcha magic ❣️ 🍵