Mobile App: Meet Your Mentor
THE PROJECT
The Human Factors in Information Design (HFID) master’s program at Bentley University has a mentorship program where HFID alumni and current students can elect to be matched based on needs and resources for one-on-one career guidance on a semester by semester basis. My group was tasked by our client, the administrator for the mentorship program, to design a mobile app to facilitate the program in a way that eases the burden of coordination on our client and optimizes the program overall.
This assignment was completed for HF765: Emerging Interfaces. Deliverables throughout the semester included reports and prototypes consisting of multiple rounds of presentations, feedback, and iterations.
THE PROCESS
Preliminary Research
To gain a deeper understanding of the current mentorship experience, we investigated the space through exploratory user interviews and expert interviews, a quantitative survey, and competitive analysis.
For the user interviews, we conducted four interviews with mentors and four interviews with mentees, rotating responsibilities of interviewer and notetaker within the team. These interviews utilized a journey map to share insights into emotions and thoughts from a specific experience the interviewee had while working with a mentor or mentee. We sought to understand relationship roles and factors critical for success. While our user interviews were in progress, we conducted two expert interviews, one with our client and one with a career coach, seeking greater insight into challenges involved in the matching process and career mentoring.
Example of journey map.
Once these exploratory interviews were complete, we regrouped together on our findings and honed in on the areas we wanted to further investigate. We designed a quantitative survey using Google Survey and shared it with more HFID alum and current students, receiving 20 responses. We also conducted a competitive analysis and evaluated websites with similar compatibility and matching considerations, such as Care.com and OkCupid.com. We reflected on how users create profiles and input information for matching, the communication methods present for matched pairs, security features, rating functionalities, and social networking connections.
Analysis
During our research, we found that mentees and mentors struggled the most in their first meeting. Mentees wanted the mentors to take the lead, whereas mentors wanted the mentees to initiate the conversation and communicate the help they were seeking. Both the mentor and the mentee felt they were not matched appropriately, but they really just had different expectations. To resolve this challenge, we decided to focus on de-emphasizing the importance of finding the right "match" and focus on creating shared expectations.
By synthesizing our various notes and findings from the numerous research methods, we identified user pain points and gained a deeper understanding for the overall needs of this mobile application. By creating an experience where we could allow mentors to best leverage their strengths to offer guidance to mentees in a timely fashion, we could empower both users to more effectively achieve professional success and increase their mentoring experience. We created a point of view and set out to address the following goals:
Professional mentors are engaged in high-quality matches with those mentees in search of a genuine mentor relationship
Students with unique needs of short-term guidance are met
Both the mentee and the mentor have worthwhile experiences, fostering a strong Bentley HFID community
Based on these core findings, I created two proto-personas. My team then utilized these fictional representations of our users to reference the needs, goals, and behavior patterns of these primary audience groups throughout the ideation process.
Ideation
As we brainstormed ideas for our mobile app in virtual collaboration sessions, we kept the following key insights in mind:
Snapshot of virtual collaboration session.
Not every mentee needs a mentor. Many students sign up in the beginning of the program without having a specific reason why. These students can learn and explore the UX field without inappropriately using dedicated mentor resource.
The match doesn’t matter. Success of a mentorship depends on a shared understanding of goals and expectations.
Difficulty breaking the ice. The first meeting is the hardest, and it becomes the foundation for the relationship. Mentees and mentors need help facilitating their first interaction.
As we moved further along in our ideation, we also used a task flow diagram to outline the different paths our that our mobile app design creates for both the mentors and the mentees to show the various steps and decision points a user would encounter. This aided our brainstorming and design decisions in further iterations.
Task Flow Diagram for Mentors and Mentees
Low-fidelity prototype for long-term vs. short-term matching.
While we evaluated ideas, we created multiple versions of low-fidelity prototypes. Here is a sample of sketches I created based on ideas I contributed during our brainstorm. Throughout the ideation phase, my group created a variety of concept sketches, which we tested for feedback and updated with further iterations.
Later on in our design process, we migrated our low-fidelity sketches into the online design tool UXPin, where we first developed simple wireframes and then evolved them into full prototypes. Throughout the project, we presented our designs multiple times to the client and class members for feedback, made edits and iterated accordingly, and presented again.
THE OUTCOME
Solution
Our ideation led to a mobile app called “HF CommunID” that creates a personalized experience for mentees, based on their experience in the program and individual needs. This app brings the Human Factors in Information Design community together to provide students with the right level of guidance through:
Professional mentors - intended for users with more experience to address their specific needs, such as navigating the job market or addressing industry challenges in the workplace
Peer to peer mentors - intended for users with some experience in the program or prior experience in a mentorship program for guidance on navigating the Bentley program and serve as a friendly face for networking opportunities
Virtual group info sessions - intended to create community access to one hour learning sessions led by HFID alumni and professional mentors.
Example of a high-fidelity prototype I created.
Note: While I contributed to the creation of these wireframes, the final prototypes displayed in the presentation were updated for style consistency by another team member.
NEXT STEPS
To move forward with this idea, we would recommend the following next steps:
Conduct testing on the matching criteria included in our prototype.
Explore the transition between the various stages of the mentorship program (e.g. peer-to-peer mentorship to a professional mentorship).
Investigate use cases where users can be both mentors and mentees at the same time.