guidr Mentorship Experience
Removing obstacles for students and professionals seeking mentorship.
Context
Mentorship is crucial for personal and professional growth. Guidr bridges the gap between those seeking guidance and those offering mentorship across various fields. It provides personalized connections based on mutual interests, challenges, and goals while ensuring safety and effective communication.
As a Designer and Researcher in this project, I conducted user interviews, synthesized insights, and led the design process to create a user-centered platform that facilitates meaningful mentorship connections.
Role
Design Lead
Timeline
Feb - May 2024
Stack
Figma & Figjam
Adobe Illustrator
SUMMARY
Quickly and reliably find mentors that match your interests.
This project was divided into two parts: one for mentees and the other for mentors. This case study focuses on the mentees, aiming to simplify the search and connection process with mentors. The project was developed with transparency and exploration in mind to create a product that users will adopt over existing alternatives.
IDEA SYNTHESIS
It all started with user interviews…
To understand the mentorship needs, we conducted qualitative interviews with potential users to gather insights into their experiences, needs, and preferences related to mentorship.
QUICK STATISTICS
That got me thinking what club involvement on campus was like...
While finding concrete statistics on every club’s active members is essentially impossible, I decided to pick some of the more well known clubs on campus.
SASE Northeastern Chapter
(1.0% participation rate) has around 20 regular members and when there are roughly 2000+ asian STEM majors.
SASE Northeastern Chapter
(1.0% participation rate) has around 20 regular members and when there are roughly 2000+ asian STEM majors.
THE PROBLEM
Too many semi-functional solutions increases friction for students finding their community.
The current solutions all have their benefits and downsides. Each downside increases friction for current and incoming students to find their communities. Having many semi-functional solutions also forces students to “bounce around” causing more frustration.
Fall Fest
Fall Fest is Northeastern’s club fair. Clubs table outside with posters to inform students about their organization.
Pros
Lots of club information
Easy to search for clubs
Cons
Lots of club information
Easy to search for clubs
Fall Fest
Fall Fest is Northeastern’s club fair. Clubs table outside with posters to inform students about their organization.
Pros
Lots of club information
Easy to search for clubs
Cons
Lots of club information
Easy to search for clubs
Fall Fest
Fall Fest is Northeastern’s club fair. Clubs table outside with posters to inform students about their organization.
Pros
Lots of club information
Easy to search for clubs
Cons
Lots of club information
Easy to search for clubs
PRODUCT GOAL
Complete information at your fingertips
I wanted to help create an space where students can effortlessly find information on organizations around campus. To where ClubsNEU becomes the one stop shop for freshman and upperclassman alike to find their community away from home.
VISUAL DESIGN IDEATION
Crafting the ideal club card
Club cards display the basic information to identify the club before clicking to view more. They play a
dominant role in shaping the visual experience. Therefore, this singular piece went through the most
iterations by far.
Choosing the core layout
The card chosen properly displayed the hierarchy of information from top to bottom making the card easier to scan while having plenty of space for longer names. It satisfied all the requirements while being space efficient.
Choosing the core layout
The card chosen properly displayed the hierarchy of information from top to bottom making the card easier to scan while having plenty of space for longer names. It satisfied all the requirements while being space efficient.
Choosing the core layout
The card chosen properly displayed the hierarchy of information from top to bottom making the card easier to scan while having plenty of space for longer names. It satisfied all the requirements while being space efficient.
INTERACTION DESIGN IDEATION
Maximizing search efficiency
When clicking on a club card, we had two options to display the additional information. A new
loaded page or a full screen modal.
Redirected page
While it was a perfectly fine option, this requires the user to click the browser's back button to return
to the home page. This often causes problems with the database not saving the user's position in
the database. Overall it is slower and less efficient.
Redirected page
While it was a perfectly fine option, this requires the user to click the browser's back button to return
to the home page. This often causes problems with the database not saving the user's position in
the database. Overall it is slower and less efficient.
FUNCTIONAL DESIGN IDEATION
Optimizing toolbar visibility and function
Being the core interaction point, the goal was to create a toolbar that maximized search flexibility while encouraging exploration for all levels of curiosity and knowledge.
Toolbar Orientation
While I had initially preferred a top toolbar to encourage exploration, I soon realized that the decrease in quality of user experience was not a worthy tradeoff. Adding the left toolbar
FINAL PRODUCT
Club search tailored without the hurdles
Sign in and tell us a bit about yourself
!
If you don’t have a northeastern email, don’t worry. You can still use the app in limited capacity to protect the personal
information of students.
Your personal profile is powerful
This is your personal profile. It displays your clubs, interests, contact information and similar profiles. Your interests will allow us
to recommend clubs on your discover tab.
Search, filter, discover
With a comprehensive and accessible search and filter system, you’ll be able to find the clubs that fit your interests in no time.
A club page that has all the information
Never feel lost again. Get all the club information at a glance from basic information to events. If you want to ask more
questions, you can always contact a member on the executive board.
REFLECTION
We
'
re just getting started here...
Designing a successful full scale product requires planning and time
Designing a complex large scale app doesn't just take a few months. It is important to think
about many different use cases and design for everyone. Especially the people who ground
the product and help insure it’s longevity.
Don
'
t be afraid to iterate
We often come up with an "ideal" solution that required lots of effort to develop. Later down
the design process, that solution may not fit anymore. It is important to set aside sunk cost
and focus on the user experience.
Leading an team is more than being organized
This was the first time I ever led a team and it was a learning experience for sure. Beyond
being organized... giving constructive feedback, and being engaging and charismatic are
some traits that I would like to work on as I continue to grow.