Career Guru
Connect with mentors and enhance your career
Challenge
Design a mentorship app that will provide a positive experience for users.
Goal
Learn the user-centered design process through creating my first app.
Time frame
4 months
Tools
Problem
Individuals seeking career guidance and mentorship often struggle to find the right mentor who can provide personalized advice and support. This leaves individuals feeling isolated, uncertain, and less confident about their career aspirations.
A user-friendly app that can help individuals connect with the right mentors and receive customized guidance that can enhance their career growth and development. Career Guru will simplify the mentor search process, offer seamless communication tools, and provide valuable resources to both mentors and mentees.
Solution
Discover
Surveys
To begin the project's discovery phase, I conducted a survey to help me understand the users and create appropriate personas.
The goal of my research was to:
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Identify frustration about current competing mentorship and job-searching apps
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Identify preferences, thoughts, beliefs, and experiences
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Identify opportunities
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Understand the values and needs of target users
How do you prefer to learn new information?
Is it difficult for you to find a mentor?
What is your preferred method of networking?
Insights
Frustrations
Define
Personas
Using the data collected from interviews and surveys, I developed two personas representing typical app users. These personas will serve as a reference point to empathize with throughout the rest of the process.
Sitemap
To gain clarity on how users naturally group information and what labels and categories they find intuitive, I conducted a card sorting test. With that information, I organized a sitemap with appropriate clusters of features and calls to action.
Ideate
Wireframe
To gain clarity on how users naturally group information and what labels and categories they find intuitive, I conThe next part of my design process was creating a layout of the app's main pages. With pen and paper, I designed a handful of wireframes.ducted a card sorting test. With that information, I organized a sitemap with appropriate clusters of features and calls to action.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
Using figma, I turned the wireframes into a functioning prototype.
Test
User Testing
The next step of my process was to conduct usability tests. By observing participants whiloe they completed a series of tasks, I was able to identify points of friction.
The following are the most severe issues testers faced and the solutions to those issues.
Issue 1
Participants struggled to locate the discussion post.
Solution
Rather than having a dashboard, the discover page became the welcome screen, since the main function of the app is to "discover" mentors and opportunities. This removed an unnecessary step for the user.
Issue 2
Participants had difficulty finding the appointment setting feature on the mentor page, and when they did, they could not figure out how to set an appointment.
Solution
Move availability to the top of the mentor page. Create a calendar feature where users can view all of their appointments. Creating a more thorough scheduling system.
Design
Design Guidelines
Once the testing was done it was time to brainstorm the UI. I decided that the design should emphasize calmness and elegance. A dark interface would communicate professionalism, and a yellow primary color would induce an emotion of excitement. Since the UI is dark, I knew I needed to avoid crowded pages. The font should be bright to contrast the background and images should be used sparingly for profile pictures, events, and articles.
Header 1
Roboto / color #FFFFFF / size 30
Sub Header 1
Roboto / color #FFFFFF / size 26
Body Text 1
Roboto / color #00000 / size 18
Header 2
Roboto/ semibold / color #FFFFFF / size 22
Subheader 2
Roboto/ bold / color #FFFFFF / size 20
Body Text 2
Roboto/ regular / color #FFFFFF / size 14
High-Fidelity Prototype
When designing the UI, I utilized the Material Design guidelines and components to inform my design decisions. After sharing the design, I received constructive feedback and responded by making thoughtful adjustments to the layout, incorporating elements like contrast, borders, and increased whitespace to improve the overall accessibility.
As a result, I was able to arrive at a final design for Career Guru that effectively balances functionality and aesthetic appeal. I’m grateful that I received structural criticism and was able to go through another design iteration.
