MIND Mentoring App
A mentorship service that brings growth and skills to users looking to improve in their field of study.
- Role
- Product Designer
- Type
- Personal project
- Platform
- Mobile App
- Year
- 2023
Users felt a lack of connection and structure in previous mentorship services. They often feel the development with mentors has been un-effective and not supportive throughout the process.
After collecting primary research from our users, this helped us begin to gather information on what current issues they have experienced with mentor programs, and finding ways they can be addressed.
Poor matching with mentors
Having a defined purpose for the mentor program is the first thing to account for. Allowing to have open-ended questions enables a more strategic focus to build a strong connection.
Unclear checkpoints
Not having a clear cut off point, or any direction in the mentoring relationship can leave the mentees dissatisfied. During the program, having mid-point survey questions and reviews can help develop a clear communication method.
Lack of training
Research has shown that only 1 in 3 mentoring relationships are successful when no training is supplied for mentors or mentees. Allowing an online learning module gives them an opportunity to take training at their own time, and can track progress. The impact of training scenarios have shown a 90% success rate.
How Might We ... design a useful mentorship platform that allows users to build connections, and gain skills to further their career objectives?
Sear is a busy mom of 2 with a bachelors degree in movie & production. She currently works as a production assistant at a local movie production company. Sear has been trying to find a mentorship service that helps connect her with a mentor to help begin her path to doing what she loves.
“I’ve been looking to connect with a mentor but work has taken up majority of my time. I need to be able to schedule on my own time.”
Ben is a fashion designer that has been working in the industry for 5 years. He has considered looking into new career paths and wants to find a mentor to help him showcase his skills into newer roles. He wants to be able to build connections that can help network his name out into the job field.
“I’m looking for new opportunities outside of fashion, but I often feel like I dont have the right skills and experience.”
Journey Map
Journey
Pain Points
Opportunities
Competitive Analysis
We were able to look into a variety of mentorship apps to compare that have a good sense of their visual and ability to answer users needs by finding a mentor. In making sure we had quality examples, we used a range of direct and indirect competitors.
Qooper
Mentoring Complete
WeCareer
What we learned from the competition
Competitors had lots of navigation tabs that is overwhelming to the users.
Keep a simplified UI with a minimal navigation bar that surfaces only important information.
Having to request a demo before finding a mentor makes the process longer.
Allow users to start finding a mentor on the main screen after a simple log-in.
Monthly payments to deliver to mentor through a period of time.
Diminish the costs of payments by eliminating the monthly payment method.
User Flow
Digital Wireframes
As I progressed into the wireframing phase of my personal project, I created the initial digital wireframes for my mentorship app. The designs focused on helping users quickly discover and browse mentors relevant to their field of study through intuitive navigation and filtering, making it easy to find the right connections from the start.
Usability Study
After conducting a usability study for my mentorship app, we were able to gather, synthesize, and organize the results to help improve the product. The findings that we needed to address came down to these insights:
Style Guide
The visual foundation for MIND — typography, iconography, logo marks, and the core color palette that shape a cohesive mentorship experience.
Key Features
Questionnaire
Questions to help us get to know who you are to fit you with the right mentors.
Message Feature
Keeping contact with your mentor allows lasting relationships and building blocks to create a networking base.
Easy Mentor Request
A quick and easy flow to request the mentor that works on your time. Pick out a day and time that works for you.
Final Screens
Next Steps
Collaborate and work with Engineers to begin development of app.
This is an important part of the process of beginning of developing the app, and I look forward to working together and teaming up for success to help build a great product.
Design a platform that allows group discussions to help interactions.
As I look to continue to innovate and help MIND grow and cater more to users, incorporating a group discussion feature allows users to learn more knowledge and develop collaboration skills.
Build an additional feature that showcases jobs and potential openings.
The main focus for MIND is to help users connect with mentors, learn, and land that job you always wanted. Enabling a jobs feature can help broaden the audience and features of what MIND brings to the table.
