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MentorMatch

UX Design
OVERVIEW

A mentorship platform for UofT students, which challenges the conventional definition of mentors as anyone can be a mentor

 

On MentorMatch, a user can choose the areas they’d like help with (mentee) and areas they can help with (mentor). The platform takes a task-oriented approach where the mentor assigns the tasks and on completion of those tasks, the mentee schedules synchronous feedback via meeting or requests asynchronous feedback. 

DURATION

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2022

TOOLS

Figma, Maze

MY ROLE

Ideation Lead, UX Designer, Usability Testing

FINAL RESULTS

Problem Statement

How can we help students have a structured approach to mentorship so that it is valuable?

The Team

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From left: Erica, Maggie, Parita, Chelsy, Nicole

Many bubble tea sessions later, we arrived at.....

A Solution

A web experience that helps students find relevant mentors, connect with them and follow a task oriented approach which optimises the mentorship for both the mentees and the mentors

PROCESS
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A 'Vague' Problem Statement

Research
PHASE 1: INITIAL RESEARCH

What are the issues faced by UofT students when it comes to mentorship?

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To get an idea of the problem domain, we sent a questionnaire (on google form) and 12 UofT students and 5 UofT alumni filled it. Here are the results: 

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Analysis: Affinity Diagram

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Analysis: Pain Points

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PHASE 2: IDEATION

User Persona

Meet Hailey, a 3rd year UofT student. She's struggling with finding the right direction for her job hunting preparation and is excited for us to design something to help her.

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Big Ideas

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The Winner Ideas

By dot voting where each team member had 8 votes (4 for feasibility and 4 for impact), the ideas were organized into a prioritization grid with the axes of feasibility and impact to give us our winners: Progress Tracking, Small After-Mentorship Session homework and Question Checklist.

PHASE 3: DESIGN

Low Fidelity

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The low fidelity screens were designed for the following task flows:

  • TASK 1: Continue an existing Mentorship

  • TASK 2: Begin a new mentorship

  • TASK 3: Do tasks assigned with the help of the Resources section

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After a lean evaluation of the low fidelity storyboards with 8 users, the low-fi screens were converted to mid-fi on Figma, and a usability test was set up on Maze.

Mid-Fidelity: MAZE evaluation highlights

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Mid-Fidelity: Before and After

The low fidelity screens were converted into Mid-Fidelity and user testing was set up on Maze.  After Observation during the testing with 8 UofT students, a 20 minute interview was taken to get the qualitative data regarding the experience. Based on that, the following changes were made in the before and after. 

INSIGHT 1

The users wished to see the progress with all the different mentors on their home page. They also wished to see their availability while scheduling meetings

Revision 1.1: A dropdown feature is added to choose the progress with the mentors. A feature has been designed to link the calendar to the user's calendar, with a drop down (multiple select) available to select which calendar the user wishes to see on the homescreen

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Revision 1.2: While booking the meeting, the user can see their availabilities as well as the mentor's availabilities, by integrating their calendar with MentorMatch. This will make the booking experience an easy, efficient one. 

INSIGHT 2

Initially, the dot on the notification was supposed to intimate the user regarding the acceptance of connection. But during Maze testing, we realized that since it is very small, many users didn't notice it and were confused about where to go next. 

Revision: A banner was designed for notifying the users. This is more visible than the previous icon, and it contains a CTA button - View, so that the user is clear about the next step. It also has a close icon, to give user the choice to act on it or ignore it.

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INSIGHT 3

The user was confused about whether the connection was an Alumni, Senior or a Peer. 

Revision: A tabbing feature was designed, to separate the three types of connections visually

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REFLECTION

01

Cross Cultural Team

Everyone in the team is from a different country. This meant different perspectives, and different approaches to networking and student life at UofT. My exchange year had taught me to be open minded, but being a part of this team, I learnt to be okay with making mistakes or sounding stupid. Every idea was welcome, no matter how tangential it was, and I realized that this atmosphere really added value to our project.

02

Trusting Myself

Having switched to UX, I came into the MI program with a healthy dose of imposter syndrome. I learnt that not trusting myself is not only harmful to me, but also the team, as I am holding them back due to my lack of confidence. My team taught me that any idea is worth exploring, even if it doesn't work out in the end - in any case, you'll learn something. I am still working on this, and I hope that with more experience, I learn to trust myself more. 

03

Everyone is equal

In our team, everyone had an equal say, everyone was valued. I was welcome to make suggestions or changes to a teammate's work, after discussing with them and asking their permission. I really liked this approach, as it made me feel that my work was valued, and made me feel on an equal foot as we discussed the different ways to tackle a challenge. 

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