Google Design Challenge
Mentor & Mentee
Google Design Challenge
ROLE
Individual Project
PROJECT LENGTH
Feb, 2020 | Two Weeks
It solves the problem for new students, while addressing the hidden needs and concerns of experienced students
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An APP where new students can conveniently connect with experienced students based on similar interests, availability and goals.
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It provides Coffee Chats as main function, and helps maintain the mentorship.
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It minimizes the concerns and troubles of experienced students and provides value to them as mentors.
Ⅰ. The Prompt
Your school wants to strengthen the community by encouraging experienced students to connect with new students and help them adjust to campus life.
Design an experience that allows mentors and mentees to discover each other.
Consider the needs of both mentors and mentees, including how someone may become a mentor and how to connect them.
Ⅱ. How they connect now and what is the problem
User Research
New & experienced students' current connection
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Through what channels
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What do they discuss
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The gains & pains
Unprofitable mentoring projects
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How the ralationship functions
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How the current platform works
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The gains & pains
1. How new & experienced students' curren connect in my university
1.1 Channel
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Online Search
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Group Chat, eg. same major, same region
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Private Chat via Social Media
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Face-to-face eg. orientation, ice-breaking party
|Occasions where experienced students also start a conversation
1.2 Topic
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Study related
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Career
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Campus life
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Preparation before school
1.3 Needs & Concerns
Needs
New Students
Urgent needs
Information of campus life/study/career
Sense of belonging
Opportunity to make friends
Experienced Students
Strong concerns
Feeling of helping others
Pass on the favor received as new students
Opportunity to make friends
Concerns
Bring trouble to the seniors
Don't know the channels
Nervous when meeting alone
Time consuming
Too many similar questions asked
No further connection except answering questions
2. How the unprofitable mentoring programs work
Common traits shared by those who maintained a stable mentorship
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Shared similar backgrounds, eg. major, hobby, career plan
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Convenient way to connet, eg. coffee chat, zoom call
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Offline connection is more efficient and easier to maintain
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Organized mentoring plan
Ⅲ. How competitive products work
1. Mentorship APP
Pro
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Convenient to screen profiles and find a match
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Follow-up reminders and task recommendations
Cons
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Focus only on the early stage of connection
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Other tools and platforms are needed to connect
2. Social Media|What's APP, WeChat
Pro
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Common questions will be answered once for all
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There are opportunities for group work and activities
Cons
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Hard to find a good match to connect
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No intention to build a further mentorship
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Only a few people are active in the group chat
3. Forum & Community Website
Pro
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Many people are willing to answer questions
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Answers can be found by searching others' post
Cons
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Complex rules to maintain the forum environment
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Slow or low quality comments
Ⅳ. How to meet the needs of stakeholders
1. Unmotivated experienced students
They are concerned about connection quality and time consuming
They usually don't provide help without being asked
BUT
They are happy to make friends and to help if being asked
A signifigant number of students are intereted in arranged online/offline meetings
2. Anxious new students
New students as initiators lack ways and courage to connect with others
They don't know that coffee chat or zoom call is actually well accepted by those who have mentoring experiences
BUT
They are passinate and usually have urgent needs
They can also provide valuble connections to experienced students
3. Other digital platforms
It is hard to build mentroing relationship only through digital platform
BUT
There is still room for improvement by creating a service personalized for university students
Ⅴ. Concept Generation
Mentor
More passive user. Mainly respond after being contacted. Many functions are designed to ease their concerns
Mentee
More active user. They use most functions to search, connect and arrange coffee chats
1. User Journey
Looking for Service
Before Connection
After Connection
Actions
Pain Points
Opportu-nities
Want to connect with new or experienced students
Limited access
Advertise the service
Look for/hear about a service
Experienced students lack of motivation to download it
Make them build emotional connections first
Difficult to keep in touch afterwards
Use the APP and mentoring as an excuse
Make acquaintance offline (optional)
Look for a person that might fit online
Time consuming to find a good match
Too much info to fill in or look at
Leading-in info using Student ID
Don't know the progress
Give feedback of connecting
Send a connect request
Carry on the mentoring plan
Enthusiasm fades
Troublesome to make plan together
Use other APPs to communicate and never go back
Schedules to help make progress
Built-in messages and calendars to reduce work
Difficult for the first time
Limited common activities
Convenient "Coffee" invite
"Activities" around the campus
More conversations and activites
"Community" to minimum duplicate questions
2. Goals
Match
Match students who might build a better mentoring relationship
Coffee Time
Provide convenient ways of offline meeting to minimize the hesitation and concern
Community
Stress the sense of community and the interaction between students
3. Platform & Channel
APP
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Helps students join the mentoring program to connect
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Enables follow up activities
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Meets the three goals above
Promotion
Through different channels to encourage students (mainly experienced ones) to use the APP
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Email
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School Website
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During Orientation & Ice-breaking Party
Occasions where experienced students feel they are a great help to others, and even want to make friends
Ⅵ. Detailed Design
1. Information Architecture
2. Wireframing
3. Keyshots
ONBOARDING | preference selection
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School ID to make sure of reliability and convenience
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Basic info is automatially imported
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Select preferences to get accurate recommendations
COFFEE | convenient invitation
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Convenient connection clear schedule using coffee invitations
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Through the APP, it can help minimize the studnets' hesitation and concern
Main Function
Quick and direct entrance to emphasize the main purpose of the APP
Track the Schedule
Calendar for checking schedule before connection or editing existing ones
Quick Invites
Quick way to create an invitation and send to others
MENTORING | accurate match
Mentoring List
Recommendadtions are sorted by preferences and match level
Check profile to make the decision
Experience
To help decide whether to connect
Message
Enhancing chances
Adding a message makes it more possible to connect successfully
Enhence communication quality
Common Interests
Provides reference for offline meetings
Reference
COMMUNITY | improve mentorship quality & sense of community
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"Discussion" is where frequently asked questions are aswered to avoid mentees ask too many duplicate questions
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Insightful answers are also helpful to mentors
Filtering
For your interests and needs
Comment
Add comments to interact and get Coffee Beans
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"Activity" provides info about valuable activites around campus
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Students can meet face to face offline where they are more likely to connect
Joined Friends
Go together and enhance offline connection
Add to Calendar
Quick access
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"Club" is where students can find others with same goals and interests
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It helps improve the possibility and quality of mentorship
ME | accurate match
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Edit your profile and preferences anytime you want
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Manage your coffee invitations and activities
Profile
Edit to change preferences
Coffee Management
To help manage invitations and encourage students to participate more
Beans Collection
To get more encouraged and engaged