Bay Area, California
CoachMe
2021
Year
UX/UI Design
Service
UX Research
UI Design
Contributions
Project Brief
Being a freshman in college is something most people can relate
to and from personal experience, it can be a daunting process
especially when you don’t know anybody on campus. In order to
address this problem, I decided to create a Mobile App that
helps new and continuing students to connect to help ease the
settling-in process.
Helping
students
adjust to
campus life.
The Problem
New college students lack guidance
and social skills leading to difficulty
settling into campus life.
of all undergraduate
and post graduate
students are 17-21
years old
of americans between
the ages of 25 and 34
are currently enrolled
in colleges nationwide
of students 35 years
and older are enrolled
49%
11.4%
2.3%
(17-35 years old )
What does the college freshman
demographic look like?
Getting to know the audience!
Having an understanding of the potential target audience is one of the most helpful steps before making any design commitments.
White Paper Research
Initial Findings
Competitive Analysis
The competition was restricted to career professionals and didn’t cater to college students.
BetterUp
Mentor Spaces
Ascendr
The most popular
app of the bunch,
with the best UI
most inclusive,
good UI
no student options,
poor UI
What would you change about the orientation process and why?
Did you attend the orientation program during your first week?
Did you find the orientation to be informative?
Did you face any challenges before or after the orientation?
Tell me how you were able to overcome the challenges
My interviewees were more likely to be better informed during the settling in process after making friends with both new and continuing students.
User Interviews
My Questions:
Being a part of a community increases engagement with the school and increases success rate
Identifying with a community or friend group set the foundation for future success.
Having a friend group made students feel included and gave a sense of community.
Community
Communication
Some student’s had difficulties due to poor communication skills.
Part-time students were 25% less likely to attend orientation.
Asking a friend improved information accessibility for freshmen.
The Interviews added additional insight to the first week and orientation process for freshmen. I divided my findings into two sections, Communication and Community to better highlight the student's pain points.
Insights & Analysis
Sarah.
Female | 32 | Finance
(International Student)
Goals
Find a campus job.
Gain a better understanding of her
schedule.
Make friends in her area of study.
Pain Points
Difficulty making friends her age.
Having a hard time meeting people
from a similar background as her.
Sarah isn't very extroverted.
I developed User Personas based on my research
and interview findings in order to better visualize
various types of students and their motivations while
utilizing a mentor/coach pairing app.
Personas
How do we tackle...
Making information accessible to new students/Freshman while giving them a sense of community and ease?
Proposed Solution
Create a mobile application that connects
continuing and new students, with the
goal of making the settling-in process
easier.
CoachMe (Mentor app)
Features to highlight
The app would allow students to...
create profiles and connect with others based on shared interests, academic program, and other relevant factors.
Other Features would include:
Video Calls
Chat Function
Campus Map
Upcoming Sessions
Sketches
I like to create sketches to better envision the design direction for the platform. It also helps me adjust mistakes early on in the design process.
User Testing
I like to create sketches to better envision the design direction for the platform. It also helps me adjust mistakes early on in the design process.