NU Develop
App to help college freshmen learn about networking and professional development
︎︎︎ Skills: design research, wireframing, branding, user testing
︎︎︎ Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator
Goal
For an interaction design class, we were tasked with creating an app to help college students out with one aspect of their busy lives.
I drew off of my prior experience with professional development and finding a co-op to identity my opportunity for intervention: creating a simple, step-by-step way to introduce freshmen students to the concept of professional development.
Persona
Kelly
Age: 17
Location: Boston
First year undeclared student
Age: 17
Location: Boston
First year undeclared student
- Doesn't have a lot of work experience
- Knows that professional development is important, but doesn't really know where to start with the huge amount of resources Northeastern has
- Her academic advisor is more focused on her classes, and she doesn't know who to ask to explain what she should do
Storyboard
- Kelly doesn't know a lot about networking, but she knows that it's important.
- Kelly's academic advisor is more focused on her classes, and she doesn't know who to ask to explain what she should do.
- Kelly uses NU Develop to set weekly goals, and begins to take slow but steady steps.
- After two months of using app, Kelly feels a lot more confident and feels that she is on the right path to building a career.
User Research
Goals:
Questions:
- See how much experience first-year students have with professional development
- Identify different goals and challenges depending on major
- Determine how students would feel motivated to learn more about professional development
Questions:
- What do you think professional development is?
- Did you have any experience with professional development before college / what was it?
- Regarding PD: what do you feel good about, and what areas do you feel like you need more help in?
- Who do you go to for PD help / to ask questions?
- Do you think Northeastern does a good enough job helping freshmen with PD? & why?
- What are some major-specific PD issues that you think are important?
Key Takeaways
Problem: first year students without a lot of experience feel awkward or left behind
Potential solution: provide lots of different resources, especially examples (what to put on your Linkedin profile, how to open and close an email, etc)
Problem: NUin kids feel left behind, don’t learn about all of the resources that are introduced to first years in the fall
Potential solution: have the app work for any start date (1st year 1st semester, 1st year 2nd semester, 2nd year 2nd semester)
Problem: many students I interviewed didn’t have a clear grasp of what professional development was at all / all the different aspects of it
Potential solution: have a simple onboarding process on the app for first time users so they can understand what professional development is, and why what they are doing is important
Potential solution: provide lots of different resources, especially examples (what to put on your Linkedin profile, how to open and close an email, etc)
Problem: NUin kids feel left behind, don’t learn about all of the resources that are introduced to first years in the fall
Potential solution: have the app work for any start date (1st year 1st semester, 1st year 2nd semester, 2nd year 2nd semester)
Problem: many students I interviewed didn’t have a clear grasp of what professional development was at all / all the different aspects of it
Potential solution: have a simple onboarding process on the app for first time users so they can understand what professional development is, and why what they are doing is important
Initial Proposal
Design Elements
Hi-Fi Prototypes pt. 1
Your Goals user testing:
Individual goals user testing:
- Endless scrolling model is not the most efficient way of storing tasks
- Navigation bar is kind of weird looking
Individual goals user testing:
- Unclear how to check off a completed task
- Unclear how each task fits into its category
- Needs better color choices for body text
Final Prototype
Sign-up sequence:
Helps students enter information to personalize their goals
Home page:
Shows past, present and future goals, laid out in a simple weekly view
Shows past, present and future goals, laid out in a simple weekly view
Individual goal pages:
Contains instructions, examples, and a step-by-step overview of each category
Contains instructions, examples, and a step-by-step overview of each category
Wireframing
