CCA MyMentor
A student mentor system for new students to find their student mentors, and for experienced students show their experience and gain mentees.
2020 Google design challenge
X
California College of the Arts (CCA)
Keywords:
System Design / App Design / User-centerd Design / UX Design
Time &Duration:
Jan. 2020 / 1 week
Skills:
UX Research / UX Design / User Interface Design / Prototype / Persona / Scenario
/Qualitative research
Type of the project:
Individual work
PROBLEM STATEMENT
01
Many new students of CCA feel anxious and confuse about their new campus life. As the second-year graduate student in CCA, I've helped some new students deal with their problems, such as which class is better? How to change the course selected? Where could they get a good place to live around CCA?
03
Like the fact that CCA didn’t have long-period, professional student mentor, my school wants to build a system to strengthen the community by encouraging experienced students to connect with new students and help them adjust to campus life.
02
However, there were many problems new students asked before which were not related to my major. I cannot help them with myself. Also, there are still other students who didn't find the right person to ask and get help for their problems.
04
I’m designing an experience that allows mentors and mentees to discover each other. California College of the Arts is an art and design school. My design will base on the specialty of my school.
DESIGN OBJECTIVE
Design a system that could help mentees (new students) find their mentors (experienced students) efficiently.
USER INTERFACE
&FINAL SOLUTION
Register system
Students could use CCA account to register the mentor system. Meanwhile, the system will trace the academic information through their CCA account. When students uses the CCA account to register the system, the system will provide some hashtags based on their major.
# Hashtag
Students could find the questions they interested and answers through the hashtags. Also, they could add hashtags when they publish the questions.
Emergency questions
Students could ask questions and add the emergency #hashtag on it. When a student publishes an emergency question, others will receive a notice from the App. Also, in the home page, users students could find the latest and emergency questions directly.
Find your mentor & Become a mentor
The new student could find an experienced student as their mentor. Also, students could apply to become a mentor when they become experienced. Students could see the rates of mentors. They also could find the mentor’s questions and answers easily and communicate with mentors directly through the mentor’s profiles.
RESEARCH PROCESS
Existing School mentor system
001 Academic Advisor
Connecting with students for guidance in tracking students’ progress, accessing resources, and selecting courses for registration. Each major has one advisor ( Also called program manager in the graduate program). For undergraduate students, they also have professional advisors to help them solve learning, mental, and career problems.
Hard to give advice through students' perspective
003 Coach of learning
School provides skilled technical coaches for learning strategies, writings, digital softwares, programming, math, and science.
Only provide learning skill service
It's hard to make an appointment
Would not give students
specific advice and suggestions of school life
002 Aluminum Mentor
School provides the alumni mentor program. Students could choose skilled alumni on roaster to guide them for learning and career. The school will help students get to connect with alumni. However, the program is only for undergraduate students.
Only for undergraduate students
.Need to apply through
complex system
How do students think about the existing mentor system?
Primary research plan
Whom will I talk with?
What do I want to know about them?
New student
What kinds of problem did they have of campus life?
How could they solve the problem? Did they find some help from experienced students?
How could they connect with experienced students? What methods?
What are they worrying about?
Experienced student
What kinds of experience do they want to share with others?
Whom have they shared with?
How could they share their experience? What methods?
What are they expecting for the future sharing experience?
How do they think of the existing mentor system?
Interviews
Knowledge of the mentor system
I don’t know there is any mentor service in CCA. We only have an academic advisor. The academic advisor helps me with my class registration and courses plan.
001 Zoe
BFA Industrial Design,
the 3rd-year in CCA
Problems
How to solve problems?
I don’t know if the class is too intense or too loose for students, or I don’t know if the professor is friendly or not? especially in my first semester.
My mom joined a CCA student communication group online when I was a freshman. However, we didn’t use it anymore. Now I talk with my classmates to solve problems.
When I have a problem with my class like how to fix my 3D printer, it’s hard to get support in time.
New student perspective
Pain points
Don't know how the professor or class is as a new student.
Not familiar with the existing mentor system
It's hard to get support of emergency problems
No efficient way to find experienced students for help
Knowledge of the mentor system
I don't know about the system. I use the social media to find experienced students help me with my problems.
002 Chai - MFA
IxD design,
the 1st - year in CCA
Problems
How to solve problems?
As a new student and international student, I had a lot of problems with both CCA and living in SF, like how can I get a phone number? Where can I buy material for my class?
I found the CCA student group on douban.com and connect with experienced students on WeChat.
It’s hard to connect with the academic advisor and professors. Also, they cannot give me advice through students' perspective. It's hard to get right answers.
Pain points
As an international student, I have a lot of worries and problems.
Don't know the existing mentor system
Hard to get good answers of professional problems through students' perspec
Use social media to find some experienced students to get help
Worry about bothering other students if ask too many questions.
New student perspective
I'm afraid that I would bother other students if I ask too many questions.
Knowledge of the mentor system
I don't know CCA has a mentor system for students. I didn't use something like mentor service before. I know there is some service, but I don't trust those faculty could provide me with useful information.
003 Zeu - MFA
IxD design,
the thesis - year in CCA
How to share her experience?
I’d like to share the recommended class and great professors. Also, I have some design experience, tools, websites that I want to share with my classmates and new students.
Problems
I can only share with my friends and my classmates. There is no public way for me to share my experience with more unfamiliar students. I also had some bad experience with my former courses. Some of the professors were not friendly and responsible.
The online rating system is not working for CCA. Therefore I cannot count on my school or another website like rateMyProfessor.com
Pain points
The information is not transparent in CCA
Don't trust the school faculties' service.
No public platform for her to share experience and knowledge.
There is no efficient way for CCA students to figure out which professor is reliable.
Experienced student perspective
Synthesis of the research
Specific problems they need to solve
New students
001
Problem and questions about classes and professors of different majors.
002
Emergency problems which need
quick reply.
003
004
Some common questions.
Communicate with mentors directly.
Experienced students
001
Public platform to share their experience.
002
Need to show their reliable experience and confidence to new students.
003
Some new students' problems need them to cost much more time to solve.
User needs hierarchy
Persona
New student
Mentee
Experienced student
Mentor
IDEATION
Design opportunities
Affinity diagram
The information is not transparent in CCA
The original system user flow is slow
Common questions need a platform to share the solutions
How to solve the time cost of mentors and mentees?
HMW questions
HMW let mentees could rate the mentors and give them comments?
HMW let mentors could show their experience and knowledge on a public platform?
HMW let mentees could talk to mentors directly?
HMW build a system to let mentees could search for questions and answers they interested?
HMW build a 1 on 1 meeting reservation system which could let mentees have long-time guidance from their mentors?
HWM build a school business mode to let experienced students could get the payback based on their time cost?
HMW let mentees could highlight their emergency problems and could find a mentor as soon as possible?
Problems set
There is no objective information about coaches (mentors)
Students don't trust the coaches (mentors)
The information is not transparent in CCA
Mentees cannot know if the regular time slot that mentors post on the school website is really available
The information is not transparent in CCA
Time wast
New students have some common questions. They could only find experienced students to ask similar questions.
Common problems
Time wast
Some complex questions of mentees need professional and long-time guidance.
Experienced students may cost a lot of time to help new students solve their problems.
Complex problems
Time wast
Students may have emergency problems that need to be solved immediately.
Emergency problem
Time wast
Design solution
Design a platform which could let mentees ask questions and talk with mentors directly.
Functions
01 / Ask questions in public and get answers.
02/ Talk to mentors and mentees directly.
03/ Find the problems and answers quickly.
FINAL DELIVER
Information architecture
User flow
Wireframe
Logo & Visual Identity
