UX Designer based in Toronto
uxer -
A community-based platform for aspiring UX designers to be supported and guided through their UX career journeys.
Case Study for College Project
Problem:
Getting into an industry, either after graduating from an education in the same industry or changing the career direction from another one, the first thing to do is research. For aspiring UX designers, the advantage of the amount of information available online can make the research step harder than it is for many other industries. Finding a reliable source of information can become a challenge, especially when different sources contradict themselves.
Existing communities in the industry are focused more on networking and finding jobs mostly for the experts, where they could have incorporated a conversation for guiding the aspiring UX designers as well as making the connection more interactive by giving the professionals a platform to collaborate.
Goal:
uxer aims to create a community that is focused on sharing mutual support between peers from different levels of experience to encourage aspiring UX designers and make it easy for them to find their spot inside the UX industry so that the world won't lose great innovation.
My Role:
UX/UI Designer, Content Strategist
Tools Used:
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Miro
Project Timeline:
01/2022-04/2022
Discovery
Research
I started the research by sending out 15 surveys to different user groups. Along with the survey results, I conducted a comparative analysis to observe what other platforms in the industry are doing right and what is there to be improved for the users.
By putting together the research results, I conducted brainstorming sessions with my team members to better define the pain points, the problem that we want to solve, and what would be the UVP for this platform.
Definition
Persona
In the definition stage, the platform was aimed to offer mentorship, collaboration and community participation. Therefore, the platform was serving three different user groups; mentor, mentee, and collaborator. Based on the research results, I created three different personas for each user group.
Sitemap
I structured the sitemap considering the three personas' behaviours, frustrations and motivations. Along the way, the main 3 focuses of the platform evolved into mentorship, connecting with peers, and showcasing and getting inspired.
The biggest challenge at this stage was organizing the heavy content in a more simple way by giving the users flexibility and functionality through a clear structure.
Design
Lo-fi Wireframes
I started the low fidelity wireframes by focusing on one action which starts from the landing page and ends at the mentor-mentee matching page. After creating these lo-fi wireframes I conducted 3 user testing sessions.
After these sessions, I found some mistakes in the user flow. The filtering system for matchmaking did not have enough filters to come up with the perfect match. When we were trying to figure out a solution for this problem in our brainstorming sessions with my team, the concept of the platform changed.
Updated Sitemap
After going through the iterative design process, the platform evolved into an all-in-one community concept. I updated and extended the sitemap along with these changes.
Hi-fi Wireframes
After these iterations, the platform came to life with the high fidelity wireframes.
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Reflection
What I Learned
This was a passion project for me which I really resonated with since the idea came from my pain point as an aspiring UX designer. The goal was to help people and if I get to implement this project in real life one day, I really believe it could be the guidance and the support for a lot of people.
This project was particularly valuable for me to experience how a concept of the project can change, and how I can apply those iterations to the end result. The main learnings for me in this project were overcoming the challenges along the way while managing tasks and deliverables and prioritizing the user experience issues while still maintaining aesthetic usability.
Other Works
