Ylitse - Mentoring app concept
The project was part of Futurice Spice Programme, a collaboration between Futurice consultants and Ylitse project team from SOS Children Village Finland. The goal was to break the cycle of young adults who grew up in foster care by preventing situations where their own children may enter foster care as a result of their limited support networks.
My contributions consisted of:
- Identifying target user groups and their needs.
- Creating user flows and wireframes.
- Validating & iterating the design from low fidelity to detailed interfaces.
- Creating a style guide for future development.
- Creating user flows and wireframes.
- Validating & iterating the design from low fidelity to detailed interfaces.
- Creating a style guide for future development.
Following the first round of interviews with potential users, we identified the target user groups and the issues they were facing. The results highlighted that the most pressing challenge for them is the lack of personal support during parenthood. In addition, they confront societal biases that act as significant barriers for them to seek the needed assistance.
With these insights, we decided to move forward with a mentoring app concept. The main purpose was to connect young adults with mentors who have been through similar experiences. We aimed to lower the barrier for young adults in finding the necessary help and in turn, improving their life situation. To validate the concepts, I created low-fidelity wireframes for two main user flows and arranged user testing sessions.
Initial user flows
Validating the concept with wireframes
Validating the concept with wireframes
Validating the concept with wireframes
Validating the concept with wireframes
The user tests confirmed the following hypotheses:
- It's important for mentees to have information about the available mentors before creating an account in the service.
- Pictures are sensitive for both parties and not relevant to the initial decision.
- To encourage adoption, mentees should reserve the right to make the first contact.
- Pictures are sensitive for both parties and not relevant to the initial decision.
- To encourage adoption, mentees should reserve the right to make the first contact.
In addition, we quickly realised that the visual implication plays an important part in user adoption. Most of the potential mentees have had unpleasant experiences with government officials along the process. So it is important for the app to be distinguished from the government entity from the mentee's perspective.
With these insights, I created the final design and visual direction for the app. The design was then handed over to degree students from Aalto University to be built.
Mentor's profile editing
Mentee's starting view interaction
The final detailed designs
Style guide
Illustrations by Lisha Dai, Senior Designer at Futurice
