GenAlly
GenAlly is a mobile app that helps first-generation college students find mentors and resources. The goal is to create a sense of community and boost students confidence as they work towards a college degree.
It all began with pitching an app idea in my interaction design class. While I was pretty nervous about presenting my idea, I felt excited about the possibility of building an app for first-generation students—a passion my friends and family have heard me speak about endlessly. As a team leader, I helped guide my three team members through Goal-Directed Design (GDD) by organizing and scheduling meetings using Teams.
Role
Lead UX designer & Researcher
Duration
January 2024 - April 2024
Team
Kaitlyn Carlsen
Anahi Melendez
Jenny Loveland
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Microsoft Teams
The Problem
Our Approach
01
Kickoff meeting
Literature review
Competitive Audit
SME Interview
User Interviews
02
Affinity mapping
Behavioral continuums
Define goals
User persona
Redefine problem
Persona expectations
Context scenario
Requirements list
Wireframes
Key path scenario
Validation scenario
Style guide
Usability testing
Iteration
High fidelity prototype
Research
Kickoff Meeting
My team began the research process by completing a kickoff meeting worksheet. Since this was a class project, we didn't have actual stakeholders to begin our research. Because of this, we took on the role of stakeholders ourselves to understand the broader context and goals for the app. From the meeting, my team learned:
The user is a student whose parents did not earn a bachelor's degree.
Our product aims to build a supportive community for students who can't get college-related help from their parents.
Existing products and services miss the opportunity of using online platforms to build a community.
Literature Review 📚
To understand GenAlly's product area, we researched studies about the challenges faced by first-generation college students. We found that these students often need personalized support and mentorship.
They are also twice as likely to leave college without earning a degree compared to students whose parents went to college. These insights highlight the need to create a space where students without easy access to family mentors can find guidance and support throughout their college journey.
Competitive Audit
After researching first-generation students, we looked at competitors. Since there were no specific apps for these students, we referred to community-based platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn, and EmpowerU.
By considering the strengths and weaknesses of these competitors, we brainstormed possible app features such as suggested connections, communities, and posts.
Subject Matter Expert Interview 💻
My team reached out to Chelsea Craig, who wrote a research paper on how first-generation students perceive mentorship at Kennesaw State University. Though not required, meeting with this expert helped us understand how to facilitate mentorship in our app, such as:
Establish clear expectations and rules for mentors.
A dictionary of college related terms and processes.
A verified badge earned after reviewing mentorship guidelines.
Community and visibility are important aspects of first-generation college students journey.
User Interviews
After learning more about mentorship, my team developed a persona hypothesis to find candidates for user research interviews. Based on our earlier research, our primary persona is a first-generation college student looking to learn more about a topic or make connections.
To test our initial assumptions, my team interviewed five first-generation students at Kennesaw State University. We focused on their challenges as first-generation college students and compared in-person connections to social media networking connections.
Affinity Mapping
After our interviews, we used affinity maps to analyze the results. Each of us took 10 minutes to jot down key points mentioned by the interviewees. We then discussed our notes and grouped similar points into different categories. These maps helped us spot patterns in behavior and goals among our participants.
We found that participants highlighted the value of networking and building connections for both career growth and friendships.
Affinity Map for Participant 1
Affinity Map for Participant 2
Modeling
Behavioral Continuums
To create a user persona, the team analyzed key behavior patterns from the affinity mapping process. We used behavioral variable visual continuums to spot significant patterns. From user interviews, we identified important behavior variables:
Mentor involvement in student's decisions
Utilization of on-campus resources
Usage of social media for connections
User Persona
Using key behavior continuums, we listed behaviors that align with major patterns we observed. After developing a list of behaviors and goals, we created a single primary persona named Evelyn Holmes. Evelyn represents the most common needs and goals of GenAlly's user base.
Requirements
Turning insights into actions ✅
Based on what we learned from our user interviews and primary persona, our team created a context scenario to understand how first-generation students would use the app. This is important in the goal-directed design (GDD) process because it shows how the product fits into the persona's life and helps them achieve their goals.
From our context scenario, we extracted design requirements using the format: Call (an action) for a person based on a specific context. Creating requirements is essential for developing wireframes because it helps us define the actions users need to achieve their goals.
Evelyn's Context Scenario
Design Requirements List
Frameworks
Wireframes
After developing context scenarios and requirements lists for our primary persona, my team was ready to start wireframing. We began by designing a key path scenario, which is the primary persona's most well-worn path through our product. Ordering the most important requirements during the requirements phase helped us understand the most typical user path. In addition to key path scenarios, we also created validation scenarios, which represent less common user paths.
To visualize these scenarios, our team created wireframes using FigJam. Our research showed that participants preferred personalized feeds based on their majors, career aspirations, and interests.
Style Guide
After finishing our wireframes, we moved into Figma to create low-fi prototypes. While working on the prototype, I created a style guide to maintain consistency and cohesiveness in the app. I created several meetings for my team to collaborate on the prototype, addressing questions about the style and cohesiveness of the frames.
Iterating Prototype
Based on these insights, my team refined the prototype in the following ways:
Made the "search community" text field clickable and usable.
Added a filter for major or year.
Added timestamps to posts.
Final Prototype ✨
After refining our prototype based on user feedback, we completed the final version of GenAlly! The process has been a rollercoaster, especially while managing other tough courses, but I'm grateful to have worked with my team!
Reflection
Key Takeaways 🌷
Although it may sound cliché, time management is key. During the research phase, my team struggled to schedule participants. Even though I could have prepared my team better, I maintained communication to meet our tight deadline. This challenge led me to prep for the usability tests well in advance to avoid making the same mistake again.
If our team had more time, we would run additional usability tests to confirm that all app features benefit first-generation students. I'd also like to interview students from different universities, not just KSU.
Knowing I can use design to combat problems I'm passionate about makes me eager to explore this path further. I hope to bring this platform to life with my team, who have been supportive and passionate throughout this experience.
