.png){kind=small}
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. Now, as a team leader, I helped guide my three team members through Goal-Directed Design (GDD) by organizing and scheduling meetings using Teams.
Support for first-generation college students often focuses on in-person resources rather than online support. Existing products and services overlook the advantages of an online platform for building a community. Our app fills this gap by connecting first-generation students with a community of peers and experienced mentors.
My team used the goal-directed design (GDD) method. This approach, created by Alan Cooper, focuses on meeting users' needs and goals while also considering business, organizational, and technical requirements. To design an app that meets the needs of first-generation students, we followed the five phases of goal-directed design (GDD):
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:
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.
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.
.png)
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
After finishing our prototype, I led both usability studies. Due to limited time, we conducted two usability tests. I asked participants to perform tasks in the app like creating a new post, joining a new community, and finding a term in the dictionary.
From the tests, we discovered:
Based on these insights, my team refined the prototype in the following ways:
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!
Here are my takeaways:
.png)
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
