Client
Passion Project
RIT
Role
UX/UI, Visual
Time
Spring 2020
Understanding the Problem
It’s not always easy for freshman students to adjust to campus life at a large university. Normally, there are reasonable factors like homesickness, loneliness, and the “small fish in a big pond” effect to account for with incoming students.
I decided to create Mentor for our freshman students in order to help them easily connect and interact with older students who can help shape their adjustment to campus life.
Identifying Personas & User Stories
Organizing Wireframes
These wireframes helped show me how to organize the information users need to efficiently find what they are looking for. For example, a student such as Sara Wilson is looking for a place to ask questions about campus life— so a Q&A forum, similar to the one outlined above, could be very helpful for them in order to do so.
Exploring Visual Style
Developing Final Designs
RIT Mentor allows new students and current students to connect openly and comfortably with the concepts of guidance and friendship in mind.
Creating a Profile
A brief description of the student’s interests and current involvement on campus can be used for others to determine how much of their experience is shared. The student’s major and preferred language can also be used to help pair them with a student with whom they can potentially communicate more effectively.
From a Mentor’s POV
In addition to viewing exactly which mentees match best with the mentor, the mentor can also view a student’s profile in order to decide whether the student’s goals interest them or even align with their own.
From a Mentee’s POV
Limited Requests
A maximum of five mentorship requests are allowed for each mentee to send. This prevents mentors from becoming overwhelmed by too many requests.
Shared Features
In-App Messaging
Through the app’s messaging component, students can directly communicate information such as meeting times and schedules to better balance their school-life with mentorship.
Q&A Forum
A Q&A section allows students to post or search through possible questions and concerns in order to receive thorough answers from mentors.
Conclusion
As a result of constant advancements in modern technologies such as AR/VR and facial recognition, I hope to continue this project by exploring a solution that allows students to recognize their mentor/mentee when meeting for the first time.
Through the process of designing this interface, it was extremely enlightening to bring the incredible diversity of RIT’s student body into consideration when designing to include their needs and goals. Creating this solution allowed me to learn more about my peers and their experiences, as well as the significant impact that mentorship and friendship has on the well-being of young students.