LIGHTSHIP

Introduction

"LIGHTSHIP" is a platform that helps in building better Mentor-Mentee connections. It aims to provide quality career-related guidance to anyone straight from industry experts.

Role:

UX Designer/ UX Researcher/
UI Designer

Timeline:

November-January 2020
(8 weeks)

Understanding the Problem

According to a Gallups Report, 87% people are "disengaged" in their work. Most people believe that only a privileged few find work that they truly love. We found that Inaccessibility to Expert Guidance is one of the root cause of this problem. This short video further elaborates this issue in the real world scenario.

(Understanding the problem in 2 minutes)

Design Process

Design Thinking methodology has been followed here.

User Surveys

User Surveys helped in screening candidates for user interviews. The recorded responses from participants also provided some useful data. The most relevant responses have been visualized below.

User Interviews

Through screening 9 candidates were selected for interviews to understand the problem from different perspectives. Some of the most impactful statements are shown below.

" I had someone in my family from the same profession that I was interested in, and I believe that really made a difference."

“Everyone should be able to explore different fields without the looming fear of failing or being called a failure.”

"I ended up taking PCM because I thought it is the safest & would keep my options open for the future."

"I wanted to study philosophy but I was discouraged to take it and ended up doing engineering like everyone else."

"I wish there was a way to talk to people from different fields before choosing a career path."

Data Synthesis

The next step was to take the collected divergent data from the interviews and restructure it into a cohesive story to bring focus to those insights. This was done by applying the following methods.

Final Problem Statement

How might we make Expert Guidance accessible to people facing road blocks in their career paths?

Ideating Solutions

Brainstorming

The ideating process began with a quick brainstorming session. Judgement and analysis was withheld during this entire session. After sketching all the imagined ideas, I evaluated them further. I then chose to expand on the idea of providing Expert Guidance from various domains to anyone in

need of it.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

I generated different User Stories to understand the needs of the user better and to lay groundwork for the application. The user stories were then prioritized according to importance to understand which features should be included in the MVP.

Information Architecture

Site Map

The next step was to organize and structure information so as to easily navigate through the application. First, a Site Map was laid down to establish the hierarchy of the screens and pages within the application.

Essential User Flow

The essential User Flow was identified to understand the steps a user would take to complete the essential task of finding the right mentor easily and successfully.

Initial Screen Sketches

On the basis of the site map and essential user flow the first few screen sketches i.e. first draft of low fidelity mockups were visualized and drawn.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

These sketches were then converted into lo-fi wireframes on Figma. This helped in focusing on the layout, navigation and user flow within the application without getting distracted by the colors, graphics and typography.

After establishing the layout and the essential user flow, the Brand Platform was finalized. The visual language of the brand and the UI elements were determined to have a pre-defined Design System in place before deep diving in the high fidelity designs.

High Fidelity Wireframes

Homepage, being the primary screen connecting all other screens, was converted to a high fidelity wireframe first. This screen went through a number of iterations and the final wireframe set the tone for all the other screens as well.

Development of Home Screen

Prototype

All the screens were similarly optimized before building the Prototype. The prototype was iterated multiple times to make the user flow smooth and intuitive before putting it into the Usability testing phase.
Here is a video showcasing the prototype of the application.

Usability Testing

After building the first prototype of the app, 5 users were recruited for the Usability Test. This test helped to understand the kinds of problems users might run into when interacting with the app, as well as how satisfied the users were from the whole experience.
Following tasks were given to the users:

Find the Mentors who match your career requirements.
Book a call with a Mentor.

Main Findings from Usability Testing

Conclusion

Key Takeaways:

Optimized User Experience is at the core of every good & seemingly simple design.
User Research helps in validating the problem statement not only from the perspective of the stakeholders but also the end users.
Usability testing with real users can greatly enhance the performance of a product.

Special thanks to my mentor at Springboard, Aryan Indraksh for guiding me throughout this UX journey.

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