Mentor Buddies App Redesign

Timeline

November 2022
(one week sprint)

Responsibilities

UX Research

Content Strategy

Wireframing/Protoype

Stakeholders

Grace Ling, CEO of DesignBuddies

Projected Impact

A sream-lined onboarding process increases # of sign ups, retention rate, and # of donations towards charity.

Success Metrics

As an individual designer, I now know the goal was to improve the onboarding experience for design trainees to sign up for mentorship with confidence. Using Google’s HEART Frame to define metrics, I developed questions and research strategies.

Overview

Design Buddies, an online community for designers around the world, recently created a mobile app called Mentor Buddies, where members can find a design expert to chat with privately for ~15 minutes, in exchange for a small donation to the charity. Although Design Buddies is a great place to get feedback from other designers and peers on Discord, there is a growing demand for members to find expert mentors “on demand” to get more specific and personalized answers to their questions. Based on personal experience, this is also why I gradually stopped using Design Buddies - I didn’t feel that the advice I received were personally tailored to my situation and background. After privately releasing a beta test of the app, DB wanted to make improvements to their app and found that there was a high drop-off in the onboarding process.

Discovery

Stakeholder Interview (Grace Ling, founder of Design Buddies)

Through an interview with the stakeholder herself, I discovered three main key findings & goals from Design Buddies (DB):

  1. Increase the conversion rate of people signing up for the first session with a mentor, and consequently increase the retention rate.

  2. Properly match correct mentor with correct mentee.

  3. Raise money for non-profits, while growing revenue and community of design mentors and mentees.

Frustrations: High drop-off in onboarding process - most users actually never make it to their first session. DB thinks it could be because onboarding process isn’t tailoring to users, so users aren’t matched up properly. Or users are facing decision fatigue from having to choose charities.

Constraints: 


  • Designed only as a mobile app

  • Focus solely the onboarding flow

  • Technical requirement for users to sign up --> verify phone number --> donate to charity --> start a chat.

Research

Quantitative Insights

Based on the app analytics below, I found 3 major smoke signals (right) during the onboarding process:

Qualitative Insights

I conducted a first round of usability testing through their beta testing. After completing an affinity mapping with the results of the user interviews, I found 3 main frictions:

  1. Profile Creation
    “I don’t mind making a profile and verifying my phone number, but I don’t understand why I can’t see what I’m getting first.”
    HMW help users better understand the value they’ll receive before signing up and asking them to commit? HMW present users w/ a signup when they’re highly motivated?

  2. Mentor List Page
    “I’m overwhelmed with choices, and don’t have enough info to confidently find a mentor that would be a good fit”
    HMW help users feel more confident that the app alogrithm is matching them with the appropriate mentors?

  3. Mentor Profile Page
    “I want to know more about the mentors, what others talk to them about, and the reviews of other mentees.”
    HMW present mentors in a way that allows users to confidently decide if that mentor is “the one” who can answer their questions and have a personal connection with?

Original Flow

**Red outline indicates the 3 problematic areas.

Initial Sketches

1) Profile Creation

There was a high 66% drop-off rate by the second screen - the Profile Creation page. I reworked the pathway to display a splashscreen (A) first, so users can get a better sense of how the app works. I also added a “skip for now” option when users create their profile (B), to address the issue of wanting to preview the app first. However, after peer feedback, I realized it was not enough to simply add an alternative CTA. In my revised version (B), users immediately get to see a preview of the app, and actually get to use the app before creating a profile.

2) Mentor List

From the user research, users spent the longest time on this page - approx. 5 minutes - because they could not make a decision picking the right mentor. I refined the Skill/Topics page (A) to incorporate more subjects users could pick, allowing more personalization. I also refined the Mentor List page (B) that organized mentors into concise categories. I even added a filter option for further mentor tailoring. I came up with an alternative version of the Mentor List page (B).

3) Mentor Profile

Lastly, 98% of chats are not initiated by users because they feel they do not know enough about mentors to begin a conversation. Here, I revised the Mentor Profile page to include the mentor’s professional links and not only what topics they mentor in, but what industries they’ve worked in. This allows a greater probability of mentor and mentee overlapping in interests.

Final Design Solutions

Highlight #1

To address how users would better understand the benefits of the app before asking them to commit, I took out the Profile Creation page from the beginning, giving it a lower priority. In place, I added a splash screen and a preview of the app, so users can directly try the app out and make an informed decision when choosing to commit.

Based on user research, we believe that this will work well to reduce user drop-off rate, and convert new users to long-term customers.

We would track these metrics to measure the effectiveness of this solution:

  • Drop-off rate & percentage

  • Conversion rate

Highlight #2

To address how users might feel more confident that the app is matching them with the appropriate mentors, I designed a page dedicated to user’s customization of their skills. I designed a follow-up page providing a relevant list of their top-matched mentors organized into intuitive categories (Top Matches, Available Now, Popular, and New Mentors). Users can filter this mentor list even further based on the mentor’s availability, industry, years of experience, career level, and charity cause!

Based on user research, we believe that this will work well to achieve user satisfaction on their choices of mentors.

We would track these metrics to measure the effectiveness of this solution:

  • User satisfaction survey

  • Engagement - Number of mentors’ profiles checked out (and ideally booked)

A/B Testing of Mentor List Page

Version A of the Mentor List Page features the ability for more personal customization of mentors based on the users’ needs. Visually, it presents mentors into organized categories, and users can see a number of mentor cards all at once.

I created Version B for the possibility of information overload in Version A. In Version B, users are presented with only one card that provides more details than the cards in Version A (ex: matched interests and charity). Users would be able to swipe left and right for more options. I would perform a split-test to discover which version users prefer.

Highlight #3

To address how users can know more about their mentor and find a connections with them, I designed a “Mentor’s profile” page that includes their Professional Experience, Interests, and Reviews with other mentors.

Based on user research, we believe that this will work well to help users feel more confident in picking a mentor that can answer their questions.

We would track these metrics to measure the effectiveness of this solution:

  • Customer satisfaction (with a survey)

  • Conversion rate

  • High reviews + Number of high reviews

  • Retention - Number of people who book more than once

Final Flow

The following flow reflects the design solutions made to address the three main problems that caused the high drop-off rate during the onboarding process:

  1. Problem: Users failed to create a profile because they did not have an understanding of the app.
    Solution: Instead of asking users to commit from the very beginning, I reorganized the flow to provide users the experience of the app first so they can make an informed decision when it comes to signing up.

  2. Problem: Users had trouble picking out the appropriate mentor.
    Solution: Instead of a laundry list of mentors, I categorized the list of mentors and added the ability to customize search results even further.

  3. Problem: Users failed to initiate mentor chats because they did not have enough information about the mentors.
    Solution: Instead of a minimal mentor profile, I extended the profile page to include matched interests, professional experience, and mentoring reviews.

Next Steps

In the future, I would take the following next steps to continue refining my design solutions with the goals of improving user sign up, increasing conversion and retention rates, and growing revenue for charity:

  • Conduct a usability test to determine ease of use

  • Verify user skills & topics by interview or survey

  • A/B Testing for the “Mentor List” screens

  • Collaborate with the developer team to discuss feasibility of implementation