Design Museum Foundation: Mentorship Program/Website

Overview

The Design Museum Foundation wanted to create a mentorship program to connect high school students interested in design with professionals in various design fields, with a focus on underrepresented groups. I worked with three team members to conduct exploratory research, create user flows and journey maps for the entire mentorship process, and build and test a website prototype.

My Role

I led the user testing of the website prototype, recruited and interviewed several design professionals, helped craft survey questions, participated in research synthesis, journey mapping, a design studio, and ideation for screen design, and created the onboarding screens for mentors and mentees in Axure. I also edited deliverables and presented to the client.

Problem

The Design Museum needs a way to facilitate and support a mentorship program for high school students interested in design fields. They especially want to help underrepresented students.

Solution

We used background research including user interviews, surveys, comparative analysis, and a literature review to guide the creation of user journey maps and flows and create a prototype of a website to connect mentors with mentees.

The Process

Research

Surveys

We distributed a survey about mentorship to 30 professionals in various design fields. We found that a majority of design professionals surveyed were interested in being mentors, although time was a barrier for many of them. Designers were most open to communicate with mentees in person or by email.

We also created a survey for mentees, but logistical issues prevented us from distributing it in this initial research phase.

 

 

 

Comparative Analysis

We explored several websites and mobile applications and found two that were relevant to the mentorship platform we wanted to create: MentorOla and Shapr. The platforms we looked at included mentor profile tags for career, skill, and interest to help mentees pair with appropriate mentors. These platforms also let mentees browse multiple mentor profiles before selecting one. Some platforms offered only limited access unless students were enrolled in college or paid for premium features.

 

 

User Interviews

We created two discussion guides, one for design professionals (potential mentors) and one for high school students interested in design (potential mentees). We interviewed twelve design professionals, focusing on their experiences with mentorship, their willingness to be a mentor, and challenges associated with mentorship. We interviewed three high school students interested in design, and asked about how they became interested in design, how their interests had been supported, their interest in being mentored, and what communication platforms they use.

Literature Review

We reviewed four studies on youth mentorship programs, which described mentorship as a way to develop skills as well as positive behaviors and attitudes. Mentorship had a greater impact when mentors and mentees shared similar backgrounds and when relationships lasted for a year or longer. Structured interactions, agency support, the communication of guidelines and expectations, and the support or involvement of parents all contributed to successful mentorship.

 

 

Synthesis

Affinity Mapping

We synthesized our user interview data with two affinity maps, one for the mentor data and one for the mentee data, and created “I” statements for each group. We found the following main groups.

Mentor Groups:

  • I would give x amount of time to mentorship.

  • I think mentorship is mutually beneficial.

  • I found mentors in various ways.

  • I am willing to have mentees visit my workplace.

 

 

Mentee Groups:

  • I value practical knowledge and experiences.

  • I have people who support me.

  • I have questions for designers.

  • I seek opportunities and connections.

 

Feature Prioritization

We then created a list of features for a mentorship platform, and sorted them by impact and expectation of users. We focused on the high impact/expected features, and included video introductions and tools because they aligned with our other features and were easily included in the user flows. Due to feasibility and time constraints, we excluded on-website messaging, schedule tags, and design profession descriptions from our scope. We changed the idea of a passport system with stamps for each office visit to a badge system to mark achievements for mentees. We thought this would resonate better with mentees.

 

Information Architecture

Journey Mapping

 

I lead a whiteboarding session to create user journeys for the overall mentorship process for each of our three users: mentors, mentees, and the Design Museum Foundation. My team made a list of what would occur at each step, and discussed how these journeys would intersect.

 

 

Site Map

We created a site map to keep track of what screens needed to be designed. This included a section for mentors and a section for mentees.

 

Design Studio and Whiteboarding

My team did a design studio to generate many possible design solutions. We selected the elements that worked best and developed the screens for each user flow in a few whiteboarding sessions. We turned this into a paper prototype, which we tested and iterated on.

 

Due to time constraints we focused on a mobile view of the site, although eventually this will be a responsive website, which mentors and mentees could link to directly from the main Design Museum Foundation website.

 

User Testing, Iteration, and Axure

We created a lo-fidelity prototype in Axure. I recruited users, tested the prototype, and synthesized the insights from testing. As we integrated changes based on these insights, we also increased the fidelity of the prototype, incorporating the Design Museum’s style guidelines.

Next Steps

More research is needed, especially on the mentee side, where the logistics of dealing with minors limited the amount of data we were able to collect in this initial phase. We also want to reach more people of color and other underrepresented designers. 

Additionally, the website prototype will require additional testing and iteration. The program also has many touch points beyond the website, which need to be fleshed out.