Exposure
Summary
Exposure was a passion project of mine for a 36-hour hackathon, built around a problem I was experiencing with building a network and finding a mentor. I am not from Provo, and trying to meet people who worked in industries I was interested in was proving to be difficult. I wanted a directory of people who held jobs I was interested in and would be willing to allow me to speak with them or shadow them at their job. This app was the first I ever designed (and it shows) but I have purposefully let my deficiencies show to demonstrate my growth over time as a product designer.
Highlight
As the one and only user of the app, I followed my own desires for a networking and mentorship directory. I really wanted to be able to narrow down jobs by their fields of study, and be able to see an overview of the job before I got too excited about it. This was a fun one to design, especially being my first experience with Figma (no autolayout at all 🤯)
My role
Tools
Figma
Timeline
36 hours
Problem
Goal
Scope
Prototype, MVP, and research
Discovery
In order to understand if this was just a problem I was feeling or if it was a common problem among college students, my team and I (3 of us total) talked to over 25 students around campus from various majors. Out of that group, 75% said they were not confident in shadowing someone in their profession, and only 10% said they knew someone in their industry of choice. When asked how likely they would be to use a networking directory, 85% responded positively.
Prototyping
Being new to UX design, I didn't even think to make a user flow chart. I immediately designed what I imagined to be the perfect Sign up/Log in page, which you can see here. The flow was not well thought-out and happened a bit haphazardly, but the gist was fairly simple: Explore opportunities that fell into categories that interested you, and then speak directly with a professional in that field.
Iconography & Layout
If I could redesign this page, here is what I would do now:
First, I would create a hierarchy for the page. No app name up top, just a profile image, a name & username, and the necessary buttons to edit and add information. I would iterate on this design until I found one I liked and felt natural.
Second, I would get icons from a consistent set, maybe Feather.
Third, I would make them a consistent size, maybe 24px square.
Fourth, I would test the page with users to determine ease of use and
User tests & feedback
As we talked with potential users about our original ideas, a common theme emerged: They wanted to know someone specific in the industry, someone who could advocate for them in a job search or write a letter of recommendation. In response, we came up with this option: connect with a local professional and set an appointment to meet in person. This became a core focus of the app.
Final Designs
At the end of the 36-hour hackathon, we presented our idea and our solution to the hackathon committee members and other participants. While the design certainly didn't win any awards, it was enough to allow my team to get into the Sandbox program, where we were able to build a much more robust software.