Young graduates, students, and entrepreneurs often struggle to find accessible mentorship, which limits their personal and professional growth. This lack of guidance leads to missed opportunities and reduced confidence, while mentors face challenges connecting with mentees due to geographical and time constraints, and the absence of structured platforms.
Techmentor is an online platform that connects young graduates, students, and entrepreneurs with mentors worldwide, enabling valuable knowledge exchange, skill development, and career guidance through structured mentorship.
The research phase aimed to gather insights into the expectations, pain points, and preferences of users seeking mentorship and to inform design decisions that would create a user-centered mentorship platform.
I used a combination of qualitative research methods, including user interviews and surveys, to gather data from a diverse pool of potential users. By conducting in-depth interviews, I uncovered motivations, expectations, and concerns regarding mentorship platforms.
Based on the research, I developed personas to represent the primary user groups:
Problem Statement: Emily is a college student aspiring to launch her own tech startup. She lacks real-world experience and seeks a mentor to guide her through entrepreneurship.
Problem Statement: Marcus recently graduated in marketing and landed his first job. He is overwhelmed by the transition to the professional world and needs mentorship to navigate office dynamics and build his career confidence.
Problem Statement: Olivia is an experienced businesswoman who is passionate about giving back through mentorship. However, she struggles to find committed mentees who value her expertise.
I sketched initial wireframes based on the insights gathered from user research. These wireframes focused on simplifying the mentor search and recommendation process, while ensuring users could easily connect with relevant mentors.
I created a low-fidelity prototype to gather feedback during the usability study. The prototype featured the core functionality of mentor matching, messaging, and scheduling virtual meetings.
View prototypeFive participants from diverse backgrounds: software engineering, marketing, student life, and entrepreneurship.
Based on usability feedback, I refined the design by adding a search suggestions section to the home screen, improving the clarity of mentor profiles, and simplifying the mentor-matching process. Additionally, I relabeled the "Send Mentorship Request" button for better clarity.
The high-fidelity prototype incorporated the usability findings and offered a polished, user-friendly interface. It maintained a simple, structured flow for connecting mentees with mentors globally.
View Full PrototypeClear labels for interactive elements ensured compatibility with screen readers.
Sufficient color contrast between text and backgrounds for readability.
I used Figma for detailed design specifications, ensuring developers had access to all elements such as measurements, color codes, and interaction guidelines. Design specs were shared via Figma’s Inspect feature, enabling developers to extract CSS properties easily.
The Techmentor case study allowed me to refine my approach to designing inclusive and user-centered solutions. By leading the design process from research to developer handover, I contributed to a product that connects people globally and fosters personal and professional growth through mentorship.
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© Akin Adeleke 2022|Designer