The Overview
The Guild App offers diverse programming to individuals and families from all walks of life who work, live, or go to school in Chelsea and along Manhattan’s west side. Our programming helps support, enrich, and empower community members.
The social isolation of the pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of many guild participants. But the impact has been especially severe on Guild teenagers and young adults, who rely on their community resources, friends, and community members to navigate the maze and pressures of New York City life.
Project role: UX Designer/ Researcher
Responsibilities: Product Strategy, User Research, Interaction, Visual design, Prototyping & Testing, Information Architecture
The problem
The Core of the challenge was “ To Encourage participants to return to regularly scheduled programming “ which is surrounded by a number of tasks. For example, it involves re-organizing the Youth Development education curriculum, finding photos of activities, Recruiting participants and the list can go on. I did not want to jump right into ideating concepts based on preconceived notions. Instead, I wanted to understand as much about the program experience as I could in this small amount of time to make sure my concept was effective and valuable to users.
Taking the Dive
To solve this myself, I started brainstorming the elements of a successful App. What makes an App fun and inspiring? What activities are young participants interested in? How can I pull this off within my organization? What are their needs, and what are their interests? what are the key issues that arose from a lack of human interaction?
The Research
The Research
Challenges and Compromises
Unfortunately, one of my main challenges was the lack of resources and time. like most Nonprofit organizations, we’re stretched quite thin, so with this challenge I had to reiterate my designs in order to be achievable within time and technical constraints and conduct surveys and conduct interviews within my own time.
The Guild’s previous registration pool (120 registered participants) was so diverse and Large that I decided to split target markets into three groups that represented all users for better Generalizability.
Middle school students(35)
High school Students (26)
Young adults (59)
I decided to first interview 4 participants from each target group and conduct a survey of the overall population of the combined groups.
When preparing the script, I kept the questions open enough for the participant to elaborate on their relationship with the guild and the programs that they have participated in over the past 2 years. During this phase, it was especially important for me to be unbiased and open so that I can properly spot and categorize user pain points.
Interviews, Surveys & Data Collection
Persona’s
We wanted to form a deeper understanding of our users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. So, I created 3 personas for each of our user segments: Middle school students(35) High school Students (26) Young adults (59). They were based on user interviews and surveys and were frequently updated throughout the project as I gathered more data. I used these personas whenever I wanted to step out of Myself and reconsider some initial ideas.
Task flow
My next step was to tell a story of how my personas would carry out the task flow. My main strategy here was to demonstrate the main flow of the participants. The highlighted green box show where the participants expressed high levels of positive emotion and satisfaction within their interactions.
The Design Vision
User interviews and data collection were iterative processes that were conducted at Key milestones of the project to identify the biggest pain points in the current version. Once the Data was gathered, I got to work with creating My Digital wore frames. At the beginning of the design process, I wanted to create a refreshing, exciting, and simple UI that conveyed trustworthiness and progression to my target user.
Pain point Solutions
As I reach the tail end of the design I wanted to make sure that my mockups and designs weren’t created for just show and tell but designed to solve real-world user problems that were gathered during the research problems.
User Experience
This is an overview of all current HotTopics, the latest news within The Guild community, and Upcoming events. all elements of information are geared towards youth exploration and utilization. users are more inclined to use the app if it creates excitement around themselves and activities that involve their community and close friends
Visual Representation
My main purpose for the visual aspect of the app was to create visuals that serve a purpose. Each of the three target users represents parts of a generation that is more connected to visual stimulation. Research shows that visuals increase retention, so I took that idea one step further and implemented the germane load of cognitive load theory. For example, the prototype above is the Civic Engagement program page that includes information and visuals of Civic engagement activities.
Ready-to-go information
From the collected data, one of the major use points was a lack of. information infrastructure. within the previous programming, users relied upon word of mouth and a paper schedule. now they can check class schedules, available instructors, and class cancellations on the go.
The Prototype
The Prototype
Results and Takeaways
The Guilds app is dedicated to the welfare of children, and it will create positive changes in the community as the app is implemented into programs.
Education – Users have the opportunity to receive an experience filled with practical applications of the concepts they’ve learned in school.
Behavioral changes – As users are learning about Guild programming and bringing the information to their friends and families, a behavioral shift will occur among all user groups, making the guild app the main priority in program marketing and implementation.
Community cohesion – businesses, leaders, and other organizations will create a unified team of citizens within the community dedicated to a common goal.
Community familiarity – For many youths, seeing community members, Events, peers and community groups can incite Communication and brand loyalty. The exposure created by the Guild app will help cultivate positive relationships and help users understand community-based programs and their positive role in their communities.
Future Steps
Fishing out the Capabilities
As the research showed, Program structure and visual representation are crucial to a user's program experience. it would be beneficial in the future to focus on organizing, structuring, and presenting content in and sustainable way.
Better implementation of Hudson Guild
Two significant features of " The Guild" are the Class Home pages which represent all project-based courses and the events page which provides daily news and event updates. It is necessary to define how Hudson guild as an organization provides for the Chelsea community and its members.
Design Virtual Services
It can be foreseen that, when introduced to the guild, the user would feel a little overwhelmed by the sudden inflow of information and images. what type of services can be created to properly Maximize the intake of new participants that come across the Guild app?