Wonderland
A partnership project with Ideo & Beyond 12 to empower first-generation college students
MY ROLES
Interviewer, Interface Designer, Journey Map Architect, Competitive Analysis
TEAMMATES
Ami Kubota, Sara Pope
TOOLS
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, Mural
DATE
February - April 2021
The Clients
Ideo is a global design agency headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. Ideo invited my student team at Santa Monica College to help solve a project for their client, Beyond 12.
Beyond 12 is a nonprofit based in Oakland, CA. Their mission is to dramatically increase the number of low-income, first-generation, and historically underrepresented students who graduate from college. They do this by assigning a coach who acts as a personal mentor for students through the first two years of college.
Challenge
How might Beyond 12 use its digital coaching platform to mobilize community college students to redesign their institutions so they are more accessible, affordable, inclusive, and relevant?
Research
Secondary Research
From 11 different online articles about student burnout, we gathered a list of the 5 top reasons first-generation students drop out from college.
Tuition & Financial Needs
For underprivileged college students, money is a primary concern. Over 25% of students and their parents don’t feel informed about financial aid options, and many don’t feel that college degrees will lead to jobs that pay well enough to justify college debt.
Academically Unprepared
Lack of money often comes with public schooling (a mixed bag of teachers), less resources for extra tutoring, and a lesser understanding of academic materials. These students are more likely to struggle in college.
Unable to Set Balance
"When school, work, and family demands reach a tipping point... it is understandable that academic responsibilities would be compromised or even jettisoned." - GoodCall
First-generation students also experience more difficulty navigating the bureaucratic aspects of academic life.
Lower Levels of Social Interaction
"Some students feel they don’t have campus friendships. Others are disconnected from university resources and offices that can help -academically and emotionally." - FastWeb
Lack of Aspiration
First-generation college students have fewer college-educated role models. According to Postsecondary Access & Success for First-Generation College Students (written by Dr. Jennifer Engle), over 90% of 12th graders expect to go to college, but only 53% of first-generation students expect to earn a bachelor’s degree (compared to 90% of students whose parents attended college).
Interviews
First-Gen College Students
We recruited and interviewed a group of first-generation college students. We cross-compared their responses using the Empathy Map on the left - what did each person say, think, do, and feel? We drew action items from patterns in their feedback and gained the following insights:
Friends & mentors are key to surviving college
Deciding & changing majors is difficult
FGCS feel isolated due to higher responsible for family
Student debt is rampant and financial aid is hard to navigate
Industry Expert
We also interviewed Dr. Jennifer Engle. She authored Postsecondary Access & Success for First-Generation College Students, currently acts as Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was a first-generation college student herself. Dr. Engle’s perspective greatly influenced our direction:
Counselors & advisors should have a digital record about each student that connects everyone involved
Colleges need an “early warning system” that holds the institution responsible for student success
First-gen college students can inspire other family members to return to college
Colleges must clearly communicate (and offer!) sequential classes for major & minor pathways
Problem Identification
Development & Design
Concept Posters
Journey Map
This journey map provides an overview of a typical first-generation student’s experience through summer and fall as college starts. The stars highlight areas we considered focusing our solution around.
Meet Dani
Our persona, Dani, encompasses the fears and worries our interviewees faced. We created this video on behalf of Ideo to explain Dani’s 3 main pain points and suggest a possible concept to address each issue.
PAIN POINT
School resources don’t communicate
Not knowing a class’s difficulty ahead of time
Not sure how to ask for help
CONCEPT
Digitized resources
Pre-semester class guide
Early warning system
Service Blueprint
Creating this service blueprint helped us identify all the stakeholders in the college counseling & administration system and where/how they interact with each other.
Competitive Matrix
Creating this competitive matrix helped us illustrate our product differentiation compared to other available Q&A forums and academic services.
Website Prototype
We drew inspiration from retro-style Nintendo games in the website design. The home page contains a stylized campus map through which the user (portrayed by an avatar) can visit the Q&A pages for a variety of question categories.