– Mobile App, UI & UX, Student Work
FutureU is a platform that answers the age-old question: what do I want to be when I grow up. This project was conceived out of my team's interest in the problem of time inconsistency when a decision-maker's preferences change over time in such a way that a choice can become inconsistent at another point in time.
We researched and asked, who are at the core of the time-inconsistency challenge? Logically, we decided on early decisions start with younger people, especially High school students.
3 weeks
Research, Ideation, Prototyping,
Visual Design
Olivia Greco and Jiya Seo
UI|UX Design, Student Project, Design Sprint
We conducted one round of user research interviews with individuals in our target user age range (teenagers, 14-18) and people in their early 20s for their perspective on how their values have changed. The key insights we discover determined that students figuring out their future careers and salary are essential motivators in deciding what their future endeavors will entail.
We found that most individuals are motivated by careers and salary, which was a constant prerequisite for their personal growth. Students graduating from high school wished they had personal guidance and mentorship when moving on toward the "real world" and deciding their next move. Additionally, they will select where to live to base off possible career choices or family and friends.
We looked into other career exploration platforms to understand what on the market today, how they retain their user-based, and why they successful with their features.
Understanding common ways other career exploration platforms enable users to discover their future professions and lifestyle.
After looking at other common career exploration apps, We learning that many app shared unique qualities:
High school-aged students are at a pivotal time in their life where they’re considering future options after graduation but need guidance imagining their path. They need to consider their options through directed research and questioning to prepare educational and lifestyle decisions that transition them from adolescence to young adults.
After several interviews, the primary pain points of college freshman and post-high school graduates provide possibilities where they can determine what their future will be like after high school. We aim to inform students of the many opportunities they can seek while staying true to their core values and preferences.
We decide to do a brainstorming session and conceive highlighted values that interviewees mention that they value most for themselves.
We concluded to create a product that's main feature focus on these values and allow them to change them based on their personal preferences while providing awareness.
We created a simple, passive, and continuous way for people to choose values they care about and be self-aware of their choices that impact their futures.
We started our design with a low-fidelity whiteboard sketch. We took inspiration from the existing apps and then added some ideas to familiarize users with the interface.
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We explored different user experience flows of the values and interest features. The features are split into three stages:
Next, we also explored the design of specific screens and conducted usability testing to decide which version to move forward with.
We create options where the user pick a value and allow user to adjust values and then pick interests from “ tag cloud”.
The biggest differences in our flow as we ideated were the way in which the user picks values and interests up front.
In the second iteration, we decided that values need to be clear and concise but instead indicate their interests based on sliding using personality testing.
We figure that the users didn't want to be overwhelmed with so many choices that they can't decide. Thus we decided to remove the interest tag cloud for personality scales to determine a person's suitability for a specific career.
Once we were satisfied with a general approach for displaying values as deep dive-information on a dropdown, we set out to implement it in the prototype:
If the user chooses a career to continue learning about, they can see a more comprehensive list of necessary steps to take on their journey toward achieving that career.
FutureU helps high school-aged students explore their future based on factors that matter to them and how their future might look after different paths.
In the future, we want to do further user testing to collect more quantitative and qualitative metrics. We consider if the prototype were to be launch. We need to collect metrics and analyze them to measure business outcomes.
I consider some edge cases that can be explored beyond the scope of this project.
Learning about future possibilities is an exciting experience for many, but it can also be intimidating since you what the future holds for you once you make the first step. FutureU offers a more sincere way of glimpsing into that future without feeling confused and confined to one possible outcome. We design FutureU to empower high-school students peer in the vast sea of opportunities and take the helm in guide the best course on their journey to adulthood.
The challenges we face were significant for the undertaking since we had limited time and resources. Additionally, I felt like the user research proportion was a bit rush since we only managed to get one round of interviews to define a better problem than what we assigned. Also, I feel we didn't explain the mentoring feature within our platform since we were more focused on representing the values and interests features.
User testing is critical at every design update to ensure the design aligns with user experience and business goals. User testing also brings up more touchpoints and use cases to consider for the future.
Focus more on the design process and storytelling, avoid too much text about details.