Logan Ahern

February - March 2024

The YMCA

The objective was to understand how users acquire adult life skills in order to develop a 'friendly and accessible' portal that supports and enhances their learning process.

UX Designer • Team Project • Product Development

Through my team's research, we notably discovered that users best learn from their life mentors, so our solution aimed to connect users with a mentor that aligns with their learning interests.

To find potential interview subjects, we created and distributed a survey which also served to collect initial quantitative data. Our interviews provided deeper insights into the behaviors and desires of individuals learning new skills and led us to develop a target user to design for.

From Affinity Mapping our survey results and interviews, our team deduced YMCA's target user.

Riley, YMCA's target user, has primarily gained life skills from adults in their life and informal online resources like YouTube. However, they struggle with feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of available information and resources.

Riley needs a solution that consolidates essential information in one place for easy access, helping them stay focused and motivated to continue learning without feeling overwhelmed or discouraged.

Here is how we perceived the user journey of learning a new life skill, from the people we interviewed.

I moved to creating a list of HMW statements from our problem. Together our team picked three statements and ideated on potential solutions. Caroline and I then sketched out our favorites.

Our solution consisted of a central hub, with three branches. A place where people can connect with a mentor, can view classes, and check out articles.

As this was a concept project, we had to pretend the business would be capable of supporting this solution.

Since we had four flows to create, including an onboarding to the app, I created a site map. This allowed us to know exactly what we all needed to tackle.

After I created the map, we split off and designed different sections of the app.

I made lo-fi versions of the app, while Caroline worked on building components. Once we had our story and flow together, we worked to building our own sections to a mid-fidelity, and eventually hi-fidelity level.

After designing, we tested to understand if our solution actually supported our target demographic and conducted four usability tests.

When testing, half our users stated the onboarding process was too long and most went directly to the mentor center when asked to search for information on taxes. We intended them to check out the article center, but it was clear that our users wanted mentor support above all else.

I refined the onboarding flow so that users can get on the app as quickly as possible.

I then moved all the mentor matching questions to the mentor hub, so they can connect to a mentor on their own time.

Next steps would include testing the new flows, checking for business viability and once concept approved, dig deeper into crafting a pretty UI.

But for now, we have traction on a tool to help young adults learn new life skills.

Thank You