COOP Careers
riffing off of "speed dating" to support peer networking
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Helps users with networking by handling logistics and improving the sense of fun / ease involved in meeting people within the program and alumni.
2 product designers:
・Kendra Wu
・Mandy Cai
3 UX researchers:
・Bridget Ho
・Cindy Lopez
・Soorya Sankaran
Research Synthesis, Interaction Design, Wireframing, Visual Design
COOP Careers is a community-led nonprofit that aims to close the socioeconomic and cultural gaps faced by first-generation college graduates by helping them overcome under/unemployment through teaching them digital skills and fostering peer connections.
Due to challenges related to COVID, such as the necessity of remote communities and virtual resources, we created a solution to aid in COOP careers students in facilitating connections in remote settings.
Fostering peer connections to gain social support and opportunities is a central mission of COOP's "heart" curriculum mission centered around networking. It is the main reason students why join the program.
However, current students, captains, and even alumni vocalized a demand for increased and higher-quality opportunities for peer connection.
COOP Career members, who are first-generation college graduates, face limited opportunities to network with their peers, leading to nervousness and a lack of confidence in their networking efforts discouraging them from frequently engaging in networking and restricts their access to job opportunities while perpetuating systemic challenges in advancing socioeconomic mobility.
My team interviewing a participant
Participant Breakdown
We screened participants based on our target audience: members interested in meeting others from any position, cohort, and location.
Objectives for 30-60 Minute Semi-Structure Interviews
Participant Breakdown
We screened participants based on our target audience: members interested in meeting others from any position, cohort, and location.
4 Possible Areas to Support
Our product proposes an alternative for icebreakers that occur at the beginning of each class and for student networking call requirements.
We intended for users to feel more inclined to answer honestly in a 1:1 environment with a peer rather than in front of the whole class because of the more personal and low-stakes environment.
My team members and I defined concepts, their purpose and their features to individually create sketches to ideate.
These included:
1. Crickets in a Virtual Class
To better understand the differences in social interactions between physical and virtual classes, we first shadowed a Zoom class and observed student reactions to the class materials and to each other.
We observed that students were relatively quiet and showed little responsiveness to class discussions.
Participating in a Zoom breakout room with a few COOPers
2. Tense Atmosphere at an Alumni Event
We:
The recent alumni event felt more professional / tense and had a tendency to socialize within the comfort of their own cohort, compared to pre-pandemic alumni events according to team members who were previously a participant of these events.
Alumni use Instagram / TikTok to stay connected since they find Slack to be unapproachable and unenjoyable to use.
Observing alumni and asking about questions pertaining to the degrees of closeness within cohorts and how alumni stay in touch
At the alumni event, we also conducted qualitative attiduinal research by asking for our participants' perspectives towards our sketches. This was carried out in the fashion of 4 informal interviews, 10 minutes each.
Student Dashboard
Integrates all of the user's reminders and needs all in one place.
Accessing a variety of features from one place allows for a streamlined experience, maintaining strong organization.
Student-Initiated Events
Students can create casual events and meetups to meet their peers without having to wait for official COOP events to happen.
Heart Section for Networking
The "Heart" section of the dashboard is the hub for speed buddying / networking.
"Heart" is a familiar term for COOPers which may support users' expectations when clicking on it.
Profile to find Common Interests
Users can establish commonalities and conversation topics with other users through a bio and highlight reel photos.
Users can view events other users are attending to feel more comfortable signing up knowing a friend may be in attendance.*
*Some concerns of stalking are hopefully minimally mitigated by the fact that screening of users occurs prior to users becoming students due to COOP's recruiting process.
Add Time to Extend Video Calls
The transition to remain on the call after the timer goes off feels more seamless and would not disrupt the conversation flow.
Join Events while Video Calling
It may feel more personable and heart warming if the user gets invited to an event by another user, and this feature may encourage reaching out to other peers more.
