During the summer of 2021, I collaborated with Pathway Initiatives, a charitable organization offering guidance to minority medical students, to launch a mobile app from the ground up, I worked alongside a team of engineers, designers, and project managers and designed crucial interfaces like the dashboard, mentor request, and progress monitoring.

OVERVIEW

DURATION

Jul 2021 - Oct 2021

TEAM
1 Co-founder, 2 PMs, 3 Designers, 3 Devs

TOOLKIT

Figma, Adobe Suite

ROLE

UX Researcher, Product Designer

Project Background

Founder Dr.Lawrence wishes to increase education access for minority (mainly African American, Hispanic and Latino) students to help them achieve their career goals in medicine. PathLeap serves as a platform for professionals and students to meet, communicate, and grow.

Outlining the Issue

There is a mass disparity in the world of minorities in medicine. While the number of applicants to medical school increased significantly over the last 10 years, the acceptance rate of minority students remains unchanged at 10% mainly due to insufficient exposure to information and lack of guidance.

Product Overview

Seamless Onboarding

User's education level, program focus, and time zone information are collected to help build a profile and later match with mentors.

Dashboard to Keep Up to Date

The one-stop Dashboard keeps track of the user's upcoming events, goal progress, incentive to pick-up a goal, and useful resources.

Edit a Task & Mark as Complete

The tasks remain versatile and editable to best suit the user's noting needs.

Matching with the Perfect Mentor

Users can browse available mentors and compose a personalize message for mentorship request.

Goal Setting

Mentors and mentees foster relationship and stay on track by completing mutually approved goals. Goals point the mentors and mentees towards a clear direction they will focus towards.

Task Crafting

Goals are broken down into clear steps known as 'tasks,' which contain deadlines and work descriptions.

BREAK DOWN THE PROCESS

Understanding the Users

With my team, I conducted five in-depth interviews with two undergraduate pre-med's, a graduated chemistry major, and two MD candidates. Here's what they have to say:



01 "What area(s) do you need the most help with?"



02 "How could a mentor be helpful?"



03 "If a mentor is beneficial, then why is it so hard to find one?"


RECOGNIZE DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES

Narrowing Down User Needs

I deliberated interview results down to three major grievances. By identifying common themes among scattered responses, I was able to turn them into guidelines for our design decisions.


REPHRASE THE QUESTION

How might PathLeap facilitate authentic interactions between mentors and mentees that lead to long-lasting relationships in an accessible way?