PresenceTalk.
Redefining college touring for high school students
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP · PRODUCT DESIGN
OVERVIEW
An iOS app that allows users to be “present” in remote locations by matching them with hosts.
PresenceTalk is an app that helps high school students who are researching universities to connect with college students via video chat to ask questions about college life at different schools.
MY ROLE
Product Design
Visual Design
TIMELINE
Aug 2020 - Feb 2021
THE TEAM
1 Software Developer/Lead
2 Product Marketing Manager
1 Product Designer (me)
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Zoom
How might we ...
help high school students find out more about the University in the US before they commit.
FINAL SOLUTION
Chat with university students and get a video tour
Design a platform where high school students can:
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Connect with a current university student in an instant
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Match based on their interests
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Get real opinions on the things that matter to them most
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Hold up - How did we get here? Let's revisit the process ...
Click to jump to section
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01
USER RESEARCH
PROBLEM STATEMENT
High school students are unable to visit universities due to COVID-19
According to U.S. News and World Report, visiting colleges and universities in expensive cities can cost a whopping $2,000 for one trip.
Can we make the visits virtual?
51 %
of students are not confidentin their career path when they enroll in college.
61 %
of college graduates said they would change their major if they could go back.
$2 000
per visit to a college for a family.
Cost of selecting a college
DISCOVERY & RESEARCH
What is a Shared Economy?
Sharing economies allow individuals and groups to make money from their underused assets, their free time, or both. Shared economy encompasses online peer-to-peer economic activities, for example, a house owner may allow someone to rent out her house while she is not using it (Airbnb).
Some examples of sharing economy include:
02
EMPATHIZE
Characteristics of Generation Z
In this first stage, I defined Generation Z as the group that the target user matches to better understand their key traits. After, I spent the majority of my time doing user research with high school and university students to better understand their admissions process and gather feedback after they first used the app.
Convenience is key
We surveyed 130 participants using Google Forms and found that 87% of participants experienced deficient communication in their relationships.
Desire unique experience
The average couple, with two children and jobs, talks to each other for only 35 minutes per week.
Distrust advertisement
80% of divorces occur due to gradual alienation and a loss of intimacy, not due to infidelity, which accounts for only about 20% of cases.
User Interviews
IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS WITH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
I wanted to understand first-hand what university students think. first conducted 6 in-person interviews with university students that each lasted about 45 min.
Research questions:
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What was your experience getting enrolled in X University?
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Was there a particular moment that you decided to apply? Was there a resource or a conversation that made you apply?
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When seeking information about a school, who would you seek information from?
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What would talking to a life student give you in comparison to an online search?
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Describe your ideal college admissions application process. What would be the ideal medium?
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If you had a chance to talk to a student over the phone, how long should the call be? How would you like to connect to a student?
User testing
USER TESTING WITH HIGH SCHOOL and UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
My team and I hosted an event with a nonprofit organization Miss CEO, where 21 high school students and 40 university students had 1h to use the PresenceTalk app and call as many university students as they wished.
At the end of the event, the high school students were asked to take a Google Survey that I created to get a better understanding of their experience with the app.
1. INSIGHT FROM HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
How Might We make high school students feel comfortable talking to a university student?
Doing well
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The platform connects high school students to university students and encourages meeting new people.
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The platform encourages real, honest answers and gives the "inside" look into college life.
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The ability to accept and decline the call made it less nerve-racking.
Can improve
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Add a chat feature, so that a high school student can chat with a university student before jumping on a video call.
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Signal when a university student is on another call, so we can eliminate the frustration.
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Add a FAQ section to help high school students familiarize themselves with the platform.
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Give a choice to a high school student to choose the length of the call.
2. INSIGHT FROM UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
How Might We make the user experience of the app more user friendly and lively?
Doing well
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Great opportunity because college brochures are generic and don't offer a personal aspect for people to learn more about what they're interested in.
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The app is simple to set up.
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Very easy to navigate and almost gives you the impression of being on FaceTime with a student.
Can improve
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Add an option to change your name for privacy reasons.
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Give a university student an option to call back the high school student if they missed a call.
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Make the UI of the app more lively because it is a bit bare and empty currently.
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Allow a student a call beforehand or jump on a call instantly.
Updating hypotheses based on User Interviews
In the final stage of user research, I looked back at the pre-set hypotheses and made adjustments based on the user interviews.
03
DEFINE
JOURNEY MAPPING
I analyzed all the data I've collected and presented it visually in a user journey map. I ended this stage by updating and defining the high school and university student user persona so that we precisely knew for whom we were designing.
When are high school students interested in the app?
Based on the in-person interviews and Google surveys, I created a journey map of a high school student to understand the possible issues of the app.
How can we make university students use the app long term?
Based on the in-person interviews and Google surveys, I created a journey map of a college student to understand the possible issues of the app.
Feature Prioritization
My team and I quickly saw that there was a lot to be done, so I created a feature prioritization chart since we had limited resources and time as a startup.
The Student Persona
Click through the slider to see each persona!
04
REDESIGN THE APP
DESIGN
What I heard from our users
When I joined the PresenceTalk team, the majority of the app was already designed, however, there was a need to redesign and implement the user feedback.
TEXTING FRIST, VIDEO CALLING SECOND
IMPROVING STUDENT'S CREDIBILITY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS
Logo redesign
I discovered that the users didn't resonate with the app's logo. Especially when it came to the user app logo, the users didn't like the seriousness and confusion of the emoji.
I designed two iterations and found that the second one fit the user better, however, the two icons were too similar. If I had more time, I'd create another version of the last logo using different color schemes.
05
REFLECTION
What I’d do differently next time.
Document the process. I found that I can get sucked into designing new iterations of the app without documenting my process in a simple Google Doc so that I could go back and justify my decisions. Frequent documentation would also make it much easier to create a case study or a final document at the end of the design process.
User tests and gather feedback weekly. I caught myself forgetting to test new features of the app since I found it hard to recruit new users due to the pandemic. I procrastinated contacting and recruiting new users and with that made too many assumptions that I could easily test. Moving forward, I will make sure that I plan and schedule weekly user testing, no matter how far along are the ideas.