BRIDGEGOOD is an Oakland based non-profit that helps emerging creatives build the skills they need to thrive as leaders in the design and technology field. As they expand through California and beyond, they are actively working to keep their brand accessible and inclusive.
The nonprofit asked my team and I to conceptualize and design an app that addresses the needs and hesitations of their users through a three week design sprint.
We collaborated with BRIDGEGOOD’s Executive Director and Program Manager throughout the entire project.
Learning how to network effectively is hard.
BRIDGEGOOD is working to create a space for networking, however emerging creatives struggle to create lasting connections because they lack the confidence to begin the initial outreach. This leads emerging creatives to encounter obstacles in their career growth.
CreativesConnect, the tool to confidently network.
CreativesConnect is an application where emerging creatives are presented with the opportunity to build confidence, create lasting connections and attend exclusive tech events. This tool helps the emerging creatives develop networking skills as they pursue a design career.
After holding our first round of interviews to understand the audience (emerging creatives) we found they experienced networking challenges in the creative space. Networking is important for collaborating opportunities and building professional relationships. My team decided to pursue this direction to assist BRIDGEGOOD in addressing the needs of emerging creatives and benefit everyone involved.
With this direction in mind, my team began conducting additional research in the networking space to develop a clear understanding of the problem areas. We did 1-on-1 interviews, a focus group interview, and a competitive analysis.
First we conducted 7 interviews with emerging creatives. We found that 100% of our users experienced blocks to networking, with 75% mentioning anxiety as the leading obstacle. The interviewees also emphasized their want for connecting to others with similar values.
In conjunction with the 1-on-1 interviews we also conducted a focus group interview with 6 people. This allowed us to observe the shared insights of our user group. We found that when they are a part of a supportive community, they feel comfortable and confident in taking steps forward to network.
Lastly we conducted a competitive analysis in the professional networking space to understand the value currently being provided, and identify how to stand out from competitors.
We examined LinkedIn, Meetup, and Bumble Bizz. We chose these as they are well known for being the largest professional network on the internet, a great place to meet up with groups of people who have similar interests, and matching with professionals over shared values respectively.
From this analysis, we discovered that:
Traditional social networking apps are common. People use LinkedIn as their main professional networking platform.
These apps are focused on quantity of connections over quality. These apps do not help users build lasting connections.
Most of the apps are focused on a large pool of users. Apps targeted toward up and coming professionals are less common, even though learning how to navigate networking at the beginning of your career is crucial.
The information we gathered from our interviews and competitive analysis allowed us to empathize with the users and directed us in focusing on their values and goals within the networking space.
We discovered that emerging creatives lack the confidence to build genuine connections with like-minded individuals in their field. This blocks them from building a reliable community, having effective collaboration, and hinders their career growth.
The creative wants to create connections and build their network to enter into the career field with more confidence.
We gained further knowledge of how stakeholders want BRIDGEGOOD to expand their reach beyond the Bay Area to uplift even more diverse tech leaders by supporting their mission #DesignForSocialGood.
Building a supportive community stood out as a core focus amongst the values and goals from both parties. This insight directed us to our initial concept idea:
An app that matches like-minded emerging creatives together to build lasting connections.
Crazy 8’s
Next, we began brainstorming potential features to promote lasting connections. Through our sketches we considered various ideas such as:
Defining the MVP
This allowed us to follow the double diamond method as we diverged and created a lot of different ideas to solve our problem and then converged as we made choices based on our user research. Through this process we were able to truly align and determine our MVP, a matchmaking algorithm and other core features being an AI chat and events.
Mapping the Way
With our MVP in mind, we created a happy user journey flow to understand the ideal path.
We then began to develop mid-fidelity wireframes. After our first iteration we spoke with the Executive Director of BRIDGEGOOD who provided us with constructive feedback that if our focus was a matchmaking feature we needed place greater emphasis on its functionality.
This allowed us to move forward with the next iterations as we concentrated on the matching feature, and dynamically showcased how the chat, and events features complemented our main component.
Usability Testing
We then conducted usability testing with 3 product designers and 5 emerging creatives, to get feedback on the useability of the concept and features.
We heard
Based on the user feedback we iterated several versions, making key changes. First, we solved the confusion regarding the matching feature. We removed the possibility that our users could add people and only presented them with the option to find a match.
To incentivize our users to continuously engage with the application we incorporated a personalized QR code for each user. This allowed them to share their digital business cards while at BRIDGEGOOD's exclusive tech events. Which meant creating more engagement within the app and encouraging connection with others.
Lastly we reimagined our AI chat feature to be more innovative. We examined how current AI features are integrated into platforms and chose to implement the sparkle icon being seen across other applications.
We used our design system to infuse our prototype with the BRIDGEGOOD brand by bringing in components and visual assets.
After completing the content and designs for CreativesConnect we connected the frames for a seamless hi-fidelity prototype.
CreativesConnect presents a beneficial partnership for all parties involved, emerging creatives, tech companies and BRIDGEGOOD.
Emerging Creatives are presented with the opportunity to build confidence, create lasting connections and attend exclusive tech events.
Working with BRIDGEGOOD tech companies gain diverse talent, promote workforce development and improve products through design.
Lastly, BRIDGEGOOD benefits from this partnership as well. They get the chance to encourage diverse design leaders, support education, and raise earned revenue.
CreativesConnect is a valuable partnership for everyone and the benefits gained will extend out through their communities.
Showcase @ Google Community Space
We presented our product pitch at the Google Community Space in San Francisco at the POWER of WE event.
Next steps
Expand by creating a responsive web design for our users. As it stands now, mobile was designed first as we gathered data that this was the primary device used in networking with our users. If I had more time, I would have expanded our design into desktop and tablet to provide access to all users.
Incorporate networking resources. My team and I discussed including a feature to provide users with additional articles or videos to learn about effective ways to network.
Engage professionals within our application. CreativesConnect could have a wider audience. This opportunity would be beneficial for emerging creatives and professionals to network as they attend BRIDGEGOOD’s exclusive tech events.