CDM Alumni Community
A Web application that helps The Centre for Digital Media Students build their network with alumni through appealing visuals and engaged interaction.
My Role
UX Researcher
UIUX Designer
Timeline
3 Months
January-April, 2024
Team
Qianhui Qin, Yiling Wang,
Panchanit (Cherilyn) Sathorn,
Dickson Ngan, Peter Soava,
Tommy Cho
Tools Used
Figma,
Unity
Problem
There is no platform that supports students in finding mentors within the alumni. Moreover, it is difficult for students to initiate connections and get mentoring.
Overview
Background & Brief
The Centre for Digital Media (CDM) has about 700 alumni over the past 18 years. The school aims to create a platform to help students to build their network and getting career mentoring within the school.
Client Expectations
Create a platform for alumni networking
Develop a visually appealing design
Competitor Analysis
How do alumni connect with each other?
Platform
Limitation
Public, not exclusive to CDM alumni
Unofficial, requires alumni to self-organize
Different backgrounds, hard to identify peers or mentors in their industry and roles
casual event, not career oriented
Not a platform for open, free-form chatting.
Slack/Discord groups
CDM Project Showcase events
Alumni Beach social event
CDM instagram
There’s no an official CDM alumni platform to help alumni networking and discover potential carer opportunities. Moreover, there’s no way to search other students through filters, it is difficult to establish a connection efficiently.
User Research
Target Users
All 700 CDM alumni, from cohort 1-18
Research Methods
User Interview
Survey (Google form)
What information users want to know about other alumni?
Critical
Name, Profile picture, Location, Year of graduation, Company, Roles/jobs, Preferred contact methods
Current status (e.g. open to mentorship, job-seeking, etc.)
Nice to have
Work experience, education experience
skillsets, portfolio
Optional
Career journey, Hobbies
User needs & Pain points
What's the root problems?
Since our alumni from Our alumni span 18 cohorts (C1 to C18), covering various career stages. So their pain points and needs may vary. We divided them into three user groups and analyzed the data from the 1st survey to identify their different needs:
“A strong community will help increase my impact in game industry.”
- Game company founder, C1
“I want to know more about who I will be mentoring”
- Lead UX Designer, C8
“I want to share my stories to help my alumni less detour”
- Senior Product Manager, C14
“ I know networking is important for career but I’m too shy to reach out”
- Junior 2D Animator, C17
“searching in linkedin again and again make me stress out”
- Student, C18
C 13 - 15
C 16 - 18
C 1 - 12
Research insights
Younger Alumni:
🤩 Hope to: Get career mentoring
🙁 Pain points: Too shy to seek out mentors
Older Alumni:
🤩 Hope to : Share stories and provide mentorship to help younger alumni and expand their industry impact.
🙁 Pain point: Difficulty finding suitable mentees
Solution
Build the Bridge between Younger and Older Alumni
We built an interactive community platform to bridge the gap between students and alumni. This platform helps students brand themselves, making it easy for mentors to find them and facilitating a fun and engaging way to connect with people.
Design Concept
How might we make the alumni connecting experience efficient and enjoyable?
Image from Google Image
Inspired by the movie "Inside Out," which reimagines how emotions are portrayed
Can we apply a similarly interactive approach to our alumni community concept?
Our solution includes an interactive 3D model that visually represents alumni, using different colors to denote roles such as designers, artists, and developers. Users can actively manipulate the constellation—rotating, zooming in, zooming out—and utilize filters and search features to dynamically discover and connect with peers.
Sketches
Color-coded Role
Artists
Designers
Developers
PM/PO
Others
VISUAL DIRECTION
Color palette
Aa
Poppins Medium
Poppins SemiBold
Poppins Regular
Primary
Blue CDM
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800 “
Seconday
Gray CDM
100
200
300
400 “
500
600 “
700
800 “
Design System
Final Outcome
Ease of Connection in our Interactive Community
😭 Problem: Shyness of young alumni and difficulty for older alumni to find suitable mentees.
😆 How It helps: Provides a centralized space for students and alumni to interact. The platform uses interactive 3D models, and colour-coded roles, making it fun and straightforward for users to explore and connect.
“Don’t be shy, let’s play with the alumni constellation!”
Personalized Filter
😭 Problem: Can't find suitable alumni
😆 How It helps: A more efficient way to discover alumni who fit your needs through checking their roles, industry , location and availability.
“Find your ideal alumni match”
Student Branding
😭 Problem: Difficulty for students to get noticed by potential mentors.
😆 How It helps: Allows students to create detailed profiles showcasing their skills, interests, and achievements, making them more visible and attractive to mentors.
"Build your branding to get more attention and opportunities!"
Preference Setting
😭 Problem: Privacy concerns
😆 How It Helps: Customize the profile display. Decide how much personal information to share with other alumni to protect the privacy.
“Share only what you're comfortable with”
Success Metric
But Did It work? People like the vibes of the app!
It's creative and risky, but it works! Here's how we measured success:
User Interest and Commitment:
During the recent alumni networking event, we showcased our product.
Many alumni showed great interest and offered to upload their information and profiles once it launches.
Appealing Visuals:
Alumni feedback indicated that the appealing visuals made the networking product feel less formal.
The design helped users feel more comfortable making the first move, overcoming the psychological barrier of shyness.
Reflection
Takeaways
User-Centered Research: This project emphasized user research to identify needs, showing that solutions naturally emerge when you follow users. Interviews and surveys provided diverse perspectives and solutions.
Enhanced Collaboration: Learning basic Unity knowledge improves collaboration between designers and developers.
Future Plans: If have more time, we aim to explore gamified features to enhance user experience and encourage networking. Examples include:
Planet brightness: Representing user activity, with stars becoming brighter based on engagement.
Reward System: Encouraging user activity and contributions with experience points for tasks like online engagement, story posting, and mentorship.
Honor Board: Displaying and ranking user contributions based on experience points.