BobaTalks
Making mentorship more accessible through a scheduling app.
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Overview
My team and I led the design of an end-to-end mentorship booking platform for BobaTalks, a non-profit organization dedicated to guiding students through early career challenges. While I contributed to both student and mentor flows, the majority of my efforts focused on designing the student flow, as the student experience directly aligns with BobaTalks' mission to make mentorship accessible and impactful for college students. Insights and improvements from the student flow also informed key design decisions for the mentor experience, ensuring a cohesive platform.
My Role
User Researcher - Conducted surveys with 91 participants and 5 interviews with participants to identify key pain points.
Usability Testing Coordinator - Developed testing plans and led feedback sessions to refine design solutions.
Designer - Created low- and high-fidelity wireframes for the student flow, incorporating research insights.
Usability Testing Coordinator - Developed testing plans and led feedback sessions to refine design solutions.
Designer - Created low- and high-fidelity wireframes for the student flow, incorporating research insights.
Team
Product Lead: Amy La
Product Manager: Ardan Giordjie
Design Manager: Akankshya Sahoo
UX Designers: Allen Lu, Carmen Mak, Elaine Pan, Gia Lee, Ilgin Cevik, Kelvin Chau
Engineers: Neha Sapre, Sidhika Tripathee
Product Manager: Ardan Giordjie
Design Manager: Akankshya Sahoo
UX Designers: Allen Lu, Carmen Mak, Elaine Pan, Gia Lee, Ilgin Cevik, Kelvin Chau
Engineers: Neha Sapre, Sidhika Tripathee
Timeline & Status
4 Months, Currently in development
In a rush? Read these highlights.
- Goal: Develop an integrated mentorship platform that consolidates scheduling, fosters student preparation, and mitigates mentor burnout, with a primary focus on improving the student flow.
- Research: Led 51 student surveys, 40 mentor surveys, and a series of in-depth interviews; conducted competitor analysis of platforms like ADPList and Calendly to inform design decisions.
- Design process: Designed low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes for the student flow, iterating based on user insights.
- User testing & feedback: Conducted usability testing sessions and gathered feedback from different stakeholders, focusing on student experiences to address overall visual design and any barriers to scheduling efficiency.
- Predicted impact: Projected outcomes include increased student preparedness, reduced no-show rates, and enhanced mentor satisfaction, ultimately fostering more meaningful mentorship engagements.
Highlights
- Project goal:
- Research process:
- Design process:
- User testing:
- Impact:
Context
Fragmented tools, disjointed journeys.
Who is BobaTalks?
BobaTalks is a non-profit platform that empowers college students to navigate early career challenges through personalized mentorship. By connecting students with experienced mentors, BobaTalks has facilitated thousands of impactful sessions, helping students confidently transition into their professional journeys.
It currently operates on a WordPress-based platform, relying heavily on third-party tools like Calendly, TopMate, and ADPList for scheduling. This patchwork approach, while functional, has led to a fragmented user experience across these platforms. Additionally, high rates of no-shows and cancellations have contributed to significant mentor burnout, undermining the effectiveness of the mentorship program.
It currently operates on a WordPress-based platform, relying heavily on third-party tools like Calendly, TopMate, and ADPList for scheduling. This patchwork approach, while functional, has led to a fragmented user experience across these platforms. Additionally, high rates of no-shows and cancellations have contributed to significant mentor burnout, undermining the effectiveness of the mentorship program.
Why BobaTalks needed a change?
It currently operates on a WordPress-based platform, relying heavily on third-party tools like Calendly, TopMate, and ADPList for scheduling. This patchwork approach, while functional, has led to a fragmented user experience across these platforms, making it disjointed and inefficient. High rates of no-shows and cancellations have contributed to significant mentor burnout, undermining the effectiveness of the mentorship program. Additionally, students and mentors have to juggle multiple platforms, leading to frustration and lost productivity.
Discovery
Understanding the mentorship experience.
Gathering the data.
To get a comprehensive understanding of the current mentorship scheduling processes and identifying key areas for improvement, we wanted to learn from the students and mentors who had experience with the BobaTalks platform.
Leading with a mix-methods approach strategy, I spearheaded the creation of the user research report, analyzing survey responses from 51 students and 40 mentors and user interviews from 4 students and 5 mentors. This report helped identify 3 key pain points and user needs, driving the design direction:
Leading with a mix-methods approach strategy, I spearheaded the creation of the user research report, analyzing survey responses from 51 students and 40 mentors and user interviews from 4 students and 5 mentors. This report helped identify 3 key pain points and user needs, driving the design direction:
- 🔑
Communication was often scattered across multiple platforms, leading to frustration and missed appointments.
"I primarily use Discord to contact mentors. It would be helpful to have a more integrated approach for scheduling and communication, as currently, it involves using multiple platforms like LinkedIn, email, Discord, and Calendly." — Student - 🔑
88% of mentors have experienced at least one no-show.
"It's annoying when time is blocked off and students don't show up… time zone differences were one of the main factors where students were simply unaware of the time they should have shown up" — Mentor - 🔑
Students often lack preparation and sometimes engage out-of-scope topics, such as referrals.
"Mentees and mentors should do a bit of research on each other to be prepared for the meeting." — Mentor
the Challenge
How might we create a centralized tool that reduces no-shows, improves communication, and mitigates mentor burnout while enhancing the mentorship experience?
Ideation
Building the blueprint.
Learning from competitors.
To inspire potential solutions, we analyzed four mentorship and scheduling platforms: ADPList, Calendly, Topmate and Cal.com. This competitor analysis highlighted features that could enhance the BobaTalks platform:
- ⏰
Time Display Preferences
Platforms like Cal.com allow users to switch between 12-hour and 24-hour formats, an essential feature for users outside North America. - 📅
Earliest Availability
ADPList lets users quickly view a mentor's next available time, streamlining the scheduling process for students. - 💻
Dashboards
All four platforms use dashboards to consolidate session tracking and user profiles, which improves navigation and helps users stay organized.
Prioritizing features to maximize impact.
Using findings from user research and competitor analysis, we worked closely with engineers and clients to prioritize features based on impact and feasibility. This process helped us focus on solving the most pressing user pain points.
- 👻
Features to reduce no-shows
- 1. Time display management
- 2. Add to calendar
- 3. Earliest availability
- 💬
Features to increase meeting productivity
- 4. Code of conduct
- 5. Prompts/Questions from mentors for students to respond
- 6. Mentor's preferred topics
- 7. Mentor FAQ section
Note: Because the tool is internal, it automatically minimizes scattered communication.
Design Decisions
Turning insights into interfaces.
Developing the student flow.
The student flow was central to solving the mentorship challenges identified in the discovery phase. With the prioritized features as a foundation, we mapped out the core user journey to ensure it was intuitive, efficient, and aligned with user needs.
Drafting the wireframes.
Then, I created low-fidelity wireframes to map out the core user journey. These wireframes focused on minimizing cognitive load, simplifying the scheduling process, and making session tracking more transparent. Below are my initial designs of the key screens along with the key features highlighted during the ideation phase:
Pop-ups or full page?
For the scheduling flow, we debated whether to use a pop-up or a full-page design. Ultimately, we opted for a pop-up based on the following considerations:
- 🔑
Familiarity with Design Patterns
According to Jakob's Law, users prefer interfaces that feel familiar. Pop-ups are a common pattern in scheduling tools like ADPList and Calendly, making the interaction intuitive for users. - 🔑
Task Efficiency
Scheduling is a quick, focused task. A pop-up design allows users to complete the process without leaving the main platform, reducing unnecessary navigation. - 🔑
Streamlined User Experience
Pop-ups create a clear hierarchy by highlighting the task while dimming the background. This design ensures users remain focused, especially for simple actions like selecting a date and time.
user testing & Iteration
Testing, tinkering, and transforming.
Differentiating the experience with our competitors — feedback from our clients.
In our first iteration, we intentionally followed a familiar design language, aiming to provide students with a seamless and intuitive booking experience. However, the client pointed out that the design closely resembled ADPList, a widely recognized platform for mentorship scheduling. This feedback highlighted the need for a more unique and differentiated visual identity while maintaining user familiarity.
In response, we redesigned the student scheduling flow to establish a more distinct experience. Key changes included simplifying the layout, modifying the calendar interactions, and refining the overall visual style to create a more customized interface that fits our platform's unique needs.
In response, we redesigned the student scheduling flow to establish a more distinct experience. Key changes included simplifying the layout, modifying the calendar interactions, and refining the overall visual style to create a more customized interface that fits our platform's unique needs.
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Incorporating the code of conduct into the flow — feedback from our students.
During usability testing with 5 students, we discovered that all users bypassed the Student Code of Conduct, as it was presented in a way that made it easy to skip. This was an important insight, as it highlighted a gap in communicating critical behavioral guidelines that are essential for the mentorship program's success.
To address this, we integrated the Code of Conduct into the booking flow itself, making it a required step. Students are now prompted to review the guidelines during the scheduling process, ensuring higher visibility and engagement without disrupting the user experience.
To address this, we integrated the Code of Conduct into the booking flow itself, making it a required step. Students are now prompted to review the guidelines during the scheduling process, ensuring higher visibility and engagement without disrupting the user experience.
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Enhancing security and UX through third-party sign-in — feedback from our engineers.
Initially, our design did not include a login process for students because the design team wasn't familiar with best practices for securing student data and privacy. Engineers raised concerns about the lack of authentication and its impact on security.
After discussions with the engineering team, we decided to implement Google as the first third-party sign-in option due to time constraints for this MVP. Google was chosen as the initial platform because of its widespread adoption among users, ease of integration, and strong security features. While we intend to add additional third-party login options, such as LinkedIn and Discord, we prioritized Google for its high usage and familiarity, ensuring a secure and seamless onboarding experience for most users.
After discussions with the engineering team, we decided to implement Google as the first third-party sign-in option due to time constraints for this MVP. Google was chosen as the initial platform because of its widespread adoption among users, ease of integration, and strong security features. While we intend to add additional third-party login options, such as LinkedIn and Discord, we prioritized Google for its high usage and familiarity, ensuring a secure and seamless onboarding experience for most users.
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Final designs
Introducing BobaTalks, reimagined.
A new way to book your mentorship.
After multiple iterations and rounds of feedback, we delivered a polished design that redefines mentorship booking for students and mentors alike. These final designs aim to address the core pain points of scattered communication, high no-show rates, and mentor burnout.
Impact
Measuring what matters.
Predicted outcomes.
Although the product has not yet launched, we predict that the new scheduling platform will lead to significant improvements for both students and mentors by:
- 🙋♀️
Reducing No-Show Rates
Features like time zone management and add-to-calendar functionality are expected to decrease no-shows. - 😀
Enhancing Mentor Satisfaction
Streamlined scheduling tools, clear session guidelines, and reduced cancellations will alleviate mentor burnout, making their experience more rewarding. - 📚
Improving Student Preparedness
Integrated prompts and dashboards will ensure students arrive at sessions well-prepared, leading to more meaningful interactions.
How will we measure success?
To ensure that our product is working, these are the ways that we would measure success:
- 📈
Quantitative Metrics
- 1. Attendance rates: Track session attendance data to measure the no-show over time.
- 2. Booking speed: Measure how long it takes users to complete the booking process.
- 3. Retention rates: Track how many users return to book additional sessions.
- 💬
Qualitative Feedback
- 1. Post-session surveys: Gauge user satisfaction and ease of use.
- 2. Mentor feedback form: Get feedback from mentors on preparedness and session quality.
Reflection
Looking back, moving forward.
What is next?
Looking back, this project has laid a strong foundation for transforming the mentorship experience at BobaTalks. By addressing fragmented user flows and designing solutions for key pain points like no-shows, we've built a platform that better serves both students and mentors.
As the team progresses, our focus is now on expanding the platform's capabilities and preparing for launch. Key next steps include:
As the team progresses, our focus is now on expanding the platform's capabilities and preparing for launch. Key next steps include:
- 📱
Validating Mobile Designs
Validating that the platform's core features translate seamlessly to smaller screens. - 🧪
Beta Testing and Feedback
Gathering real-world feedback to identify opportunities for refinement before the full release. - 📈
Building Analytics and Post-Launch Iterations
Implement tools to measure the app's performance and user engagement, using data to guide future updates and ensure continued improvement.
Conclusion.
This project has been an invaluable opportunity to tackle the challenge of fragmented mentorship experiences by applying user-centered design principles. Through research, ideation, and iterative design, we not only identified and addressed key user pain points, such as no-shows and disjointed scheduling flows, but also created a streamlined solution tailored to the unique needs of both students and mentors. Collaborating with stakeholders and engineers taught me the importance of balancing user needs with technical feasibility and business goals, ensuring that every decision contributes meaningfully to the platform's mission.
Looking ahead, this experience underscored the value of continuous testing and iteration. While the initial designs set a strong foundation, validating assumptions and incorporating user feedback will be critical as the mobile design and app development progress. This project reminded me that impactful design extends beyond aesthetics—it's about crafting solutions that truly empower users and improve their experiences in measurable ways. With the groundwork in place, I'm excited to see how these efforts evolve into a fully realized product that makes mentorship more accessible and effective.
Looking ahead, this experience underscored the value of continuous testing and iteration. While the initial designs set a strong foundation, validating assumptions and incorporating user feedback will be critical as the mobile design and app development progress. This project reminded me that impactful design extends beyond aesthetics—it's about crafting solutions that truly empower users and improve their experiences in measurable ways. With the groundwork in place, I'm excited to see how these efforts evolve into a fully realized product that makes mentorship more accessible and effective.