OPENING ACCESS
Being involved in a wide range of extracurricular activities is a crucial for adolescent development. However, access is often restricted by wealth and geography. MOSAYEC, a non-profit working with adolescents, asked us to exploring how technology can allow middle school students of any background find, manage, attend, meaningful reflect on extracurricular activities.
Full Brief
We set out to understand the goals, motivations, and barriers for students to engaging in extracurricular activities, the effectiveness of current activities in their personal development, and what role technology plays in their lives.
Research Plan
After reviewing key articles and papers, we interviewed parents and experts working with teens to understand behavioral trends.
73%
use cell phones
87%
access laptops
Parental trust of logistics and organizers key to students’ involvement
school based
1
non-profit based
2
business based
3
We also wanted to understand how others were tackling the problem of increasing access to activities and helping students use those activities to grow.
Competitors
Lastly, we wanted to understand students’ extracurricular experience more deeply. Interviewing students individually proved difficult, so we ran a series of co-creation workshops to directly observe behavior.
As we reviewed the research, we discovered that the student-parent relationship was integral to student development and involvement. So we modeled both student and parent archetypes.
Middle school-aged kids like Sean need a way to find activities that align with interests and social needs, convince parents to let them attend, and remember positive accomplishments.
1. Encourage Exploration - lets users take initiative
2. Low Income Access - options for range of finances
3. Relatable Interface - visually relevant for teens
4. 30-second Reflection - quick enough to not feel like work
5. Trustworthy to Parents - key to getting buy-in
Suggested Activities. Automated Logistics. Shared Reflection
The most strategic solution is to curate activities based on user interest, automate parental communciation, provide a discussion board for logistics, and encourage user reflection through a shared activity journal.
Manage entire experience from one place
Parents are always kept up to date
Suggestions and shared reflection feels personal and valuable
Uses already-existing content, so scales quickly
Gains broad audience for custom content/offers
Opens relationships with schools, non-profits, businesses, and potentially universities
After creating our wireframes, we tested our concept to see if it was something that actually solved students’ problem and how close it was to their mental models.
Students loved the design. After we iterated on the interface based on our testing, we created a interactive wireframe prototype to deliver to Mosayec.
Open in New Tab
The team at Mosayec loved our work. They decided to extend the contract with DESIGNATION to have a UI team design an interface based on our framework and prototype.
“I am simply astonished at the work that was possible in three weeks, and the amount of progress this team has made.”
JEROME
Mosayec CEO
Conduct more in-depth usability tests once visual interface is finished.
Launch to serve one local community first to get most active communal engagement.
As student portal grows, design portals for partners & parents to manage activities.
Explore revenue models like local discounts, and providing CMS for non-profits.
