Life Skills for Young Adults
A Metropolitan Los Angeles YMCA Platform Redesign for Young Adults
“The Y is made up of people from all backgrounds working together to strengthen their community. The Y is committed to providing programs and services that are inclusive and welcoming to all”
The YMCA has the goal to add a program for young adults, in which to teach them Tangible Life Skills, such as, how to build your credit score, how to get health insurance and personal & professional development.
Introduction & goals
Objectives
Provide young adults with tools for learning life skills.
Accessible information.
Help users make important choices early on in their life.
Challenge
In this 2-week concept project, I teamed up with 2 colleagues from General Assembly, to help the YMCA build a new app for this initiative. The ultimate goal is to help young adults in underserved communities be successful in setting up their futures.
My role in this project: storytelling, research, ideation, and design. Tools: Figma, Photoshop, pen & paper.
High-Level Goals
Eliminate the guesswork while navigating the app.
Provide stakeholders with a prototype that shows the potential of a new platform design.
Facilitate the learning of life skills for our users.
Expand inclusivity for spanish-speakers.
A bird’s eye view
Not only the content of the app should be considered, but also its long-term ease of use and functionality. In other words: we also want to provide a better user experience.
Design process
Analyzing the current YMCA app and finding out about our demographic
Users are not happy with the current app
An app with limited design and functionality.
No hierarchy and unclear navigation.
It takes the user in and out of the app ecosystem.
Lacks language inclusivity.
1-2 star rating, mostly negative reviews.
Click below to expand app analysis visuals
We analyzed the current YMCA app by asking users to complete a simple task: to find information about Teen Leadership Programs. In addition, we navigated the app and read multiple actual user reviews.
Our users: young adult smart phone users, living in the metro Los Angeles area
We realized: the information architecture and navigation of the app would have to be redesigned
“Can’t find user account / can’t reserve spots
This app is terrible! I am trying to reserve a lane to swim, you need to log in… it keeps saying there’s no user associated with this email, but I use the same email to pay for membership this needs to be fixed asap”
— Ron, Culver City
Analyzing other youth service apps helped in visualizing the context for our app
Click below for visuals of competitive analysis
Two Competitors
We analyzed competitors that provide services to low-income young adults: Hack the Hood and .
Hack the Hood is a community initiative that focuses on educating underserved youth on functional life skills. They promote community building, personal growth, and economic mobility.
Real World is a community-based platform that provides young adults with life skill tools to help them meet adulthood with ease.
Through surveys and interviews, we found out what life skills are most important for our users
Some things we wanted to know about
What life skills are important to you?
Was the path to making life-choices decisions, smooth, easy, or complex?
How has not knowing information about building life skills affected your path?
Insight: professional development is the top life skill our users are interested in
“My main feeling was like loss… Like I want to do something bigger. I don't know where to start with that bigger thing, and there's not a particular place for me to find what that bigger thing would be”
— Kara, Gardena, CA
SYNTHESIZING: Persona & Hypothesis
Key Insights
Professional development is a top priority
Limited tangible life skills is a common theme
Accessing information early-on would have helped them to get to a better place much faster.
Persona
HOW MIGHT WE HELP?
Kara needs a more accessible way to find information about professional skills so that she can secure a successful future.
How might we help Kara develop life skills, to enable her to make important decisions about her future early on in her life?
How might we provide users with a simple and efficient way of learning professional tools?
Ideation: information architecture, first sketches and wireframing
Initial Sketches
Starting with a login screen and home screen, sketched a path to a Life Skills and Resume Writing.
Information Architecture
Proposed simplified navigation while emphasizing visual hierarchy.
Initial Wireframes and Prototype
We asked users to search for Resume Writing skills in the app.
As users tested our first prototype, we received first-hand feedback about the functionality of our design.
Testing Insights
“I was confused at first about the difference between life skills and classes.”
“I thought I could have clicked on some arrows to go to the next page, but it didn’t work.”
“Add more space at the bottom of the Home Screen & Bottom Navigation Bar?
“So easy and simple.”
“Straight to the point.”
“I was able to complete the task on the first try.”
Based on user’s feedback, we iterated on a High-Fidelity version with expanded features
Design Updates
Created interactive components for better prototyping.
Added progress bar to the resume writing area.
Added a Spanish language toggle.
Built hamburger menu screen.
Added a “Guided Resume Writing” feature and registration form.
Added photography throughout the whole user experience.
Utilized YMCA’s vintage-inspired logo and color palette for a better look & feel.
Style Guide
Inspired by the YMCA’s vintage logo
Used the YMCA’s signature typeface Cachet Std.
Used 3 colors from the logo throughout the product design process.
What’s Next: keep on iterating better and better versions of the product, based on user testing and feedback
Keep perfecting the product
Focus on developing the Spanish Language version of the YMCA app.
Complete prototyping of all features in the proposed menus.
Solidify the look & feel of the entire experience.
Reflections + What I would do different next time
I was inspired to work on this project due to its potential social impact. Technology has the power to democratize information; I believe that access to information is a pillar of an inclusive society.
Next time, I would begin product testing earlier in the process in order to iterate versions for a faster turnaround.