An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. - Martin Luther King, Jr

Client: GOKiC - Geeking Out Kids of Color 

Role: UX/UI Designer

Team: Co-Founder, Lead Developer/Co-Founder, Lead Content Creator/Researcher, & Technical PM

Tools: Sketch & Figma

Timeframe: 8 weeks for MVP

Primary User: Non-BIPOC ( Black, Indigenous, and people of color) individuals seeking to become better allies

Challenge

Determine the flow of how a user might go through their allyship journey and create the corresponding high fidelity screens needed for an MVP before the scheduled hackathon.

Process

You can never underestimate the classic yet beneficial UX tool called “taking notes.” After meeting with the client, taking notes and organizing them afterward really helped me to get a better understanding of what I know and where the gaps remained. With enough to get started, I needed to map out the flow the user could expect to take to inform the low fidelity app sketches.

Sourcing Supporting Illustration

Given the limited time and immediate need for illustrations, it made sense to include premade illustrations. Ideally meeting the requirements of being - relevant, plentiful, and listed as ‘open usage’ without attribution. Fortunately, work by Blush and Adobe’s unDraw was able to be sourced and integrated into the app.

Eventually, I had one week’s worth of content ready for the mockups. By having the copy, it made it easier to strategize how to best present the required text.

User’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter thus it was essential that information be delivered in the app that is both digestible and approachable. This meant coming up with an ideal length of around 1600 words, while also including supporting illustrations.

The Hackathon

The night before the hackathon was set to start the person who was originally signed up to lead the designers was no longer available and the cofounder asked that I help with that task. I decided to say yes to the ask. Which essentially consisted of identifying the design needs, assigning the necessary tasks out, and having the team keep track of it via a Trello board. Also, I made myself available to help with any design-related questions.

The hackathon was an intense yet fun experience, and I really enjoyed working with all the wonderful volunteers that signed up. However, even though they really helped to push the app forward there was still some additional work that remained. After, I went through the design assets and determined what tasks remained, such as fixing the logo and revising the user research prep materials.

Post Hackathon

Post hackathon, there was additional back and forth with the client and other leaders to make additional design tweaks. Finally, after weeks of intense collaboration and work the beta version of the app had launched! Overall, I am grateful for having worked with an amazing team and for having learned a lot in the process!

Final Design