About 4.2M students in the U.S. may be considered first-generation, low-income college students. Only 9% of them will earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24, compared to 77% from high-income families (Brookings). This achievement gap between high-income families to first-generation, low-income families is significant high and working towards lowering this achievement gap is critical to building success for marginalized communities.
Pairing up my Senior Capstone Project and 3 month UX Design Fellowship at Rise First, I was able to uncover the needs of FGLI students while prioritizing stakeholder goals to drive improvement of Rise First's home page storyline that empower and better cater to the FGLI community's needs and interests.
Role
UX Designer
Project Duration
3 months
Tools
Figma
Team
UX Researcher/Designer x2
Project Manager x1
Rise First’s mission is to empower first-generation, low income (FGLI) students and professionals nationwide to achieve their full potential by providing life and career advice, lists of resources, and mentorship opportunities through all curated through a website database.
The flow of information on Rise First’s home page is information-heavy and unorganized, which prevents FGLI students from feeling connected to Rise First or utilizing their resources.
By changing the storyline of the home page and adding visual assets, FGLI students and professionals could better understand and connect with Rise First’s vision and easily utilize showcased resources.
We performed 5 usability tests on different age groups to understand their thought process on their first impression of Rise First and how they would utilize resources on the current landing page verses the new revised prototype. Participants were impressed with the redesign because they were able to have a better glimpse of what Rise First is and the resources they provide off the bat, which hits the goals of improving the visibility of resources, efficiency in choosing a resource best suited for the user, and engagement in Rise First's content.
Goal 1
Visibility
Improve visibility of Rise First's valuable resources and adding visual assets to easily digest information
Goal 2
Efficiency
Minimize the user flow tasks for a user to choose the best resource suited for them to increase efficiency
Goal 3
Engagement
Build an impactful storyline and engaging content that caters to target audience's needs and interests
6 personas were made to empathize with FGLI students, professionals, and community. These personas range from an 18 year old graduating high school going to community college to a 29 year old professional wanting to give back. I wanted to understand the range of our target audience by creating these personas as a baseline of my personal assumptions then ideate later when meeting with the stakeholders (I met with the Chief Content Officer to present these personas) and meeting a few users on Zoom later on in the project.
Though Rise First is at the lower end of the spectrum, the company has only two years in with much room for growth, in contrast to most organizations that have been around for a decade. I learned other “competitors” are not necessarily competitors since Rise First is a non-profit. Their mission is to empower first-generation low-income students, but they cannot enable them alone.
I looked into 6 other non-profit organizations that serve FGLI students to evaluate Rise First’s competitive advantage, which was that Rise First was “built by and made for FGLI students and professionals.”
I worked cross-functionally across multiple teams to gather insight on Rise First. I read through information-heavy documents to investigate what research and data I could apply that may be helpful when making design decisions.
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I asked questions to Cindy and Angela around the history of Rise First, where they've had successes, where they've had roadblocks, and some of their near goals for the company.
One of their goals I learned was that they wanted to hit all 50 states in their newsletter subscribers.
After reading through the Market Research report, I asked David follow up questions regarding the target audience. I presented the personas, where he said 4/6 were accurate, so I scratched out the other two personas.
I also dug deeper into what their competitive advantage was to highlight it on their website which was that Rise First was "built by and made for FGLI students and professionals" to build impact on this community.
I wanted to understand the monthly SEO reports better to see what information might be helpful in deciding where to steer this project.
Ben and I were debating on either revising the navigation of the whole website or sticking to one page. We ended up deciding sticking to one page was best and moved forward with the home page since it was the highest number landing page for most impact.
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I considered multiple solutions before finalizing on the defined solution:
1. My initial solution was to improve the navigation of the whole site, so users could better follow through in finding and utilizing resources. Unfortunately, we funneled the project down to only edit one page for the limited time constraint of the fellowship.
2. Once we finalized working on the home page, my second idea was to focus the home page redesign as a community-centered organization. After meeting with stakeholders and analyzing the survey results, I came to the conclusion that being "community centered" was actually an insignificant factor for FGLI to utilize resources.
After meeting with the CEO and chiefs, I focused on a few items when creating lo-fi prototypes which was understanding the top curated resources they offer, adding visibility to the newsletter, and what sets them apart from other FGLI companies.
Starting with the current home page, I created 3 iterations on the current home page and checked in with the project manager, a UX Designer mentor, and my professor to apply their feedback.
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Resources were scattered on the home page; no clear navigation
Description on the home page is information-heavy
Email subscription is hiding towards the bottom
No real images which doesn't build trust
Introductory Carousel
I replaced their landing page with a carousel that highlights their competitive advantage and better showcases their value.
Newsletter’s sign up visibility
I learned one of their main assets is their newsletter that updates FGLI students new opportunities (which helps increasing returning users.) On the current homepage, it’s towards the bottom of the page, so I added higher emphasis and visibility.
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Minimizing user task flow
Easy utilization of resources were shown as top priority of FGLI students. I created a section of top curated resources and added a hover state to add a short description, so users would know upfront what each resource is without going onto the next page.
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Accessibility
Used Colorable.com to test if the contrast of colors passes. Chose legible fonts and font sizes and colors of text mindful of accessibility.
Storyline
Maintained the storyline of the home page which presents who Rise First is, what they offer, and why, which was an important element to stakeholders.
Digestible information
Played with scale to create an infographic that makes information easy to read and follow along.
Builds trust
Leveraged Rise First's design systems by incorporating photos and brand colors into the home page to add a younger and lively touch.
I scaled down the home page to fit from desktop to phone screen. I focused on the desktop design of the home page redesign because majority users use desktop, but created a responsive design to cater to mobile users.
75% desktop users
25% mobile users
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When selecting users to test, we chose participants from the survey that varied in their backgrounds. We interviewed 5 users that ranged from high school student, college student, recent college graduate, and early career professional.
Exploratory questions
Understanding individuals backgrounds
Card-sorting
Least to most important resources per group
Usability Testing (on current website)
Seeing their thought process how they find and utilize resources & when entering Rise First's page
Usability Testing (on prototype)
Do they find more interest and engagement with the new home page redesign?
Participants were impressed with the redesign because they were able to have a better glimpse of what Rise First looks like and the resources they provide off the bat.
The most insightful piece of feedback was when a user said that they were unsure which resource were made for their specific life-stage. We would want to consider that for the next iteration of design and showcase indications upfront of who exactly which resource would benefit: high school, college student, college graduate, or professional.
During the UX Research process, I learned how to test my assumptions and develop non-bias questions. I figured out what questions are appropriate to ask for survey versus user interviews, and I practiced leading and structuring productive stakeholder meetings. During the UX Design process, I practiced presenting ideas to stakeholders and elaborating on decision making for designs. They appreciated most that the project enhanced the storyline of Rise First: who they are, what they offer, and why. I had a great pleasure problem-solving and collaborating with the team members at Rise First, since we all came from an FGLI background. Their discipline to evolve and making a difference was exciting to be part of!
