Diasppo is a cutting-edge online platform offering a comprehensive suite of resources, powered by AI and automation tools. It's designed to empower schools and companies in seamlessly managing the experiences of their international students, alumni, and visa-holding employees.
As UX lead the team in pre-production brainstorming, Product Research, Lead the majority of interviews, Ideation and User Flows
Adobe XD (for wireframing and mid-fidelity), Sketch, InVision for Prototype and Flow & Trello (for team management and project organization)
Diasppo is an online comprehensive resource platform with AI and automation tools to help schools and companies effectively manage the experiences of their international students and alumni or employees on visas.
Design a dashboard for the administrative users that includes officials at schools, companies, and other third parties like immigration officers.
~ Acknowledging the problem statement~ Looking at the user audience
~ Looking through the previous research and design templates from the previous design team.
~ The findings in the research was that schools and companies have an overwhelming number of International Students that deal with different processes and steps individually to each student.
After the desktop research the site map was created in order to align with the initial design template that was handed off. To make sure it was a talk point in our interviews to help get an in depth and accurate depiction on what was needed from the users.
~ The interviews proved to be the point in this project’s path that changed the perspective of everything. The approach changed to empathy for the actual users themselves. Realizing that the perception of responsibilities had a disconnect between international students and the HR/Admin.
~ Out of all the SME and User Interviews 100% of the feedback was that the use of this application is of no use to HR within their companies and Admins within their schools.
~ The Responsibility of the individual created a disconnect between the perception of what the responsibilities are between the international student and the HR/Admin.
~ The Lack of Transparency is a main point due to the individual who lacks transparency in their own visa experience because there isn't a direct incentive for them to be informed.
~ The Value proposition is more for the individual. 9 out of 10 interviewees responded that if the service is plugged in for students/Individuals than schools/companies can get a more accurate update on where the student/individual is in the process.
~ The Administrator is more of a guide. A counselor that can be reached when an Int'l student/Individual needs a resource. Majority of the responsibilities are on the student/individual end.
~ It created a huge security risk. Having International Students information within a school/Company database through a 3rd party. Schools are heavily integrated with more secure 3rd party systems or built in private systems.
Due to high time constraints and challenges with scheduling interviews the initial first draft of the sketch was created to combine a testing portion of the lo-fi sketch with the interviews in order for the best accurate feedback.
The issues were aligned by logical viewpoints and empathy viewpoints created by an Affinity Diagram study and a Six Hats study..
The timeframe of the two weeks were nearing a close as it was the final three days. Meeting with the client to revisit the problem statement. After an agreement with the client. We planned to create a mid-fidelity Diasppo Employee Dashboard for Business, Services and a Help Center was created. As well as detailed recommendations for next steps for a future handoff.
It was quickly realized that the original Problem needed to be revised. Recommendations were brought to the attention of the client.
~ Further study and communication revealed that a staff team dedicated to resources will be helpful and provide a more extensive range of value for the end users. The Best course of action was to build out a dashboard for a staff so that these resources and communication can further the value for the students/individuals who need them.
~ To create a dashboard for the Diasppo staff to have the ability to keep connected and update the students/individuals in their steps and process.
~ Assess Security & Privacy of App
~ Address security concerns around data integration, privacy, and access
~ Explore Students only membership option
~ Pursue additional research via Terra Tech/NACA type conferences
~ Explore Staff resource dashboard
~ Explore and revise needs of the Diasppo Employee admin who is supporting the student on their side of the dashboard and process
In this design the Diasppo employee will have an easy flow between the three dashboards. The help center is efficient for being able to have quick access to major categories that International Students would need support with. Maximizing a simple flow to be more effective for employees to be more efficient with International users using this platform who need support.
Diasppo was able to run these new dashboards for the Diasppo Employee by his team that will be utilizing the services and gave us positive feedback. A greenlight was received to form recommendations and next steps based around these dashboard designs.
~ Review the dashboard designs and testing with the employee
~ Develop a customer journey for the Diasppo employee
~ Explore 3rd party services like Zendesk & Salesforce for cost analysis of using the service vs building a custom employee admin dashboard.
~ Tight timeframe
~ Lack of initial SME interviews
- Lack of direction of initial problem
~ Revising Problem
~ How to handle a failed proposition with a client.- How to tell a client the initial business model is of no value and how to change and get a resolution
~ Great interview results
~ Great team management
~ Great Time management within a strict time frame
~ Accurate Revisions and Refinement for new Problem Statement
~ The initial statement and pain point communication with the client on first iteration.
~ Being able to be flexible with our schedule in order to maximize on sme/user interviews.
~ Open communication with the team and the client
~ Flexibility in changing strategies and editing the process in order to maximize results.