Closing the Skill Gap: Developing the Software Residency App
The Software Residency, created by ZEAL and LEARN Academy, aimed to close the skill gap between junior and senior engineers through mentorship. The challenge was to develop an app enabling mentors to easily track and support their mentees' growth.
A Unified Platform for Collaborative Feedback
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Efficient Tracking: Simplified weekly updates and quarterly evaluations to track mentees progress.
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Collaborative Feedback: Enabled mentors to collaborate on mentee development.
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Unified Platform: An app providing mentors with an overview of all their mentees and their progress.
A 3-Step Process to Understand my Users
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UI Flow Mapping & Prototyping
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Design Iterations & Usability Testing
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Understanding User Needs
Gathering Insights: Surveys and Interviews with Mentors and Mentees
We conducted surveys and interviews with mentors, mentees, and administrative roles to gather goals and needs for the app. The data was synthesized into an Affinity Map, identifying key insights to shape the app's features and initial user stories.
1st
Insight
Mentors need a platform to track a resident’s progress.
2nd
Insight
Mentors want to add weekly updates and quarterly evaluations for each resident.
3rd
Insight
Mentors want to collaborate with other mentors by viewing their evaluations of residents.
Excerpt of Affinity Map
Creating User Flows: Designing for Mentor Efficiency
We focused on mentors as the primary user group, creating UI flow diagrams to understand all screens before developing wireframes and prototypes.
This included outlining the happy path and identifying navigation challenges.
UI Flow for Mentors: Weekly & Quarterly Assessments
Iterative Design: Enhancing Usability through Testing and Feedback
The design process involved iterative wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes refined through stakeholder feedback.
Usability tests with mentors, using a severity scale, directly informed further iterations, significantly enhancing usability and user satisfaction.
Workflow before and after User Research
Usability Test Results and Iterations
Delivering Results: Unified Platform and Efficient Tracking
One App, One Overview
Provides mentors with an overview of all their mentees, their progress, and areas for improvement.
Efficient Weekly Tracking
Mentors can track weekly focus areas for each resident, ensuring consistent support and guidance.
Detailed Quarterly Evaluations
Enables mentors to provide thorough evaluations using the Dreyfus model, identifying areas for targeted mentorship.
Collaborative Feedback
Mentors can add notes, view other mentors' evaluations, and compare evaluations, fostering collaborative feedback.
User-Centered Design and Iterative Development
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Understanding and empathizing with mentors and stakeholders is key.
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User-centered design and continues iterations create impactful solutions.
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How to utilize established design components and iterate on them.
