Hey students!
Find your teammates beyond your circle.

Colleb is an exclusive college student matching app that helps students connect with like-minded collaborators beyond their immediate circle based on personality and skills. By prioritizing compatibility, students can review others' portfolios who have similar tastes, relevant skills for a project, and availability to simplify the recruiting process.

Colleb

Timeline

Feb – Mar 2023
(5 weeks)

Technique

User Research
User Survey
UI/UX Design
Branding

Software

Photoshop
Illustrator
Figma

Deliverables

App

PROBLEM

Are flyers effective enough to find various collaborators for projects?

Whenever I walk around The New School, I see many flyers to find potential collaborators for student projects. However, it only helps students find other students within their community.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might I help college students to easily find their like-minded collaborators beyond their social circle?

SOLUTION

Portfolio Matching App for Students!

Check students' portfolio like dating apps

Instead of showing profile pictures like in dating apps, users can see student work and connect with those whose skills and personalities match. Ongoing projects require matching students; otherwise, users can save a student's profile for future collaborations.

Check students' portfolio like dating apps

Instead of showing profile pictures like in dating apps, users can see student work and connect with those whose skills and personalities match. Ongoing projects require matching students; otherwise, users can save a student's profile for future collaborations.

Easily find a student with keywords

Users can search for their collaborators by typing major, personality, and skills. They can put as many personalities and skills as possible for better matching.

PROJECT GOAL

To create a platform only accessible to college students where they can easily find collaborators beyond their network.

DESIGN GOAL

To create an intuitive interface that enables users to spend less time checking other people's portfolios.

DESIGN GOAL

To create an intuitive interface that enables users to spend less time checking other people's portfolios.

RESEARCH METHOD

Quantitative survey—Google form
31 participants
· who put up flyers at The New School
· who had experience recruiting other students for collaboration

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Finding new connections beyond one's current network is not easy.

Most students rely on their friends and connections to find collaborators while checking other students' qualifications before they start collaborating.

PAIN POINTS

USER NEEDS

OPPORTUNITY

New marketplace

‍I researched platforms where people usually go to find connections. Based on the analysis, I aligned them with the criteria below. Here are the definition of each criteria:

x-axis
'Similar Interest'
Platforms cover one topic
‍
'Diverse Interest'
Platforms cover various topic

y-axis'Exclusive'
People need invitation to join
‍
'Inclusive'
Anyone can join anytime

As a result of the analysis, I realized that none of the platforms are in exclusive AND diverse sections. Therefore, I decided to position my app there.

Colleb is a combination of the words

'Collaboration' and 'College'

IDENTITY GUIDELINE

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE (IA)

USER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

GEN Z utilizes social media and dating apps

In New York, many college students actively use social media for socializing and showcasing their work, as well as dating apps to find potential partners. Therefore, leveraging the familiar interactions on these apps seemed like a great idea.

Since this is a matching app, I decided to use the 'swipe' gesture for the main interaction, allowing students to easily skip work they are not interested in. I also implemented a 'tap' feature to quickly browse through various works. To avoid confusion between the similar touch actions of 'scroll' and 'swipe', I chose not to include the 'scroll' feature.

LOW-FI FIDELITY

My primary focus was to design a simple interface using swiping interaction like a dating app, which is familiar to many people. Also, I decided not to collect unnecessary data, which would not be helpful for the matching system to reduce the time user would spend when signing up.

ITERATIONS

Image(work)-focused Interface Design

Initially, I designed multiple boxes, but the small phone screen made it difficult to focus on the work. Therefore, I decided to use the minimum space necessary for information.

I intended to design the app similar to Instagram Stories. Since people usually skim through stories on Instagram, I decided to include essential information, such as major, availability, overlapping personality traits, and skillsets, to facilitate quick and effective matching.

FINAL DESIGN

> Sign up/in

Only put a school e-mail address

Our app only requires a school e-mail address to verify the student status and to reduce the signing-up/in process. Students can sign up/in with only a verification code.

> Sign up

Easy sign-up process

Fill out basic personal information

⌄

Upload portfolio/resume

⌄

Type the skillset

⌄

Choose user's personality traits

⌄

Choose collaborators' personality traits

After signing up, the app leads users to start with the Match tab.
They can search for their collaborators by typing major, personality, and skills.
They can put as many personalities and skills as possible for better matching.

> Match

Tap or Swipe to match the students

Users can tap left or right to see a student's portfolio, and by swiping, users can decide whether they want to match with the student.

you can see:Name, Major
Match rate, Ratings
Available time slot for both
Matched personalities and skills

> Detail & Like

Check details,
Click 'Like' to connect later

If they want to check more details about the student, they can click the arrow on the right side of a major.

If they don't have any ongoing projects but like this student's portfolio, they can click a 'like' button on the top bar to connect with the student later.

> Connect

Talk about your project

When users want to connect with a student, they should send a message with the details of their project.

> Chat

Wait for the response

The message is directly sent to a student's invitation inbox. When the student accepts the request, they can start connecting and chatting.

TAKEAWAY

A problem still exists in our daily lives

There have been so many services/products released with new solutions to make up for people's problems. Therefore, it was easy for me to deceive myself as if none of the services and products needs to be improved or developed anymore.

However, a problem is always around us. Every time I go to school, I always see many flyers on the walls, which I ignored before and which was the starting point of this project. Paying attention to my daily life is the beginning of finding a problem.

Hey students!Find your teammates beyond your circle.

Colleb

Colleb

PROBLEM

Are flyers effective enough to find various collaborators for projects?

Whenever I walk around The New School, I see many flyers to find potential collaborators for student projects. However, it only helps students find other students within their community.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might I help college students to easily find their like-minded collaborators beyond their social circle?

SOLUTION

Portfolio Matching App for Students!

Check students' portfolio like dating apps

Instead of showing profile pictures like in dating apps, users can see student work and connect with those whose skills and personalities match. Ongoing projects require matching students; otherwise, users can save a student's profile for future collaborations.

Check students' portfolio like dating apps

Instead of showing profile pictures like in dating apps, users can see student work and connect with those whose skills and personalities match. Ongoing projects require matching students; otherwise, users can save a student's profile for future collaborations.

Easily find a student with keywords

Users can search for their collaborators by typing major, personality, and skills. They can put as many personalities and skills as possible for better matching.

PROJECT GOAL

To create a platform only accessible to college students where they can easily find collaborators beyond their network.

DESIGN GOAL

To create an intuitive interface that enables users to spend less time checking other people's portfolios.

DESIGN GOAL

To create an intuitive interface that enables users to spend less time checking other people's portfolios.

RESEARCH METHOD

Quantitative survey—Google form31 participants · who put up flyers at The New School · who had experience recruiting other students for collaboration

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Finding new connections beyond one's current network is not easy.

Most students rely on their friends and connections to find collaborators while checking other students' qualifications before they start collaborating.

PAIN POINTS

USER NEEDS

OPPORTUNITY

New marketplace

‍I researched platforms where people usually go to find connections. Based on the analysis, I aligned them with the criteria below. Here are the definition of each criteria:

x-axis'Similar Interest'Platforms cover one topic‍'Diverse Interest' Platforms cover various topic

y-axis'Exclusive' People need invitation to join‍'Inclusive' Anyone can join anytime

As a result of the analysis, I realized that none of the platforms are in exclusive AND diverse sections. Therefore, I decided to position my app there.

Colleb is a combination of the words

'Collaboration' and 'College'

IDENTITY GUIDELINE

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE (IA)

USER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

GEN Z utilizes social media and dating apps

LOW-FI FIDELITY

My primary focus was to design a simple interface using swiping interaction like a dating app, which is familiar to many people. Also, I decided not to collect unnecessary data, which would not be helpful for the matching system to reduce the time user would spend when signing up.

ITERATIONS

Image(work)-focused Interface Design

FINAL DESIGN

> Sign up/in

Only put a school e-mail address

Our app only requires a school e-mail address to verify the student status and to reduce the signing-up/in process. Students can sign up/in with only a verification code.

> Sign up

Easy sign-up process

Fill out basic personal information

⌄

Upload portfolio/resume

⌄

Type the skillset

⌄

Choose user's personality traits

⌄

Choose collaborators' personality traits

After signing up, the app leads users to start with the Match tab.They can search for their collaborators by typing major, personality, and skills. They can put as many personalities and skills as possible for better matching.

> Match

Tap or Swipe to match the students

Users can tap left or right to see a student's portfolio, and by swiping, users can decide whether they want to match with the student.

you can see:Name, MajorMatch rate, RatingsAvailable time slot for bothMatched personalities and skills

> Detail & Like

Check details,Click 'Like' to connect later

If they want to check more details about the student, they can click the arrow on the right side of a major.If they don't have any ongoing projects but like this student's portfolio, they can click a 'like' button on the top bar to connect with the student later.

> Connect

Talk about your project

When users want to connect with a student, they should send a message with the details of their project.

> Chat

Wait for the response

The message is directly sent to a student's invitation inbox. When the student accepts the request, they can start connecting and chatting.

TAKEAWAY

A problem still exists in our daily lives

Hey students!
Find your teammates beyond your circle.

Quantitative survey—Google form
31 participants
· who put up flyers at The New School
· who had experience recruiting other students for collaboration

x-axis
'Similar Interest'
Platforms cover one topic
‍
'Diverse Interest'
Platforms cover various topic

y-axis'Exclusive'
People need invitation to join
‍
'Inclusive'
Anyone can join anytime

After signing up, the app leads users to start with the Match tab.
They can search for their collaborators by typing major, personality, and skills.
They can put as many personalities and skills as possible for better matching.

you can see:Name, Major
Match rate, Ratings
Available time slot for both
Matched personalities and skills

Check details,
Click 'Like' to connect later

If they want to check more details about the student, they can click the arrow on the right side of a major.

If they don't have any ongoing projects but like this student's portfolio, they can click a 'like' button on the top bar to connect with the student later.