All Stars Project
The All Stars Project sparks deep mentorship between low-income students and professional industries. Now it needed to recreate its community on the digital plane.
Welcome to the All Stars Neighborhood Project.
Project —
Web App
Services —
Product Strategy
Design System
User Testing
Project Origins
In collaboration with Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality, students were interviewed to identify what parts of the All Stars mentorship program were most impactful. We would replicate these elements, while probing for new opportunities that our digital space would provide.
The initial prototypes allowed students to explore the offices of partner companies, meet their mentors and start conversations.
An early Product Roadmap. Features that required greater technical and content investments were put into future consideration.
Personas
Neighborhoods revolves around two people: students and professional mentors. These personas are the cornerstones of the entire platform. Every feature and piece of content revolves around their needs.
Prototyping
Starting with a core set of features, we started prototyping page templates, user flows, and interactive spaces for students to be able to explore companies, meet mentors and start conversations through a messaging interface.
Mentors were able to build their profiles and express their openness for taking on new students.
Coaching
While building our messaging interface, areas to unlock new value revealed themselves. Writing Help is a feature that offers prompts to students that need help getting comfortable with professional communication. Prompts on how to craft introductions, ask for advice on careers, or inquiring about internships all help to smooth out the learning curve.
We also wanted to teach students on the importance of timing in professional communication. Time-based reminders nudge students to send timely responses to their professional mentors. They also remind them of when it’s time to level-up their mentor relationships and schedule a phone call or face-to-face meeting.
Design System
Our intricate interfaces required a typeface made for small spaces. Our project began shortly before DM Sans—made in partnership with Colophon and Google Fonts—was released. We seized the opportunity to use this friendly typeface that is superbly crafted and highly legible.
Color
Our color palette expanded on the maroon that was already central to the All Stars brand. Drop shadows and gradients are used strategically to add dynamism to the otherwise utilitarian interface.
Testing & Progress
Neighborhoods is an evolving project. New features are tested with current and former All Stars students before they become a part of the core platform.
Check this page in the future for new updates.