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Student-athletes Mentorship Platform

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Snapshot

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Who is Velosaty?

Velosaty is dedicated to empowering student-athletes as they navigate life beyond sports. By aligning athletic and academic ambitions, Velosaty facilitates personalized 1-1 mentorship experiences through an intuitive website and dashboard, guiding athletes in their academic and professional journeys.

My Contribution:

At Velosaty, I focused on translating research insights into cohesive design strategies to craft impactful user experiences. My contributions included designing key pages, design and update the design system for consistency and efficiency, and creating the landing pages for the website. For the MVP, I designed the mentee dashboard, ensuring functionality and user-centric design refinement.

Role:

UX/UI design process and research

Duration:

Aug’23 - Present

Team:

Team of 4 persons

S/W Used:

Figma, Google Suites, Slack, Zoom

Documents linked to this case study:
Other connected projects:

Project Overview

01

  • PROBLEM

    Student-athletes often face unique challenges due to demanding schedules, leaving them with limited time for academics, extracurriculars, and career preparation. Many struggle with a lack of direction, purpose, and identity after graduation, as most do not transition into professional sports.

  • SOLUTION

    Design & develop an intuitive mentorship platform equipping student-athletes with personalized guidance, tools, and resources to navigate life beyond sports. The platform aligns their academic, athletic, and professional aspirations, ensuring a seamless and empowered transition into their next chapter.

Primary Research

02

From earlier research, two primary user groups emerged: college and high school student-athletes. This research revealed key pain points:

  • Dual Commitments

    Both groups face challenges in balancing athletic and academic responsibilities, underscoring the need for solutions to support time management.

  • Future Aspirations

    Student-athletes showed a strong interest in tools to help plan and achieve their athletic and academic goals.

Initial Challenges and Refinements

03

Velosaty originally proposed three features: college search, mentorship, and internships. However, user research and feedback revealed mentorship as the most critical need, leading to a refined focus on this feature.

  • Streamlined Offerings

    Transitioned from three broad features to excelling in one—mentorship—ensuring a sharper product focus.

  • User-Centered Approach

    Addressed student-athlete challenges with a targeted solution that integrates feedback from research and testing.

  • Enhanced Visual Identity

    Created a cohesive and distinctive design that aligns with Velosaty’s mission and resonates with its user base.

"If you're interested in a deeper dive into my research on mentorship, please click button to explore my next project on the portfolio."
Research

Improving Design Systems Consistency

04

As I worked on the project, I noticed inconsistencies within the design system and took the initiative to suggest and advocate for improvements. I focused on simplifying and streamlining components, addressing redundancies, and ensuring better consistency throughout the system. Key updates included:

  • Refining button components for better flexibility and smoother handoffs.
  • Improving the color system for consistency and scalability.
  • Enhancing text fields for more versatility and functionality.

These changes ultimately led to a more efficient, consistent, and user-friendly design system.

Velosaty design system
"If you're interested in learning more about the updates and our approach to building a more effective system, feel free to explore the details by clicking the button, which will take you to the next project."
Design System

Design Iteration

05

Through ongoing collaboration, design feedback, and a focus on user and business needs, we redefined the visual identity for all landing pages and overall platform design. This comprehensive update established a consistent, clear, and engaging aesthetic, improving user experience while aligning with our brand vision. Through collaboration and iterative design, we ensured that every element contributed to a cohesive and effective user interface, fostering stronger connections with our audience.

Landing page

Design Iteration of landing page

Dashboard (MVP)

This dashboard design is based on prior business goals, incorporating features like college search, internships, and mentorship. However, as we rethought our approach using user insights and collaboration, we decided to prioritize mentorship as the core feature.

Design Iteration of dashboard

Profile

As the business goals evolved, we removed irrelevant sections from the profile and improved existing ones, while adding new elements to better complement the overall experience.

Design Iteration of profile page

Usability Testing

06

Usability testing on our four main landing pages revealed key areas of user difficulty and confusion. These findings underscored opportunities for improvement to create a more seamless and intuitive user experience.

Landing page
Landing page iterations from usability testing
Mentorship page
Mentorship page iterations from usability testing
"f you're interested in reviewing the key insights gathered from user usability testing."
Key Insights

Impact and Reflection

07

  • 01

    Focusing on What Matters

    Working closely with the founder of Velosaty, I helped shape a platform delivering meaningful mentorship for student-athletes. Despite initially including broader features, we pivoted to prioritize mentorship, delivering a practical, high-impact MVP.

  • 02

    Bridging Design and Development

    I facilitated critical discussions between design and development teams, leveraging my development background to ensure feasibility and smooth implementation while aligning stakeholders around a shared vision.

  • 03

    Enhancing Consistency and Quality

    Paying close attention to details, I identified and resolved inconsistencies and redundancies in the design system. These improvements strengthened the design’s overall coherence and usability, creating a polished and professional user experience.

  • 04

    Challenging the Norm for Better Solutions

    I consistently advocated for design decisions that challenged existing ideas, ensuring we delivered the best possible solutions by balancing user needs and business goals.