BEGIN Resources Platform
Democratizing campus resources for budding entrepreneurs
In Fall 2023, I designed an online resource platform to support aspiring entrepreneurs in discovering the most relevant resources for their needs. As the sole designer on this project, I executed at each stage of the design process from research to final design to hand-off for development. My solution was successfully launched in January 2024.
Problem
Although UC Berkeley is rich with resources, the sheer number is overwhelming, causing students to lose motivation before their entrepreneurial journey even begins. This challenges is especially daunting for those with limited experience or financial resources.
Outcome
I designed and delivered a new "Resources" page on the BEGIN platform, providing users with a centralized site to easily find the best resource aligned with their goals. Since launching publicly in January 2024, my solution has resulted in a 390% increase in average session duration and attracted 7,100+ unique users.
Role
UX Designer
Timeline
Aug - Dec 2023
Tools
Figma, Miro,
Google Analytics
Team
1 Designer (Me!)
1 Developer
3 Stakeholders
Disciplines
Web Design
Usability Testing
Design Hand-Off
THE PROBLEM SCOPE
There is a disconnect between start-up ideas and resources.
In May of 2023, UC Berkeley hosted an AI hackathon where thousands of participants came together to leverage AI in creating innovation solutions across different competition categories. Dozens of Berkeley SkyDeck (UC Berkeley's start-up accelerator) founders, venture capitalists, and judges from across the nation came together host the event. The hackathon generated countless innovative ideas from the participating student teams.
After the event, many teams expressed interest in keep their projects alive by pitching their ideas as a start-up and securing resources to cultivate their work. However, there seems to be a disconnect between this interest and the thousands of available entrepreneurial resources on campus. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council at UC Berkeley is looking to enhance the BEGIN web experience to address these newfound needs. BEGIN, also known as the Berkeley Gateway to Innovation, is an online resource platform aiming to help people find the opportunity to best accelerate their entrepreneurial journey.
BUSINESS NEEDS
Goals & Constraints
Before starting my design process, I met with the key stakeholders that were funding this initiative. Through my conversations with Rich Lyons (Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer, UC Berkeley Chancellor) and Debra Summers (Director of Marketing), I could align with internal business goals. Doing this helped me understand the balance that I needed to strike between user desirability, business viability, and technical feasibility.
High feasibility, high impact
Simple implementation to align with the team's development timeline, whilst being intentional and impactful on improving the resource exploration experience for all potential audiences.
Optimize user session duration
The current average user session time is only 30 seconds. Benchmarking the increase of this metric directly correlates to user success in completing goals and solution effectiveness.
USER RESEARCH
Understanding the current experience
To begin the process, I wanted to hear directly from resource-seeking individuals themselves. To begin, I sent out a screener survey to the UC Berkeley population, aiming to understand user motivations and friction points in the exploration experience from various audiences including undergraduates, master students, alumni, and staff. From the 26 responses, I conducted interviews with 5 users to hear first-hand on their typical process of finding resources.
3 COMMON THEMES
Why are users struggling?
From this research, I located three main pain points in the user experience through an affinity mapping exercise. Throughout this, I could consolidate all of my research findings and understand common experiences and pain points in the resource finding experience for our users.
Immense number of resources
UC Berkeley currently offers thousands of resources that span across all different kinds of industries and audiences, which can be overwhelming to learn about — especially for those without any previous entrepreneurship knowledge.
Inability to preview information
Users must navigate to an external site to learn more about each resource due to an inability to preview links, decreasing efficiency and creating a tedious process that discourages motivation in exploring more than a few links.
Confusing categorization
BEGIN currently categorizes resources internally as different stages in the entrepreneurship journey, but these terms are not intuitive especially to new users and don't provide any more needed context to make informed decisions when exploring.
THE CORE PROBLEM
UC Berkeley is rich with resources, but the sheer number of available opportunities is overwhelming and hard to navigate.
DEFINING PERSONA & GOALS
Consolidating key insights into goal-oriented personas
Sam the Student
After recently participating in the hackathon and with no previous experience, they are interested in learning more about available resources for new entrepreneurs. When they have a general idea of resources they're looking for, they are open to discovery.
Emily the Entrepreneur
As the founder of a biotech startup, they are looking to accelerate their business goals and is seeking resources in their specific industry. They have a strong idea of what kind of opportunities would be relevant and wants to find them efficiently.
DESIGN DIRECTION
Defining the problem
Now that I had a better understanding of the problem space and what pain points I should be solving for, I wanted to guide my solution thinking by defining a "How Might We" question to keep me focused on addressing the immediate problem. I referenced this question throughout the remainder of my process.
HOW MIGHT WE…
help users feel confident in choosing the right resource for their needs?
With so many potential solutions, . However, given the limmited
AN AREA OF OPPORTUNITY
Encouraging exploration through a visual, efficient, informative experience
Leveraging my key findings and persona attributes, I understood that was users needed was one centralized location to view all available resources at UC Berkeley, streamlining process and encouraging both efficient resource-finding and exploration. I converted the three identified key problems into areas of opportunity for my design solution to address, helping me ground my approaches and narrowing down design iterations.
Overwhelming ➡️ Welcoming
The interface should be visually pleasing and modern, encouraging users to interact with the platform and quickly find relevant resources.
Confusing ➡️ Informative
Users should have a clear understanding of each resource, allowing them to make informed decisions to before clicking to learn more.
Cluttered ➡️ Relevant
Key resources should be easy to find immediately and less relevant resources should be quickly filtered and hidden from view.
BREAKING DOWN THE APPROACH
Design Architecture
To begin, I broke down the solution idea into smaller elements and aligned each part with a specific user need. Throughout this process, I explored and compared different iterations to see which design would most efficiently solve user needs based on high visual engagement and low cognitive overload.
Individual Resource Card
Visual Tags & Categories
Filter Interface
USABILITY TESTING & INTERACTIONS
How can we balance learning and efficiency?
Once completed, I reached out to three users to conduct rounds of usability testing. I asked the participants to complete several tasks while observing their behaviors and interactions. After, I asked follow-up questions to understand any friction points preventing users from accomplishing their goals. Through this, I learned that users need even more context to make decisions, and want more information on BEGIN rather than being taken directly to an external link.
