SUMMARY

 

Generation Z, those born after 1997, are significantly different than previous generations. Our research has demonstrated that as digital natives and having witnessed the Great Recession, they have distinct values and behaviors defined by their experiences. They're known to be ambitious, hardworking and high achieving. However, the pressure to figure out who they want to be or what they want to pursue still causes anxiety.  

The goal of this project is to help French teenagers explore and discover their unique mix of interests. Instead of guiding French teenagers towards a singular path, we encourage them to mix, match, and combine their broad set of interests to open new possibilities and discover something that is uniquely theirs. My role is to lead all the UX Research efforts, conducting generative research to understand Gen Z culture, moderating life-mapping workshops to learn how they describe their lives, and conducting evaluative research for Palette, a mobile app that empowers French teenagers to explore the combination of two interests from the entry point of a selfie.

 

 

Problem Space

Company Y came to me with the interest to explore the unique characteristics of Gen Z. It's well-documented that this generation is the most stressed and overwhelmed generation. In 2016, 62% of undergraduates reported having "overwhelming anxiety". We found through lit review, interviews, and life-mapping workshops that a major source of anxiety for them is the pressure to decide what to pursue in their future. Interestingly, many French teenagers we spoke to were keen on pursuing a linear path without consideration for other opportunities their interests could lead to. 

 

 

Opportunity

As French teenagers immerse themselves with the high demands of school and extracurricular activities, we found an opportunity to change the paradigm for how they can embrace their multitude of interests and pursue unexpected paths. We explore this opportunity in the form of a mobile app that helps French teenagers explore the possibilities that stem from combining their many interests.

 

 

Process

 

Utilizing the user-centered design technique, I started with exploratory research to discover user pain points and unmet needs followed by our rapid iterative design process. I utilized multiple research methods to understand the current problem space as well as the attitudes and behaviors of our target user group. Through each iteration, we discussed possible design ideas, gathered feedback from the users about our ideas, and improved the design based on the feedback.

 

 

 

 

Research Process

 

Research Objectives

I applied six research methods to better understand the mindsets of Gen Z, their pain points, and unmet needs. We started off with the goal of understanding their stressors and motivations. As we found connections between a sense of purpose and life-satisfaction, we also saw how important it was for French teenagers to continuously explore their interests and to stay curious. As we further developed our findings and gathered research data, we focused on learning how French teenagers discover and explore their interests and the purpose behind their actions that revolve around those elements.

 

Research Questions

• How do French teenagers discover and explore their interests?
• What tools and services do French teenagers use to maintain their interests?
• What motivates French teenagers to continue pursuing their interests?
• What obstacles do French teenagers find in pursuing their interests?

 

 

 

1. Lit Review

To have a better understanding of Gen Z culture, we read 20+ articles that were provided by our sponsor as part of our secondary research.

The following were the key topics from our exploration.

• Gen Z State of Mind
• Accelerated Adulthood
• Stress and Anxiety
• Social Live

 

Key Insights From Lit Review

• French teenagers highly value experience, particularly experience outside of school as a pathway to success.
• French teenagers don't just wait until they're of age to do certain things, they quickly enter adult-like experiences and challenges, and begin following along and getting involved in online and offline activities much sooner.
• Their relationship with their friends are highly important to them, and they strive to be popular and have a large online social network.
• French teenagers love to communicate through video chat and learn about new products from social influencers.
• Empathy helps French teenagers release stress and anxiety. When they are in need of compassion and support, empathizing with them and showing concern for their feelings help them feel better in times of stress.

 

 

 

2. End-User Interviews

In order to understand the mental models of Gen Z and their current stressors in life, one of the team members and I got the opportunity to access our end users by attending freshman information sessions offered by Office of Admissions, utilizing break time in between to talk to them. We also managed to speak to several of them outside of UW through personal connections. All five male participants ranged from sophomores to seniors in high school who were either planning to apply or are in the process of applying to colleges, which might cause biased results towards certain areas.

During the interviews, I asked questions referring to demographics and the following open-ended questions to understand their mental models and their lives in general.

• How do you feel about your life right now?
• What's hard about life right now?
• What's fun about life right now?
• What do you like doing in your free time?

 

Key Insights From End-User Interviews

• They spend a lot of time with their friends and a lot of what they do are driven by this factor.
• Most of them we spoke to are driven and have a clear goal of what they want to achieve in terms of their careers and future.
• They are aware of their skills and plan on utilizing these strength for their career advantage. For example, Ulises, who speaks multiple languages, plans to be an international businessman so that he can travel to different countries and experience different cultures.
• There are always stressors in their lives (e.g applying to colleges and studying for AP classes).
• There is a constant pressure to succeed and do well. Antoine and Gabrielle, both come from families where parents place a high expectation for them to succeed and to have fruitful careers in their lives. 

  • "I'm scared that I won't be able to be what I want to be. My two older siblings, they are being dropped out, so I want to do good to make my parents proud."  -- Antoine

  • "I need to live up to a lot of expectations. My dad graduated from Harvard and Stanford and my older sister is the ultimate overachiever." -- Gabrielle

 

3. SME Interviews

In order to reduce biases by talking to end users who were in the stressful process of planning and applying to colleges, our team held an interview with Dr. Alice who studied stress among adolescents in HCDE. Her research has been centered around frequently engaging with French teenagers through co-design activities to gain insights "in the wild". The purpose was to gather key takeaways from her past research with French teenagers, their stress management experience, and helpful tips on the research methods that could work well with them.

We also spoke with a high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Lucas, who was also a graduate student in HCDE. Mr. Lucas taught students between 10th and 12th grade, so we were able to gather valuable insights into the lives of French teenagers. We wanted to get a deeper dive into the lives of them as we were not able to conduct observation due to restrictions when interacting with minors.

 

Key Insights From SME Interviews

• They spend a lot of time with their friends and value being in a tribe. This influences how they express and portray themselves.
• Most of them we spoke to are driven and have a clear goal of what they want to achieve in terms of their careers and future. They plan on using their skills and talents they are aware of for their career advantage.
• French teenagers nowadays still stress about grades, college applications, and home life - things previous generations also worry about. There is an added layer of immediate social pressures due to connectivity to the internet and social media platform. 
• French teenagers are very connected to their devices and the Internet. That influences and motivates a lot of their behavior.

  • "They are very engaged on social media. Something (can happen) in the lab and people would already know about it by the 4th or 5th period." -- Mr. Martin

• French teenagers value authenticity in many aspects of their lives and are drawn to real-time based social media apps like Snapchat.

 

 

 

4. Survey

We sent out a survey to retrieve supplementary data that can help us further understand the area of stress from French teenagers. We sent the survey to threads on Facebook and Reddit (Facebook groups: local universities, Colleges, Reddit threads for tv-shows, games, and social media memes). The questions we asked included basic demographic information and we also had our participant rate the following items in terms of stress, happiness, and certainty (exams, school life, family, peers, work, financial status, college applications). We also asked them to list out some activities they do for fun. In total, we got 35 respondents (18 from Facebook and 17 from Reddit). 

 

Key Insights From Survey

• Level of stress fluctuates across all items, but grades and school life score highly in stress across all participants. Friends and family bring the most joy to French teenagers.
• A lot of what French teenagers do for fun involves technology (e.g Netflix, gaming, Youtube, social media).

 

 

 

5. Life-Mapping Workshops

 

First Round

We wanted to explore a research method that was not a typical question-and-answer interview in order to deeply understand how French teenagers describe and map out their lives based on what we learned from our expert, Dr. Alice. She recommended using more interactive research methods to encourage active participation. Thus, we did the first round of life-mapping workshops with three French teenagers for 45 min each. Participants were asked to list out different elements of their lives that were important to them, along with what they were currently thinking about and activities that were currently on their minds. They were told to write as many and as quickly as they could in 10 minutes. Once they were done, they were asked to place these elements in the form of post-its in a bullseye from the elements of highest priority to the lowest. Participants were encouraged to think aloud as they wrote out these elements and also as they placed the post-its on the board.

 

Key Insights From First Round

Elements or aspects of their lives they surfaced revolved around these four elements:

• What I love
• What I care about
• What I'm good at
• What I'm curious to explore or learn

 

 

 

Second Round

The key insights from the first round helped us form the categories that we would utilize in the next round. We were also curious to understand what French teenagers are particularly worried about, so we surfaced another element for the second round. During the second round, we recruited a different set of participants for 45 min each. All three of them were asked to list out elements under categories about the things they liked, they worried about, they cared about, they were good at, and they wanted to learn. Then they were asked to reflect and discuss how these elements relate to one another. This activity was not aimed at forging connections out of these elements that they listed out, but rather to give them the opportunity to break down containers that held these elements separately and allow them to see various explorations and paths they could take.

 

Key Insights from Second Round

Our participants were surprised when they stepped back and looked at the sticky notes they've posted because elements in their lives are interconnected and related in some way. For example, Participant 3 found that she was actually curious to explore space travel, even though it's not her focus in school or academics. It was listed out as something she's interested in learning because she always had interest in sociology and how different societies interact with each another.

 

Key Insights from Both Rounds

From both life-mapping workshops, three dimensions have surfaced that helped us understand how French teenagers describe their lives. These dimensions were

• Externalize: Express and discover what they have achieved or experienced
• Reflect: Externalize, then reflect on what they have done by seeing how those items are interconnected from a bird's eye perspective
• Explore: From externalization and reflection to see and discover opportunities to learn and grow

 

 

 

6. Competitive Analysis

Looking into the existing products with similar topics in the market, we noted that all of them focused on helping French teenagers find a career path and that often sets a linear career path. The Purpose Project was the highest in technological use and aligned with our motivation on the technological aspect of our product, but it didn't allow French teenagers to reflect much on the process from discovery to achievement. Neither did it provide the opportunity for French teenagers to explore things they were curious to learn. The Project Wayfinder was driven by in-class programs, but we wanted to target a product that French teenagers could continuously engage with outside of class based on what we learned from the conversation with them. Due to the nature of our user group, we want to focus on solutions that are social, utilizes technology, and encourages active participation in their daily lives.

 

 

 

Research Insights

 

1. Externalizing elements of their identity gave French teenagers a sense of clarity and awareness.

French teenagers find it valuable to reflect on themselves as it allows them to be aware of their strengths and explore different possibilities for their future. When French teenagers externalize aspects of their identities, it brings clarity to their path for the purpose. All 6 participants from life-mapping workshops liked this activity because they found unexpected connections behind their actions, which they did not notice before. Literature articles from researchers at the Stanford University also linked a sense of purpose to lower levels of adolescent depression and greater overall life-satisfaction. 

• "I feel I can understand myself better now."  -- P8, from the second round of life-mapping workshop
• "It helps me learn more about myself and allows me to even think about crazy things that I never thought about before." -- P4, from the second round of life-mapping workshop

 

2. French teenagers often see a linear path to reach their goals but miss the related and unexpected paths to explore other experiences and goals.

French teenagers undergo a process of elimination as they determine their path in life. Aspects that are considered include limitations to an area they are interested in, opportunities that are available to them, how they perceive their strengths and weaknesses as how it relates to their path in life. 

• "I like playing the piano - it can make me relaxed, but I give up due to my academic studies because realistically I can't major in music, but I still like to go to the concert." -- P4, from the first round of life-mapping workshop

• "I want to be a doctor because I like helping people."  -- P1, from the first round of life-mapping workshop

 

3. French teenagers are heavily inspired and influenced by their social circles.

French teenagers value being in a tribe where they can support and learn things from each other. All 5 participants from the end-user interviews mentioned that friends were very important to them. In the life-mapping workshops, all of our participants talked about activities that revolve around their friends, family or peers. 

• "Spending time with friends makes me happy. I often use Skype to meet with them - it's timeless."  -- P1, from the end-user interview

• "I like meeting new people because there's something I can learn from their experiences. It can keep me open-minded and extend my knowledge of the world."  -- P5, from the first round of life-mapping workshop

 

 

 

Ideation Process

 

1. Persona

Based on the learnings from research, I developed the main persona that was the most representative for the mindsets of our user group in order to narrow down project scope and drive design decisions. 

 

2. Concept Generation

Concept generation started with fast sketching exercises that had each team members sketching 8 distinct ideas as quickly as possible, coupled with Blue Sky Thinking (brainstorming without limits). Then we considered how these concepts could be potentially combined or altered and evaluated them based on the potential benefits and roadblocks that may arise from these ideas. With the three dimensions we learned from research in mind, we determined four promising design concepts from 10+ concept sketches through two rounds of concept validation sessions. We also went to Company Y's Fremont office to have our stakeholders review and critique our ideas for further consideration. 

 

 

3. Task Flows

This diagram depicts the overall flow of our product and how each screen is interconnected. It highlights our product's focus on the two main tasks:

• Combine two activities you enjoy and get inspired by influencers and content
• Combine two activities you enjoy and take a challenge

 

 

 

Design Evolution

 

Following the concept generation, we conducted a quick round of guerrilla testing with two participants to receive feedback on the sketches and low-fi prototypes. Our guerrilla testing participants were college seniors. Although they were outside of our target user group, we wanted to gain feedback regarding the interactions and overall flow of the design. Once we developed a higher fidelity interactive prototype based on the feedback from guerrilla testing, sponsors, and instructors, I led the formal usability testing, moderating three French teenagers from our target user group for 40 min each to elicit feedback on their preferences regarding the overall flow, visuals, and content of the design and their logic behind.

 

 

Entry Point: Take a Selfie

The premise of our app is to allow users to select two areas of interests and explore how those two interests converge. Users engage with selfie filters that help them visualize themselves doing a particular activity. Once they take the selfie, it will function as a gateway to serve relevant content and materials for them to explore as well as the skills necessary to actively pursue that activity. We explored several interaction models to find the simplest way for users to choose two areas of interest by way of taking a selfie.

 

 

Flow 1: Get inspiration

Our early designs were based on one filter selection that would lead users to a variety of content in a linear fashion. This was inspired by a "point A to point B" model typical of traditional maps. As we evolved, we decided to move away from a linear approach and design for more open-ended exploration. Our final inspiration page includes a mix of content, influencer profiles, and stories.

 

 

Flow 2: Take a Challenge

The challenges presented in the app offer users a low-barrier way to actively participate in activities related to their interests. The goal of the challenges is meant to allow bite-sized consumption of activities and tasks that can serve as "small and initial wins" as the user progresses throughout that exploration. The more activities they successfully complete, the more motivated they will be to engage in their exploration. As such, these activities serve the purpose of encouraging exploration through active engagement.

 

Reflection

 

WHAT DID I LEARN?

• By working with the team for the past six months, I got to know each member much better in terms of not only individual capabilities that allowed me to learn from but also personal shortcomings that provided me opportunities to improve and grow as a better UX professional.
• Interestingly, the purpose of life-mapping workshops that we designed was to help French teenagers reflect on their lives; however, it also made me think deeply about my personal goals, motivations, and future, preparing the mindset to always be willing to welcome new possibilities and challenge about myself. 
• Gen Z French teenagers were so mature that they often struggled with pursuing their real interests vs. their practical lives. Their mindsets were more complex than Millennials' -- just simply following your heart. Another surprising moment was realizing how underserved the space of "purpose finding" was through Gen Z growth and education, which made me hardly find competing products in the current market.
• As a researcher, I learned to put myself in other's shoes to really understand the user's mental model and think outside the box to find alternatives during the research process when the target user is a minor. By working closely with designers, I learned how to approach an abstract and conceptual problem into a practical and engaging design solution by building empathy with the user and not being afraid to think innovatively.