Hello World
UI/UX
Research
A non-profit social app for connecting teens to life changing opportunities
Year
2021-2022
Services
Product designer working to streamline upload for non native english speakers
What is Hello World?
Hello World was a non-profit platform that worked to connect youth from around the world to life changing opportunities by capturing their stories in their own voice, via video.
I was responsible for a whole app redesign and delivered a 25% completion rate amongst tens of thousands students who were almost entirely non-native English speakers, up from 16% the year previously.
Communicating the basics
The core challenge of the design was that thousands of students all around the world are eligible for scholarships, grants and opportunities all around the world yet did not have access to apply. Furthermore these applications for opportunities were all designed to be processed in writing which put non-native speaking students at a structural disadvantage. For many people in such circumstances they never even try to apply because they perceive the opportunities as “not for me.” So in order to address this we created a platform that allowed them to apply via video. While they often still had to apply in english, their ability to communicate in their own words and at their own pace greatly improved their comfort and confidence when communicating their story.
Designing applications like projects
Beyond video applications there was also a need to create a workflow that felt more asynchronous and project oriented. This was because most students created the content for their applications in chunks.
This meant we needed to breakup each question into a task and make what was in effect a checklist that users could go down item by item. We could then also space out all the deadlines that were associated with each application as well.
Social video
As the product scaled it became useful for opportunities to leverage the user base in order to parse out interesting projects. We solved this by designing a basic peer review step that could be turned on if the opportunity felt it need user input.
We also quickly found that other students would watch and review many of their peers videos simple to see what others where saying. Over the course of the year this cross student expose noticeably improved completion of challenges.
Tech for good and not for profit
While this project was small I am very proud to have worked on something that was designed to help people access life changing opportunities. During my time working with Hello World we helped thousands of students access grants, apply to colleges, and achieve scholarships that they very well may not have had access to otherwise.
