Kristian Mingoy | Mentorship Center

Introduction problem user research personas User journey map initial ideation professional feedback solution initial prototyping Professional critique Refined Prototyping final outcome reflection

INTRODUCTION

What is the UW Engineering Mentorship Center?

Through a 20-week process, I collaborated with a team of two others to develop the UW Engineering Mentorship Center, a conceptualized platform designed to help engineering students connect with mentors and fellow classmates for academic, professional, and personal guidance.

I served as the UX/UI Designer, researching students’ needs and translating those insights into an interactive prototype.

problem

Guidance for engineering students is not readily available

While mentorship opportunities exist across the University of Washington, there is no dedicated program tailored to the unique needs of engineering students.

As a result, many struggle to find relevant guidance, connect with experienced peers or professionals, and access support that aligns with the challenges of a time-demanding academic path. This gap leaves students without a clear avenue for academic, career, and personal development support.

User research

What we heard from current engineering students

We conducted four interviews with UW engineering students to gain insight into what an ideal mentorship program would look like for them and to identify any constraints that might exist.

PERSONAs

Understanding the targeted audience

Based on our user research and insights derived from analysis, we created two personas to portray common issues that current engineering students are facing due to the lack of directed guidance.

user journey map

Highlighting pain points throughout experience

We focused on Tom because he embodies the typical engineering student who is driven but busy, juggling academics and work. His journey helped us identify practical challenges and design a mentorship experience that fits seamlessly into students’ busy lives.

We created a user journey map to visualize Tom's experience navigating mentorship to identify issues that he comes across and emotions that he feels.

initial ideation

Brainstorming and storyboarding

To start the design phase, we rapidly sketched out ideas that could potentially be solutions. From these quick sketches, we then decided to select our three strongest ideas and storyboard them to understand how the experience might be.

Professional Feeddback

What the professionals think

Before we went forward with a solution, we were fortunate to present our ideas to industry professionals and gain crucial insights on how we can best shape a solution that is both effective and meaningful.

Solution

A centralized mentorship hub on the UW College of Engineering website

As a team, we decided to incorporate aspects across all ideas, which resulted in the creation of a Mentorship Center located on the UW College of Engineering website.

By having an online, localized hub, it offers flexibility for industry mentorship and peer-to-peer connections, both virtually and in-person, at the student's own convenience. A Mentorship Center creates a place where community can form and grow.

Initial prototyping

Low and medium fidelity prototyping

When developing the webpage, we chose to create three distinct pathways: Connect With a Mentor, Explore Events, and Comunity

To work efficiently as a team, we divided the pathways among the group, and I was assigned to design the "Connect With a Mentor" section as well as the landing page.

Landing (low → mid)

Connect With a Mentor (low → mid)

Mentor Match Quiz (low → mid)

Become a Mentor (low → mid)

Professional critique

What the professional thinks again

Once again, we were fortunate to present our mid-fidelity prototypes to an industry professional to gain insights on how to improve our design and how to implement their feedback into our final design.

Refined Prototyping

Integrating feedback to elevate clarity and usability

We took the professional’s critique and refined our flows, visuals, and content to create a clearer, more intuitive experience.

Landing & Connect With a Mentor

Mentor Match Quiz

Become a Mentor

final outcome

A cohesive resource that gives students streamlined access to mentorship and community

reflection

Trust the process

A 20-week project, spanning across two quarters, has taught me the value of patience, iteration, and trusting each step of the design process. With the first half of the project focusing on user research and the latter half focusing on design, I was able to see how insights directly shape meaningful solutions.

Research grounds everything
Spending the first half on user research reinforced how essential it is for shaping clear, intentional design decisions.

Cohesion matters
Aligning visuals, content, and interaction patterns across the experience made the final product feel unified and purposeful.

Critique strengthens work
Feedback, particularly from industry professionals, strengthens work by revealing blind spots, refining ideas, and guiding design decisions to better serve users.

Thank you for exploring this case study. Please reach out if you have any questions or would like to connect.