Internship on Demand
A white-label Learning Management System(LMS) platform to help facilitate students obtaining internships.
Client: Internship on Demand
Role: UX Designer and Researcher
Methods: User Interviews, Comparative Analysis, Journey Maps, IA Diagrams, Wireframes, Usability Testing and Prototyping
Tools: Figma, InVision, Google Suite
Deliverables: Interactive Prototype | Recommendations Report
Overview/Users
Overview
Internship on Demand (IOD) needed a custom white-label learning management system platform. That’s where I came in. To help secure funding, IOD required an interactive prototype that can represent an operational full-service web platform capable of displaying a set of key user task flows and demonstrating value for both prospective IOD students and partner companies.
Key Users
“Pre-Interns” (i.e., college students) looking to gain project experience and better understand career opportunities with various hiring companies.
Internship on Demand staff (e.g.,“Student Success Manager”) wanting to effectively manage, deliver, and support the pre-internship experience.
Initial Whiteboarding
The Challenge
Previous IOD Platform
Traditional internships are resource-intensive. When not managed well, they leave students (and employers) with poor experiences.
IOD’s current platform allows “pre-interns” to work through company-centric learning modules including readings, best practice documents, and video lessons by leveraging existing web services such as Thinkific, Slack and Google Meet.
With the current state of the existing platform, Thinkific, it does inhibit the scalability for future growth for IOD.
The Journey
The project started with a meeting with the main stakeholder and founder of Internship of Demand. We talked about the current platform that they are using and then discussed the pain points and the opportunities that they would benefit from with a custom platform, and identified opportunities for improvement and expansion.
Comparative Analysis
To familiarize myself with the product landscape, I researched examples of existing LMS platforms. A competitive audit was conducted to research potential features and learn how they were successfully implemented with other platforms.
User Interviews
Interviews with Students, Company partners, experts in the field currently integrating LMS platforms.
Key Takeaways
Students and company partners expressing confusion over a lack of consolidated materials.
Students were required to submit assignments via email, and company partners had no easy way to view or track student progress.
User Journey Maps/Personas
These insights were then leveraged into Personas to give names and faces to our data and to help navigate specified key task flows that would be later designed for our prototype.
Student User Journey Map and User Persona
Employee Journey Map and User Persona
Design System
A design system was created that is capable of changing color patterns, typography, and fonts to fit the companies that IOD partners with as it grows.
IOD Design System
IOD Design System
Wireframes
Lo-fi to Hi-fi wireframes were created based off of the research gathered from the insights of the User Interviews and the Comparative Analysis.
Student Dashboard:
Based on the User Interviews, 100% of the students wanted a simple dashboard for the platform.
Lo-Fi Wireframe of Student Dashboard
Hi-Fi Wireframe of Student Dashboard
Assignment Portal:
One central location to submit assignments was a key takeaway from the interviews with the students.
Lo-Fi Wireframe of Assignment Portal
Hi-Fi Wireframe of Assignment Portal
Build A Course Page:
This page offers the admin/employee easy access for adding course material.
Lo-Fi Wireframe of Build A Course Page
Hi-Fi Wireframe of Build A Course Page
Results, Recommendations, and Reflections
Mockup Of Mobile App
Next Steps:
Additional Usability Testing.
Another step would be to collaborate with IOD’s founder to hone in on what is technically feasible for implementation and how to make it financially viable. This would help to insure IOD’s success and sustained delivery to its community.
A stretch goal for this project would be to develop and design this platform to be accessible and responsive on mobile devices.
Reflection:
This was a wonderful project to work on with the founder of Internship on Demand and help him see what is possible for the future of this platform.