CONNECT — Social Media App

What is “CONNECT”?

CONNECT is a Social Media app for college students, where students (especially first-year/second-year) can explore different fields( For eg:-UI/UX Designing, Digital Marketing, Photography, Competitive Coding, and much more) along with their academic subjects.

They can also collaborate with their college seniors who are already in that particular field past few months/years have much more experienced than them.

And can even collaborate with their batchmates and work in groups and can increase their learning 2x faster, rather than just working in isolation.

Pain Points of the Users:-

1. Unawareness of different fields. Most of the college students just focused on regular academics and didn’t get the exposure to explore different fields as a result of which in the end they had to compete for a job in which they might not even interested.
2. Working in isolation mode & lack of supportive environment. Many students doing their work in isolation and unaware that their batchmates also could have the same interest as them.

How does the “CONNECT” App solve the user's problems?

Problem Statement 1:- Unawareness of different fields

Solution:-

Select your Interest Screen:-

After the Sign-up/Login process user have to select their interest in this screen. This screen helps users make them aware that apart from their academic subjects, there are many different side hustles that they can look at and explore.

It consists of different fields like UI/UX Designing, Digital Marketing, Android/Web Development, Graphic Designing, Higher Studies preparations, and much more along with the number of participants who are already in that particular field.

When the user selects their particular interest in this screen, they directed to the HomeScreen of the application where posts related to their field, posted by the Batchmates/Seniors whom the users follow, will be shown to them.

HomeScreen:- This screen shows the posts related to that particular field that users had selected according to their interests.

These posts are the works of their Seniors/Batchmates whom the users follow like their ongoing projects, information regarding their fields, latest innovations in that field, and so on.

It plays a major role in keeping the users aware of the different side hustles that their Seniors/Batchmates are hustling, i.e. creating an environment where anyone can learn from the people around them, collaborate with them, and avoid the rat race.

Problem Statement 2:- Working in Isolation mode

Many students when started learning some new skills, find it difficult to keep doing it in the initial days. The reason is that many of them work in isolation, doing their own hit and trial experiments without any frequent feedbacks from experienced people and also not having collaborating environment around them, which led them to frustration and they are on a verge of giving up.

Solution:-

Mentors List Screen:-

1. This screen basically contains a list of people having a common interest, which the user has selected.
2. The list includes profiles of users batchmates/seniors from the same college or the nearby colleges within the city.
3. This helps users to find someone to collaborate with(for eg:- batchmates) or to take guidance from the college seniors.
4. The addition of alumni will be a huge bonus, as students can communicate with them, with more ease due to the same educational background.

Screens of UI/UX Designing, Software Development fields.

Keynote to take from this:-

Users can create a productive environment of people sharing a common interest which the user has, and work with them even offline.

Besides solving the isolation problem, this also helps users in improving their communication as well as make them strong team players.

Seniors/Alumni Profile Screen:-

This is a profile screen of the college seniors or alumni, where they had shared all their college experiences related to their interest so that beginners who are entering in that field could take help from their resources and could also communicate with them.

Senior’s Profile

Senior’s Profile continued

Key features of this screen are:-

1. In this Screen, users can send messages or emails to the people they follow.
2. Users can know their batchmates/senior's work experiences, their educational background, and so on.
3. Users can also take inspiration from their batchmates/senior’s projects and can also contribute them to their ongoing projects.
4. The Resources and Preparation strategy has also been made available to the users so that they can enhance their learning experience with more ease.

Competitive Analysis

1.Based on exploring different fields aspect:-

Other Apps (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc):-

These Apps contain most of the profiles of Corporate people or of someone who is more experienced in any particular field.

Moreover, it is more user-friendly for those who exactly know their field of interest. Beginners who have just started something new to explore can easily get confused and overwhelmed that how to cope up in so much competitive environment.

CONNECT App:-

Connect app contains most of the profiles of student batchmates who are almost on a similar level as them.

Moreover, it helps users to know different fields which they might not even aware of, previously.

2. Based on Collaboration aspect:-

Other Apps (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc):-

For a beginner, it is very hard to find someone who can give the right direction to them to every single step that they are taking because of the huge competition.

Sometimes it also becomes difficult for beginners to trust who really want to help newbies, who can be the right mentors for them according to their personality, and so on.

CONNECT App:-

In this App, the connections that the beginners make are mostly from their college or nearby colleges, so that the chances of trust, bonding increases with the seniors/batchmates as they are from the same environment.

Moreover, they can also hold frequent meetings regarding their projects/work offline which I personally believe would create a huge impact for most people.

User Research

Insight from this research:-

It clearly shows that in the majority of the college's, professors just focussed on academic lectures & attendance, although they are important but apart from that, there should be parallel combination of academic lectures & different fields which students can explore.

Insight from this research:-

Concerning the collaboration aspect majority of the students, based on research, wants to collaborate with people, work with them, curious to know the different approach to a particular problem from the mentors, to increase their learning.

Insight from this research:-

Data shows that if a product like Connect app present to the students, they try to explore different fields and could easily create a productive environment in whichever field they are interested.

User Persona

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