CLIENT: Torus Teens

DATES: January 2016 - April 2017

COMPANY
Torus Teens is a platform that connects underserved teenagers in the US with life-changing afterschool and summer programs. They give teens the power to explore their interests and build their networks outside of the classroom.

CHALLENGE
This project is an organization I co-founded to give underserved teens the opportunity to develop themselves outside of the formal education system. The challenge was to design a platform that was user friendly for both teens who are digital natives and out-of-school providers who are generally digitally illiterate.

APPROACH
The very beginning of this project started with literature reviews, 1:1 interviews with dozens of teenage students, parents, teachers and administrators and a scan of the competitive landscape. The information from these activities were frameworked in order to extract insights that lead to the creation of two user experience journeys, MVP plan, and product roadmap.

To ensure the end user was always a part of the design process, I hired several high school interns to design the first rounds of platform mockups. The teens created lofi paper prototypes and tested them with other teens in the city. Several rounds of iteration and re-testing ensued. Meanswhile, I worked with out-of-school program providers to co-design a back-end registration system that was user friendly and efficient.

Semi-final designs were created and tested with a steering group of both teens and out-of-school leaders to ensure all sides understood the others’ needs and had a voice in the process.

To launch the product, we created partnerships with hundreds of high schools via affiliate organizations, the NYC Department of Education, dozens of out-of-school providers, and leading nonprofits working in the space.

RESULTS
The final product was a platform that allowed NYC teens to browse and directly apply to hundreds of free and low cost out-of-school programs in NYC. The first full year the platform was alive saw over 14,000 NYC teen users with a 67% return rate, resulting in thousands of applications to out-of-school opportunities.

LESSONS LEARNT
It’s a challenge to meet the varying needs of diverse end-users (teens, out-of-school providers, schools). Individual ideation and creation is key to giving those with less of a voice a space in the design process, but bringing groups together in a well-facilitated atmosphere is also instrumental to creating a double-sided product that will actually be used.