Connect 4H is a communication app designed to help recruit teens into the Suffolk 4H Program. 4H is a youth development program dedicated to providing youth a better understanding and appreciation of their environment and their health while offering a foundation of community service plus education oppurtunities in science, technology, engineering and math.
It isn't easy for 4H members to keep in touch with eachother in an affable way. Especially with COVID-19, they only physically meet once a month in the group leaders home, and communicate via text. We noticed that this causes kids to drop out of the program due to lack of interest.
Due to a lack of interest on behalf of the students, the 4h program of Long Island is having trouble retaining and recruiting members between the age of 13 and 17.
Create a communication app that makes the process of signing up for volunteer events simple for new comers. While bringing in new recruits, it will also help current members keep in touch with each other in a more meaningful way.
Restore the retention rate of 4H Members staying in the program beyond their middle school years, and attract new users by word of mouth and the promise of volunteering oppurtunites.
We do this by improving the quality of communication between group members to enhance meaningful relationshops, and making volunteer events accessable to people not within the program to introduce them in a non-committal way.
We were limited due to the fact that this was the first semester full time during the COVID-19 lockdown, so every interview mattered. We interviewed 11 high schoolers all together, four were 4h members and 7 weren't aware of the program.
"I only see the other group members when we meet at our group leaders house."
"I'm probably not going to stay much longer, I feel I've gotten enough volunteer hours."
"I've been a 4h member since I was in elementary school, I've never seen anyone our age sign up before."
"It sounds like boy scouts and I'm a little too old for that."
"The volunteering sounds like it'd be good to get hours in, but I wouldn't want to join with out knowing anything about it first."
"I wouldn't join unless I had friends in the group. The scholarships sound nice though."
Here we learn that most teens within the 4H program enroll when they're around 5-9 years old through their parents signing them up. There isn't a pull for highschoolers to register willingly by themselves. Not only that but they see their fellow 4h members as acquaintances at best, and even more so with the pandemic canceling events and scheduled meetups.
When it comes to teens outside the program, engaging in volunteering efforts is regarded as another thing to check off the list of activities to do in order to get into a college or graduate highschool. When they hear about the promise of scholarships, they're more interested but still hesitant, as users tend to be apprehensive over committing to a program.
Two aspects we focused on when performing paper prototype tests were making sure the user felt comfortable joining a group, utilizing the chat, and interacting with the volunteering screen.
We tested the paper prototype with 3 highschool students in sophmore year and payed close attention to how they navigated the group chat screens and the volunteering screens.
"It's akward to view the event and have to go back to sign up"
Our tester tried to sign up to the event by accessing the events information, and got confused when he only saw a wall of text with the description and address but no sign up button. He eventually figured it out, but we wanted to seperate the "View Event" and "Sign Up" buttons into seperate screens to improve the quality of navigation flow.
"I need to take a selfie? Ok, but where do I clock in?"
When on the "Clocking in" page, the user struggled to understand what they had to do. The origional idea was for the volunteer to upload a selfie at the event both in the beginning and end of their "shift" making this the way they clock in, but our user mentioned breaks, or reasons the volunteer might have to leave in a hurry like an emergency. It'd be weird if they had to take a selfie in order to leave. We agreed and decided that clocking in and out should be as easy as a tap of a button. We kept the selfie feature as a way for the leader to confirm they were at the event, and encourage the user to share their contribution on social media.
"Am I supposed to like, message the leader and tell her I'm there?
Another issue with the "clocking in" page was that the participants on the side distracted him. Their purpose was just to show who was going to be there, and interacting with them on the app isn't nessisary for joining the event. This was a mistake in hierarchy so we made the participant list something the user can reveal and hide.
Our users found no issue joining the group chat, and showed familiarity with Ui elements. They were able to join the group with the 5 diget code, and enjoyed how when you join a voice call the pictures of the participants don't take up the entire screen so you're free to explore the app further.
Create a report system that will report messages with profanities and bullying to the group leader.
Make a way for the group leader to give the older more trustworthy 4h members admin powers.
Create a way for kids to report things like profanities and bullying in the group chats.
Edit the prototype to make it more obvious that the user is joining as a Guest and not a member of 4h.
Also show how a current member would send an invite for the Shamrock group to a guest.
Create restrictions for guests vs 4h members.
Create a page where the information shared within an online meeting can be summarized and repeated.
This is nessisary because when in an online meeting, a member can be distracted by an at-home disturbance. Also useful for anyone who missed the meeting.
As this was my first internship, it taught me a lot about how keeping your client updated on your project. Especially if you are limited in your UX research recources, your client can be a fantastic contribution to your data collection alongside your usability testing.
Many understandably felt the pandemic put a halt on their life. Creating an large obstacle that forced everyone to adapt to a new technological world whether they were young or old.
When it comes to creating a solution for developing teens, it was beneficial to observe the positive aspects that that long distance friendships already provided people before COVID, and apply these elements to an app that would help keep people who weren't so technologically advanced.
With difficulty in keeping retention in older 4h members, it was important to create a solution that would not only help new members join the program but also help current members learn valuable leadership skills.
Giving the teens a safe online space to hang out and spend their time during the pandemic is a beneficial way to improve their mental health. And since the 4h Program encourages students to enter the STEM field, it'll teach them valuable social skills they may utilize in a remote job post college grad.
