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Fempower

A 3-month-long study that focuses on design methods and user-centered functionalities. 

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Fempower is an app that provides STEM students at the University of Washington, especially female students, a platform to connect with mentors. Fempower's goal is to increase support and guidance for women pursuing a career in STEM.

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My Roles

Project Manager
Designer
Technical Writer
Video Editor

Team

On Choi
Dana Rin
Janvi Wadhawan
Katherine Wardhana
Betty Zhou

Duration

January 2021
-
March 2021
(3mo. total)

———  PROBLEM

The fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) at the University of Washington are predominantly dominated by males which makes it harder for women to thrive due to a lack of guidance and support.

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———  PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might we provide a mentoring service for women in STEM at the University of Washington so that they can receive professional and educational guidance/support?

———  KEY RESEARCH INSIGHTS

  • The STEM field is dominated by males so there is a lack of support and resources for women pursuing the field (Charlesworth)

  • The gender gap in STEM can be attributed to the social bias in the field

    • lack of accommodation for female students in educational spaces

    • unavailability of role models

  • The male-dominated field can be very unwelcoming to women and make them more likely to exit these industries or never enter them in the first place

———  COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

There were two mentorship programs at the University of Washington that we identified:

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Undergraduate Women in Business

———  COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

There were two mentorship programs at the University of Washington that we identified:

and

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Undergraduate Women in Business

(associated with the UW Foster Business School)

iMentorship

(associated with the UW Information School)

———  PERSONAS

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Beth Taylor

  • 35 years old

  • Lives in Seattle, WA

  • Software Engineer for Amazon

Dana Rin

  • 19 years old

  • Lives in Seattle, WA

  • Studying Informatics

Goals:

  • Wants to inspire younger generations to pursue a career in STEM

  • Be able to support and guide students, younger females with their professional career

Goals:

  • Receive help from someone they can look up/relate to

  • Have someone guide her throughout her academic and professional journey 

———  KEY CONCEPTS

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allow women in STEM at UW to connect with mentors

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close the gender gap that exists in STEM fields

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increase representation of female role models

———  USER VALIDATION

After interviewing six UW students (three who have a car on campus, and three that don't), we had them go through our app and asked them a variety of questions about the usability of our prototype.

We performed user validation twice throughout this project. We revisited the same interviewees with their feedback incorporated as well and interviewed others to continue building on what we had. Due to the large scope of our project and short amount of time, we, unfortunately, weren't able to create a fully functioning (coded) app.

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———  DEMO VIDEO

I created this video using Canva, Moovly, and iMovie.

———  SOLUTION

To view the Fempower prototype in its entirety, click here.​

To read more about the design rationale of Fempower, look into the design specification.

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