Hi, I’m Jen Chenyu Zhang, an interdisciplinary designer/architect/storyteller.
I design interactive experiences, using multi-medium platforms, from a user-centered and empathetic perspective.

Architectural

Giant RISD
Children’s House
A Tiny Library
The Distant Towers (Research)
The Distant Towers (Design)
Boris Lurie Art Foundation
Restructuring the Grid
Farigola as My Home
Soft Threshold
architectural, user-driven
architectural, humanitarian
architectural, tectonic
architectural, research
architectural, design
architectural, photomodel
research, analysis
urban design
fabrication

Multi-Media

Chinatown Everywhere All at Once
Rome: Extra Large
video storytelling
interactive wearable design35mm
An Architect’s Handbook
The Invisible Cities
Boats In A Floating World
film photography
editorial
editorial
graphic

All visualsare original

unless otherwise indicated

MentForYou Goal-oriented Mentorship App for Creative Individuals
Beginex Application
Individual Work
2024
7 Hour Preliminary Design Exercise

1.0 RESEARCH AND PLANNING

1.1 Define Problem Space
Self-learning is the life-long journey for every creative inividuals who seek to thrive in this ever-changing landscape of design industry. With the help of a mentor, the process of self-learning can be exponentially more productive and efficient. In an era of rising newer technological advancement and higher demand for a faster design process, “the need for a compatible mentor” is more crucial than ever. Regardless of age/experience/ gender, the role of a valued mentor could be the game-changing factor in people’s short and long term career development.

However, the outcome of mentorship varies drastically from case to case. While some mentees strugel to find a compatible mentor, others have trouble engaging in productive conversations with their mentor. To ensure higher quality mentorships and promote more productive learnings, we designed:

MentForYou, a mobile application specifically aims for creative industry, foster progress-driven mentorships between creative indiviuals and encourages goal-oriented mentor discussions.

1.2 Primary Research - Quantitative Survey
To first cast a wide scope of research, we’re aiming to capture 30+ qualitative survey responses from ivarious age/gender groups. The folloiwng questions are examplers of multiple-choices survey to include:

What is your current education/employment status?

Undergraduate student
Graduate student
Recent grad
Junior level creative individual (0-2 years)
Somewhat experienced creative individual (3-5 years)
Experienced creative individual (6+ years)
Very experienced creative individual (10+ years)
Executive level

What was your experience as mantor/mentee?

Been a mentor and a mentee
Never a mentor or a mentee
Been a mentee
Been a mentor

Has mentorship been effective for your career progress?

Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Never had a mentorship

What are your preferre modes of communication?

Voice call
Video call
In-person
Chat
E-mail
Other

How do you reach out to desired mentors?

Linkedin
Through friends/family
Communities
Local workshops
E-mail
Other

1.3 Primary Research - Qualitative Survey
To better understand the target users, we’re aiming to conduct in-depth and semi-structured interviews with three people from each user group. The interviews are to gather invaluable insights into their career goals, their past mentorship experiences, their preferred mentor pairing process, and their habits of keeping up with short-time/long-term mentorship goals. The following questions are examplers to ask during an interview:

Background (Understanding Target User Group)

Tell me a bit about yourself.
What’s your background?
Where are you in your career?
Are you a planner or a panster?
What is your long-term or short-term career goal?
......

Goal (Understanding User Value)

What are you hoping to achieve in finding a mentor?
What is an ideal compatible mentor for you?
What do you expect the mentor to provide you?
How frequent do you hope to meet with your mentor?
......

Past experiences (Understanding User Painpoints)

Have you tried to find mentors previously? What platform have you used?
How do you decide on which mentor to pair with?
How was your experience? What was good/bad about it?
How often do you come to the mentroship session prepared?
What does a typical mentorship session look like to you?
......

Additional questions

How important is to you to have a reminder system to track your career growth?
How important is to you to see past mantee reviews?
How important is to you to set up short-term and long-term goals?
How good are you at keeping up with these goals?
How good are you at reflecting after each mentroship session?
How good are you at following up with your mentor?
......

1.4 Research Synethsis
Expanding on the research findings, we’re aiming to further translate information and identify design opportunities. We’re categorizing informations into three areas: “what we heard”, “what we learned” and “what it means for design”.

What we heard...

“I am not clear on what to achieve during each mentor session”

“sometimes I don’t know what to discuss with my mentor, and I’m not motivated to schedule another one”

“sometimes my mentor spent more time navigating my project than to give feedbacks”

.......

What we learned...

Mentee sometimes are not goal-oriented

Mentor sessions that lack structure lead to decrease in motivation and participation.

Time spent on viewing design process can be more time-consuming than feedback time

.......

What this means for design...

Need to encourage mentee to set up short-term goals for each session.

Promote more structured discussion by asking mentee to write down agenda ahead of session

Provide links/design document in advance can promote more productive discussion

.......

2.0 CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

2.1 User/Task Flow Chart
The user/task flow chart documents the user’s journey in “Setting Session Goals” and “Booking Mentor Sessions”.

2.2 Low Fidelity Prototype

Low fidelity prototype following the user’s journey of “discoverying mentors” - “fitlering search criteria” - “viewing availability” - “booking a session” - “adding session to user profile page”.