We made it! Presenting FutureFinder
We made it (both figuratively and literally)! This post recaps our last weeks in Capstone and how we developed, tested, and pitched our final prototype FutureFinder.
In our previous post, Alexis and Radha were hard at work making sure our visual language and screens were on point. With their beautiful user interface designs in Sketch, we were ready to begin putting it into the Framer prototype.
Our Interactive Prototype — Why Framer?
We chose Framer.js because of its robustness as a high-fidelity, interactive prototyping tool. We wanted our final prototype to be as “real feel” as possible and not limited by the capabilities of the tool. This was to serve two purposes:
- For our final user tests so students could get a true sense of our app concept and provide authentic feedback
- For our final presentation to have a working prototype demo
Simple prototyping tools like Principle and InVision were out because they were only capable of a single user flow.
With Framer, we could build the FutureFinder prototype as an end-to-end experience of a real mobile app, and we were able to pull in dynamic data using the Airtable API and implement a simplistic version of the app algorithm in Coffeescript.
Over the course of one week (and one momentous all-nighter), Radha and I managed to pull it off! We built a testable and demo-able prototype, with most of it done in time for our final user test. Our prototype included two main user flows: 1) the first time a student uses our app and 2) the recurring session that the student would typically see everyday.
Check out the FutureFinder interactive prototype here!
Final User Test
For our last user test, we recruited 5 rising sophomores and juniors that had participated earlier in our project. This way, we were able to screen our participants for our target user: students who were motivated but open to career exploration.
The test was structured more like a think-aloud usability test while also gauging concept validation with our more robust prototype.
We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on our app. 4/5 students said they would download and use FutureFinder, without us prompting them.
One of the most rewarding pieces of feedback was from a student who said, “I like that it treats teens as more than just kids, like you’re really looking towards your future and becoming an adult.”
We definitely had the intention of not making the app look too childish, but we also wanted it to be engaging to high schoolers, who are still maturing and figuring themselves out. This feedback from a student was really gratifying and made our work really feel like it matters.
User Testing Tip
- Be flexible and resourceful when user testing, you have to work with what you’ve got. Nathan and Alexis were adept at evaluating where our prototype was at and the best way to format the user testing. We ended up making paper printouts of some screens that weren’t ready in the prototype yet, and this may have been one of the most enjoyable artifacts for the high schoolers.
Wrapping Up
We had our final presentation to our clients, friends, and family (my mom came!) As per usual, our team worked hard to the last minute and pulled off an awesome presentation that made our design process engaging and informative. The last thing to do was finish up some last deliverables, and we were ready to hand off to clients.
Check out our product website for FutureFinder here!
We’re looking forward to keeping in contact with our clients at numo and Allegheny Conference to see how they’ll take FutureFinder from here. This project was an incredible opportunity to work on a truly “wicked” problem that many people can relate to, and we felt we could really make an impact in high schoolers’ lives. I’m very grateful to have been a part of this incredible team and the MHCI program at CMU.
Now we’ve graduated and have scattered across the U.S., we’re all looking to find our own futures.
This isn’t good-bye, it’s see you again soon 👋
