THE CHALLENGE

Our feature specifically solves the inequities of opportunity that many underserved communities face when it comes to their educational pursuits. After meeting with our non-profit partner, Codetalk, it was highlighted that many students from non-traditional backgrounds are faced with issues such as being low-income or experiencing homelessness. This is hindering their abilities to confidently move forward with their educational goals. They take themselves out of the equation before even starting on their path to avoid the feeling of possibly meeting disappointment once again. We are incredibly grateful to Codetalk for providing us with the support needed to truly cater to the needs of our target audience.

After receiving this information, our team asked, how might we help low-income students become confident in their abilities to develop marketable skills. By directly connecting our users to local educational development organizations, connect them to what can be the start of their new path in education. These organizations on our feature will create community amongst people under similar circumstances as they are, and provide a community of support and network needed in confidence boosting efforts for these students. The longevity and continuous efforts to improve the lives of these individuals are what make this feature unique to users.

When taking the target user into account it becomes self-evident that these students can truly rise and reach their goals in an environment that has constant support. These students will not love this feature because it will be put together with the rest of Snapchat but because it already feels like it is a part of it.

SOLUTION

Designing a feature that felt familiar and “Snappy” was important for us during the ideation and wireframing phase. The main challenges for design were building a user experience that didn’t feel too convoluted and designing new icons for our features that fit the Snap ecosystem.

Designed badges to encourage positive reinforcement and having the ease of the user experience in mind when putting together the wireframes to help take down any barriers that might make it feel more challenging.

We allowed the audience to walk in the shoes of a student and let them experience not only how they would use the feature but also the magic that goes behind it. The average person may not want to hear about React Native or Figma but they can emotionally respond and connect to stories about people who are just like them. Implementing these ideas seamlessly together may have come off as difficult in the short term because of how different all of our skills are but we were able to pull through using the combined powers of storytelling, design, and engineering.