Utilizing Feedback-Oriented Design Thinking Approach for Designing Mentoring Mobile app

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Mentoring plays a fundamental role in the education and career life of people. The advent of technology has changed the nature of mentoring and leads to creating of a new approach in education that is called Electronic Mentoring (e-mentoring). The presented project involves developing a mobile application design phase that enables mentees to communicate, match, and carry out a mentoring process. The design thinking approach was employed to uncover stakeholders’ needs and pain points; the survey and individual interviews were used to gather information about end users' requirements and expectations for the app. Through the implementation of the design thinking approach, this study chose and prototyped a
mobile app-aided mentoring platform that aimed to ease the mentoring process for the end users, and improves user experience and usability simultaneously. Generally, the results yielded from the usability test and User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) were positive and satisfying. Feedback from users illustrated that the platform has the potential to improve key aspects of the user experience, such as pragmatic and hedonic qualities. Regarding the UEQ scales, the values of all 6 user experience aspects, are more than 0.8 which represents a positive evaluation. Also, the values from the benchmark data set show that the app has placed above average when it comes to Attractiveness, Perspicuity, Efficiency, and Novelty. It is, thus, hoped that the findings of this paper will be taken into account by policymakers and stakeholders, in the foreseeable future.

Keywords


Baxter, K., Courage, C., & Caine, K. (2015). Understanding your users: A practical guide to user research methods. Morgan Kaufmann.
Bohemia, E., Liedtka, J., & Rieple, A. (2012). Leading innovation through design. Proceedings of the DMI 2012 International Research Conference. Boston, USA: Design Management Institute.
Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review. 86(6), 84.
Deitte, L. A., & Omary, R. A. (2019). The power of design thinking in medical education. Academic Radiology. 26(10), p. 1417-1420.
Drouin, M., Stewart, J., & Van Gorder, K. (2015). Using methodological triangulation to examine the effectiveness of a mentoring program for online instructors. Distance Education. 36(3), p. 400-418.
Iqbal, H. (2020). E-mentoring: An effective platform for distance learning. E-mentor. 2 (84), p. 54-61.
Kang, M., Yoo, Y. R., & Park, Y. (2012). Analyzing online mentoring process and facilitation strategies. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 46, p. 5158-5162.
Lewrick, M., Link, P., & Leifer, L. (2018). The design thinking playbook: Mindful digital transformation of teams, products, services, businesses and ecosystems. John Wiley & Sons.
Luchs, M. G. (2015). A brief introduction to design thinking. Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA. p. 1-12.
Pfund, C., Byars-Winston, A., Branchaw, J., Hurtado, S., & Eagan, K. (2016). Defining attributes and metrics of effective research mentoring relationships. AIDS and Behavior. 20(2), p. 238-248.
Pombo, F., & Tschimmel, K. (2005). Sapiens and demens in design thinking–perception as core. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of the European Academy of Design EAD. 6, p. 257.
Singh, P., & Kumar, K. (2019). E-Mentoring: Alternative paradigm for entrepreneurial aptitude development. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal. 25(2), p. 1-9.
Tinoco-Giraldo, H., Torrecilla Sánchez, E. M., & García Peñalvo, F. J. (2020). Developing a design phase for a mentoring mobile app. In Eighth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality. p. 273-282.
Williams, S. L., & Kim, J. (2011). E-mentoring in online course projects: Description of an e-mentoring scheme. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching & Mentoring. 9(2).
York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research. 74(3), p. 255-316.