Youngster
A platform used to teach seniors technology, taught by young people.
Project type: UX Design
Time frame: May - July 2025 (10 weeks)
Project role: Sole UX/UI designer (with support from my mentor, Renan Castro)
Key skills: UX design, Heuristic analysis, Competitive analysis, Wireframes, User journey & User testing.
Project overview
The client
Youngster connects young people (16-24 years old) to teach seniors digital skills through paid opportunities.
The problem
Young people are the main users for Youngster's website. However, 80% of young users struggle to complete their profile.
Users get stuck on forms that don't explain why they have to do it. Without relevant context and guidance, users are dropping off during sign up.
“During sign up, most users get stuck on the police check because it requires payment. But most users don't realise that if they don't have a police check, it's covered through their first session. Young people often miss this part when they sign up.” ”
Stakeholder Interview quote by Tony Rothhacker
Design objective
To get users to successfully complete sign up with clarity and step by step guidance.
Project Outcome
Users completed the sign up flow with a 90% first‑attempt success rate, reducing drop‑off at each step.
Constraints — Recruitment + Usability tests
I conducted user interviews and usability tests with 5 different participants that fit Youngster's age demographic (16 - 24 years old). However, if the possibility was presented, I'd have liked to conduct user interviews and prototype tests with users who are actively partaking in Youngster sessions. Gathering feedback from them on whats working and what isn't, would be an informative way to develop my overall design functionality, while also understanding young people's motivation.
Research
Competitive Analysis
I worked with my team where we looked into 22 different platforms that had a similar business structure to Youngster. We looked into platforms in volunteering, contract work and senior support.
While analysing these platforms, I noticed most of them were designed with seniors in mind. 70% of these platforms were outdated and overcomplicated, where few spoke directly to younger users.
For example, Senior Tech Support and Geeks2u are two services designed to assist seniors with tech support, an initiative similar to Youngster.
To develop my understanding of simple and effective sign up flows, I identified platforms in Youngster's competitor group that possessed these qualities. I conducted a competitive analysis with:
Duolingo (Language education, gamification design)
Air tasker (Short term, tasked based jobs)
Mable (Local support workers for disability and aged cared workers, Youngster's direct competitor)
I discovered that all 3 platforms have:
—> Simple sign up flows
All applications have a common theme of having one question per page. This allows users to focus on one task at a time without getting overwhelmed. It allows users time to digest the sign up information.
From having 2 steps to 9 steps, having a progress bar as a visual reminder allows users to track their sign up progress, preventing them from dropping off
—> Communicated transparency
All applications have a breakdown of what user should expect when using the app. Duolingo and Mable incorporated these expectations in their sign up flow.
This transparency of how their system operates gives users confidence to what they're signing up for.
—> Instilled motivation
All applications uses some from of incentive, badge or journey map. This motivates users to continue their progress to see their achievements. This is generally accounted for when users feel like they're moving closer to their goal, in turn motivating them to keep going.
This also allows users to build long term engagement and retention on the app. Incentives and badges give users a reason to return regularly, building a habit around the product. From a business perspective retention is one of the most valuable metrics an app can have.
User interviews + Usability tests
To better understand the issues users are experiencing first hand, I conducted user interviews with five different participants. Each participant (between ages 16 to 24 years old) had a different working background.
I asked behavioural questions and conducted usability tests to better understand users digital habits, preferences, and emotional needs.
I asked the 5 participants to complete 2 main tasks and there I identified 2 main issues:
Task 1
Explore Youngster's page
Participants were asked to navigate to the Youngster page and begin the sign up process. The purpose of this task was to observe how intuitively users could find their way into the sign up flow, and to identify any points of friction or hesitation that arose before they committed to registering.
4 out of 5 users don't know how to START signing up.
Users were stuck from the home page, unsure of where to start. There wasn't a clear call to action prompting users to sign up.
Users clicked from "Partner with us" to "Youngsters" in hopes of starting their sign up process, but was lead away from the actual onboarding experience.
When analysing this common pattern among users, I realised users were clicking 3-4 times around the platform before they found the "sign in" button to sign up. Users want experiences that is straight forward and low-pressure. When users have to “figure it out,” it leads them to be frustrated and confused.
Note: Young people are at a time in their life where they seek guidance, without any guidance, they're often left overwhelmed and frustrated.
t
"Just have the homepage really punchy. I don't want to search for things."
Interview quote from Esther
"I like something that is so minimal… if there’s too much stuff, I get distracted."
Interview quote from Esther
How this informs my design
I need to incorporate:
A visually distinct sign up button (clear call to action)
A simple navigation structure (developed understanding from competitive analysis)
Visual indicators like progress indicators to actively guide users towards their next step
Task 2
Complete the sign up
Participants were then asked to complete the Youngster sign up flow in full. This task aimed to uncover the specific moments where users paused, second guessed themselves or sought guidance. This revealed where the experience broke down and where clearer communication or design intervention was needed.
5 out of 5 users wanted to UNDERSTAND what Youngster does
When users moved from the home page to the sign up flow, users commented that the whole process felt like it was "designed" for seniors.
There wasn't content or language that encouraged and motivated users to continue signing up. Additionally, users would come across police checks and vaccine pass's and question what their relevance is to the sign up.
Users want to explore and understand a platform before signing up. They look for clear and engaging content early on to build trust and reduce their hesitancy when signing up.
Note: With users in this age group juggling with internal struggles and self-doubt, often times they want to feel supported and seen. Purposeful engagement happens when Young people feel like they're part of something that reflects who they are and what they care about.
t
"I suppose she (his girlfriend) just affirms me. There's no particular thing. Just everything. She affirms that I'll be alright. She pushes and encourages me."
Interview quote from Esther
"If I don't have people around me, I feel very lonely. Which is why having a community where everyone knows you and understands you feels welcoming and amazing."
Interview quote from Esther
How this informs my design
I need to incorporate:
Contextual explanations to police checks and ID checks
Introduce the platform during onboarding
Language and imagery that is warm and friendly
Archetype
Jane - The nervous job seeker
Jane encapsulates the essence of the donor interviews. Jane is eager to develop skills that'll set her up to enter the workforce with confidence.
"For me to reach my goals, I need to be more determined to work on my confidence and communication. I really do think those are my two weak points."
Jane
Who is Jane?
Energetic, enthusiastic and caring.
Looking for her first work experience.
What does Jane value?
Simple and engaging sign up flows.
The ability to be flexible and to be encouraged to sign up.
What are Jane's pain points?
Not being guided during the sign up flow.
Getting overwhelming by unclear content.
User journey
Jane's user journey demonstrates the experience and thought process users experience while signing up for Youngster.
Users get frustrated when they have to continuously figure out where they have to sign up.
Challenging my design thinking
Sketches
After conducting research, I started sketching. I used the Crazy 8 method to come up with different layout concepts. This approach allowed me to explore different information architectures using imagery and text. Experimenting this way allowed me to test out layouts that can prioritise a clear user flow.
Testing Wireframes
The first round of usability tests was done on lo-fi wireframes. The task list included:
Signing up and creating an account
Completing a profile
Accessing account settings
Navigating between the dashboard and session management
In these tests, I asked 3 different users to think out loud to hear their thought processes. I followed up with questions, all while observing their behaviour, noting down any confusion and hesitation at any point.
What did I learn?
The usability tests confirmed that users preferred a straight forward user flow.
Users hesitated a lot because they were looking for buttons and signals to guide them. This made me realise, there needs to be clearer visual guidance and step by step flows in the design.
Users clicked on buttons that caught their attention, mainly buttons that were red, indicating urgency.
Revisting the project again
Coming back to this design
After developing my design thinking from a few projects, I realised the original solution for this project lacked structure. I knew I could push this project further, which is why I revisited components that made the sign up process more complex than it should be.
In the second iteration, I clarified the core user flow by adding subtle gamification designs and simplifying the dashboard.
From user interviews (besides social media), young people said they like simple utility apps like Clock, Calculator, and Maps because they are easy to learn and do one clear job. This iteration is designed to work the same way: minimal and straight forward, so young users can complete onboarding smoothly.
Sign up flow
The sign up page now has larger text boxes, making the screen less compact. This allows users to easily decipher the context on the page.
A large split log in/sign up tab was designed in mind for users to jump onto their account without having to search for a button. This glanceable display allows users to reduce their cognitive load.
Session Management
Session management is where users can now view their schedule without being overloaded with additional information.
It prioritises the time, location and their attendance availability. Users can click into each section to view more details.
Profile completion
Profile completion is now 10 steps instead of 5 steps. Breaking down the profile set up into multiple steps allows users to feel less overwhelmed with the amount of information needed in one step.
Users are guided with a progress bar and can save and exit any time with their progress saved.
Dashboard
A variation of bright colours were chosen with context to gamification. By categorising a colour for a section, it allows users to identify what section they're looking at.
The content hierarchy has been altered to prioritise information users would need to see first when on their dashboard. Font sizes were also adapted to facilitate important information.
Limitations
What I learn't
When designing the user flow, I aimed to simplify the sign up process so that younger users wouldn’t lose patience. I designed for efficiency over detail. Through usability tests, I learned that clarity and explanation at each step is just as important as efficiency.
Users want to understand why they’re providing certain information. This insight taught me that well designed sign up flows take time for a reason. They’re carefully structured to build trust during a user’s first interaction with the platform. Since sign up typically happens only once, it’s worth investing in clarity and reassurance to create a strong first impression.
Feedback
Renan Castro - Senior UX designer, Mentor
"You delivered your ideas with clarity making complex flows digestible. This really elevated your design."