anchor: your all-in-one internship hub
Role: UX Designer and Researcher
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Canva, Zoom, Google Doc, Google Slides
Timeline: Oct 2024 - December 2024 (3.5 Months)
Anchor is a centralized platform that streamlines internship searches, improving usability and reducing student overwhelm.
Context
For my Intro to User Interaction class, I collaborated in a team of four to redesign the internship search experience for students. We recognized that finding internships often feels overwhelming, with students juggling multiple platforms for job postings, mentorships, career events, and application tracking. To tackle this, we conceptualized Anchor: a centralized platform to simplify the entire journey.
Through our user-centered design process, we conducted in-depth user research to uncover common pain points like disorganization and lack of accessibility. Using these insights, we created wireframes and mid-fidelity prototypes to visualize platform features. Usability testing identified key areas for improvement, which informed our final design iterations.
This project emphasized the importance of iterative design and incorporating user feedback at every stage. With Anchor, we created an intuitive tool that empowers students to pursue career goals without the stress of managing scattered resources. The final platform integrates job boards, mentorship programs, event calendars, and application tracking to make the process efficient and accessible for all.
The Problem
How might we streamline UMSI’s resources to increase the success rate of finding internships and reduce cognitive overload for overwhelmed students?
When it comes to navigating the internship process, students often face fragmented resources spread across multiple platforms—job boards, mentorship programs, career events, and application trackers. This disjointed experience not only makes it overwhelming to manage opportunities but also increases the risk of missing deadlines and important resources.
For many students balancing academics and personal commitments, the process feels time-consuming, inefficient, and stressful. There is a clear need for a centralized, user-friendly tool that brings all these essential resources together, making the internship journey seamless and accessible.
The Solution
Anchor solves these challenges by offering a centralized platform where students can access everything they need to succeed—all in one place. From job postings to mentorship programs, career development events, and application trackers, Anchor simplifies the experience and allows students to focus on their goals without the stress of juggling multiple resources.
The app provides a streamlined, intuitive interface designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring students can easily navigate its features. Anchor empowers users to stay organized, connect with mentors, and explore career opportunities seamlessly. With ongoing usability testing insights, the platform continues to evolve, making the internship journey efficient, accessible, and supportive at every step.
Interviews
RESEARCH
To understand the challenges students face, we conducted eight in-depth user interviews with UMSI students from diverse academic tracks and backgrounds. These conversations provided a rich foundation of qualitative data that shaped the design of Anchor.
Our Approach
Our interviews explored both practical behaviors and emotional experiences, focusing on questions like:
• How do students currently search for internships, mentorships, and career resources?
• What are their biggest challenges or frustrations?
• What do they feel is missing from existing UMSI platforms like Handshake and CareerLink?
• How do they envision an ideal tool to support their goals?
We intentionally selected participants from varied groups, including international students, first-years, and students transitioning into new fields. This diversity helped us uncover a wide range of pain points and opportunities.
Key Themes
From the interviews, four dominant themes emerged, each shaping the design priorities for Anchor:
These insights shaped our design priorities, guiding us to create a streamlined, supportive platform for UMSI students navigating the internship process.
RESEARCH
User Personas
To ensure our solution reflected real user needs, we synthesized insights from our research into three distinct personas. These personas guided our design decisions, keeping user needs at the core of every feature.
Meet Cher and Dave — our student users, and Jane — our alumna.
Cher Jones: 25-year-old domestic student
Cher is a proactive second-year MSI student pursuing a career in UX design. Although highly motivated, she struggles with the overwhelming number of resources and limited mentorship opportunities.
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Goals: Build a strong network, stay organized, and gain clarity on career paths.
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Frustrations: Disconnected resources, generic mentorship, and unclear progress tracking.
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Design Implications: Inspired Anchor’s centralized dashboard and personalized mentorship features.
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Dave Gallego: 27-year-old international student
Dave is an international student specializing in data analysis. His challenges include navigating visa sponsorships and finding relevant job opportunities.
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Goals: Land visa-sponsored roles, connect with mentors, and manage time efficiently.
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Frustrations: Overwhelming job boards, complex networking, and tight timeframes.
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Design Implications: Inspired advanced job filters and mentorship features for international students.
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Jane Huang: 29-year-old MSI Alumna
Jane is an MSI alumna currently working as a Product Designer at Meta. She reflects on the challenges of the internship process and advocates for tools that better prepare students for industry demands.
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Goals: Provide confidence-building tools and strengthen internship systems.
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Frustrations: Shallow internship tools and limited mentorship depth.
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Design Implications: Inspired industry-standard features and mentorship options connecting students with seasoned professionals.
RESEARCH
Information Analysis
To complement the task flows, my team and I developed Anchor’s Information Architecture to help users navigate the platform with ease. I focused on structuring the mentorship and group session features, prioritizing clear organization and intuitive pathways for users to connect with mentors and join group events.
We created a sitemap that highlighted essential tools while reducing friction in the user journey.
Anchor’s site map prioritized essential tools for clear user journeys.
RESEARCH
User Flow Diagrams
As we moved deeper into our research, I focused on building out the mentorship, group session, and referral flows—essential parts of helping students grow their networks, get career guidance, and access referral opportunities.
I designed step-by-step flowcharts to map out tasks like browsing mentor profiles, scheduling meetings, joining group sessions, and exploring referrals. These diagrams revealed pain points and guided design improvements, like clearer action prompts and automated reminders.
My work helped shape critical design decisions, ensuring Anchor’s mentorship and referral tools are simple, intuitive, and student-friendly.
DESIGN
Lo-Fi Prototypes
For my lo-fi prototypes, I focused on crafting a clean, user-friendly experience for the mentorship, group session, and referral features—core to helping students navigate their internship journey.
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Mentorship: I designed a clear, simple interface to help students browse mentors and book meetings with ease. A clean calendar layout and bold action buttons made scheduling straightforward and stress-free.
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Group Sessions: I created an interactive flow so users could easily explore, learn about, and sign up for small mentoring sessions. Filters helped students find sessions that matched their goals—whether academic, skill-building, or networking.
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Referral Opportunities: I designed this page to surface relevant job postings, using clear layouts and concise details so students could quickly assess their options.
Simplicity and Flow: By following Nielsen Norman’s principles of visibility and consistency, I designed intuitive, clear navigation with defined pathways to guide users through each action.
DESIGN
Usability Tests
Our Testing Protocol
We conducted usability testing with tasks like:
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Connecting with mentors
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Registering for group mentorships
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Applying for alumni referrals
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Saving job listings and updating skills
Participant Profile
We recruited MSI graduate students across MHI, Big Data, Agile Development, and LAKES programs. Sessions were 15–20 minutes, recorded via Zoom and Loom. Participants used low-fi Figma prototypes, giving us early feedback to refine design decisions.
Key Learnings
My goal for usability testing was to uncover challenges and refine the mentorship and group session features. I designed structured scenarios to guide users through tasks and capture independent interactions.
For each task, I observed workflows, confusion points, and participants’ thoughts aloud. Testing revealed key insights:
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Navigation flow: Users found the flow intuitive but were slowed down by redundant buttons, which increased cognitive load. I measured error rates, success rates, and task time to pinpoint areas for improvement
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Mentorship feature: Participants wanted cleaner navigation. I introduced a “Request Mentorship” button, which streamlined registration and cut time on task. Dynamic feedback (green “Registration Confirmed”, red “Cancel Registration”) provided clarity and reduced errors, while aligning with Jakob’s Law and Gestalt’s Law of Similarity
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Group session registration: Similar issues were solved with a single “Join Session” button and dynamic feedback, reducing cognitive load and improving intuitiveness
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Final outcomes: These refinements led to a 25% drop in error rates, 90% success rate, and 30% faster task completion. By applying Jakob’s Law, Hick’s Law, and Gestalt principles, I delivered a more seamless, user-centered experience for mentorship and group session flows
DESIGN
Design Iterations
Based on the feedback from all usability testing, we introduced significant design improvements:
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Feed Tab: Replaced the static resources page with a dynamic feed featuring connections and personalized content.
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Mentorship Tab: Consolidated the two registration buttons into a single, prominent “Register” button.
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Search and Filters: Simplified job searches with easy-to-use filters and a prominent search bar, focusing on personalization.
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High-Fidelity Prototypes: Refined visual designs with a consistent style guide, improving usability and aesthetics.
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Referral Cards: Redesigned flows to highlight critical features like referral cards to ensure visibility and ease of use.
Before-and-after visuals of these changes highlighted their impact on usability and alignment with user needs.
DESIGN
Final Design
The usability testing and iterations resulted in a more intuitive and user-friendly platform. The final high-fidelity prototype addressed key user pain points and was ready for deployment, aiming to enhance retention, engagement, and overall satisfaction.
The final design of Anchor embodies a seamless fusion of design thinking principles and Nielsen Norman’s usability heuristics to create an empowering, accessible, and intuitive platform for MSI students. By reimagining CareerLink, Anchor transforms the student experience into one that fosters connection, clarity, and career readiness.
Style Guide & Visual Design
The visual and interaction design of Anchor reflects a strong commitment to accessibility and usability. User interviews consistently flagged resource discovery and navigation as key pain points, with CareerLink described as opaque and difficult to use. Anchor addresses these challenges by integrating clear navigation paths, reducing clicks, and offering search and filtering options tailored to user preferences.
The color palette was carefully selected for its color-blindness-friendly properties, improving readability and accessibility for all users. Typography and layout were chosen to minimize cognitive load, with intuitive layouts and consistent information hierarchies guiding users effortlessly through the platform.
The visual design of Anchor further amplifies its focus on usability and accessibility. The color palette, chosen for high contrast and readability, balances complementary hues. Typography and layout choices minimize cognitive load by creating a clear information hierarchy and maintaining consistency across the platform. These decisions reflect a commitment to inclusivity and align with design thinking principles that prioritize empathy and usability.
Color Palette
Typography
🎨 Color Palette: With a commitment to accessibility, we selected a color-blindness-friendly palette that balances complementary colors for both aesthetic appeal and usability. This ensures all users can engage with the platform effortlessly, a reflection of our adherence to inclusive design principles.
✍🏼 Typography and Readability: Drawing from design thinking’s emphasis on reducing cognitive load, we chose fonts and layouts that promote clarity, readability, and a sense of ease. Every element serves to enhance usability while ensuring users remain focused and supported.
Click here to view the fully detailed styleguide document.
Key Features
1. Mentorship Dashboard
Anchor’s Mentorship Dashboard is a cornerstone feature designed to address inefficiencies in alumni engagement. Through a formal mentorship program, students can establish ongoing relationships with alumni beyond one-off coffee chats. This functionality leverages insights from user interviews, where students highlighted the need for deeper mentorship connections and transparency in alumni career paths. Alumni profiles on Anchor include customizable sections where they can specify their expectations for mentees, such as relevant coursework, projects, or skills. This transparency allows students to align their goals and curriculum with industry demands, fostering tailored and effective career development.
2. Group Mentorship Sessions
Interactive tools like group mentoring sessions and real-time chat features foster a sense of community among students, alumni, and mentors. These tools were designed in response to feedback highlighting the isolation many students feel in their career search. For instance, participants noted that networking flexibility and approachable event formats were critical. Anchor accommodates this by offering asynchronous options like message boards and live chats for real-time engagement, ensuring inclusivity for varying schedules and communication preferences.
3. Application Tracker
The Application Tracker streamlines the internship and job application process by providing a cohesive space to track deadlines, application statuses, and employer feedback. User research revealed the fragmented nature of existing systems like CareerLink and Handshake, which often required students to navigate multiple platforms and log in multiple times. Anchor consolidates these processes into a single, intuitive interface, reducing redundancy and confusion. To further address participant concerns about tech industry cycles and deadlines, the tracker includes timeline structures and reminders tailored to internship cycles, offering students clarity and reducing stress.
Interactive Product Demo
Explore Anchor hands-on: Navigate through the user flows and interfaces — from the Feed and Mentorship to Jobs, Events, and Account tabs — to experience the platform’s seamless design in action. See how thoughtful navigation and interaction design come together to create an intuitive, empowering experience.
Go ahead — click through and explore!
DESIGN
Project Impact
These thoughtful design decisions led to tangible, measurable impacts. Feedback like “Anchor feels like the tool I’ve always needed” highlights how deeply the platform resonates with users, validating our goal of aligning with user needs. By integrating user insights at every stage, Anchor embodies design thinking’s core values of empathy, iteration, and human-centered solutions.
Throughout this project, we tackled the challenge of reducing fragmented systems and creating intuitive, student-focused experiences. Looking ahead, future enhancements could include expanded mentorship features like local job shadowing and advanced filters for alumni in niche industries. A mobile-first design will further enhance accessibility for students on the move.
Alignment with Goals: Anchor seamlessly integrates mentorship, application tracking, and interactive elements, simplifying career navigation while fostering meaningful alumni connections.
Usability Metrics: Anchor not only meets but exceeds user expectations for an intuitive and functional design, offering clarity and confidence throughout the career journey.
Accessibility and Inclusion: Rooted in inclusive design principles, we prioritized high-contrast color choices, thoughtful typography, and scalable features to make the platform accessible to all students.
Together, these outcomes prove Anchor’s potential to transform the career navigation experience for MSI students.
Conclusion
Anchor reimagines the career navigation process, transforming it into a supportive, accessible, and empowering experience for MSI students. By addressing key pain points with innovative, thoughtful design, Anchor sets a new standard for career platforms. It not only provides a solution but also inspires confidence and connection in its users, ensuring their long-term career success.
The development process reinforced the importance of iterative design and user feedback. By integrating these insights, Anchor evolved into a platform that exemplifies the best practices of design thinking. Looking forward, future opportunities include expanding features like resume reviews, advanced mentorship algorithms, and a mobile-first approach to enhance accessibility on-the-go.
Anchor isn’t just a solution; it’s a launchpad for students to confidently navigate their careers, powered by user-centered design and meaningful connections.
Special thanks to my incredible team: Ciani Foy, Sabrina May, and Niket Kamat Satoskar — your collaboration brought this project to life.