Digital 8: GSF Connect
GSF (Girl shaped flames) is a non-profit organization that aims to target teen girls in years 7-12 to challenge how they think, what they strive for, and why they want it. It is a platform that provides a wide range of interactive opportunities, from monthly meet-up with other like-minding girls to company excursions to see behind the curtains of some of the most exciting brands. Besides, there are exclusive self-development events like workshops and camps catered for the experience. GSF Connect also act as a video gallery of inspirational, informational and insightful videos that hosts over 100 videos, updated each week.
An internship at Digital8, Brisbane got me into this project. This wasn't my first web project, but I was still nervous about meeting clients, producing “real work” rather than just a school project.
Objective
Redesign the page to attract the right audience and polish user experience.
Before Redesign
The page was not attractive to the eyeballs of teen girls year 7-12. It was more inclined to an informative page that the persona of teen girls does not resonate with. Teen girls are more inclined to engage with bright imagery visuals, which was what GSF wants to improve on.
Target Audience
Creating personas helped me and client align our understand of our users' needs, experiences, behaviour and goals. This is to better cater to their needs accurately. After some work, we defined 3 main users: teen girls, parents and educators. Needless to say, they all have different motivations when connecting with GSF.
Teen girls: “I love to hang out with my friends and being together make me feel that I belong somewhere. I am usually busy with watching videos on youtube and reading fashion blogs on my free time.” These girls are the main target users of the platform, but what does GSF has to do with them? GSF aims to feed their needs with video contents (which is what they are more drawn to rather than reading an article) produced by professionals in the industry, bringing their possible dream job a little closer to reality.
Parents: “I always look for the best for my daughter, I want her to feel supported and cared for. I am curious about how others are doing.“ Well, parents are the best, and they want to be able to support their children's wants and dreams. Mums are the target buyers of the programmes that GSF has to offer, however, they are careful buyers, they trust reviews more than anything.
Educators: “I am motivated by teaching materials that are highly relevant to enable students to better equipped for the real world.”
User Journey
Mapping out the user journey will help visualise the entire flow to help give a wholistic view of what's going on. This helps to identify the pain points and loopholes of the journey.
Final thoughts
It was such an enriching experience for me, being able to have an internship in a different country. Dealing with an Australian client was nerve-wrecking at first, due to cultural differences; communication, working style and expectations, but I've learn to overcome the differences, deliver value and showing my passion through my work. It was sweet of my client to deliver a bouquet of flowers when the project concluded, and that is when I know that my hard work was appreciated and it was all worthwhile.