Skilled Newcomers and Professionals Partnership (SNAPP) is a digital mentorship platform designed to connect newcomers with local professionals for one-on-one career advice. Developed as a pilot program by PeaceGeeks—a nonprofit dedicated to simplifying the immigration journey for Canadian refugees and newcomers through innovative digital tools—SNAPP aims to bridge employment gaps with meaningful connections.
From 2019-2020, I contributed to the early research and ideation phase of SNAPP. My role involved conducting interviews with newcomers and Service Providing Organizations (SPOs), defining the experience map, and visualizing user flows through wireframes.
For more information about SNAPP, you can find the full report here.
UX Designer
Internship
9 months (September 2019 — May 2020)
As newcomers continue to face barriers in finding work similar to what they had in their home countries, mentorship from local professionals plays a key role in bridging employment gaps. While some settlement service organizations offer such programs, they often struggle with manual, time-consuming administration and a limited pool of mentors.
Before I joined, PeaceGeeks had completed an extensive discovery phase to identify the opportunities and challenges in newcomer employment mentorship. Building on this foundation, we collaborated with SPOs and newcomers to brainstorm ways an online tool could enhance mentorship opportunities. This effort led to SNAPP—a platform designed to connect skilled newcomers with local professionals.
Photo from a visit to a SPO for a walkthrough of their mentorship program.
Mapping out the experience for what a mentorship platform could look like.
Experience map for SNAPP.
During the pilot phase, PeaceGeeks acted as the program coordinator, but the ultimate goal was to enable each SPO to manage their own clients and volunteers. To achieve this, we aimed to design a shared pool experience with limited informational access for each organization.
Using low-fidelity wireframes, I mapped out detailed experiences for each role: mentees, mentors, and match coordinators. Additionally, I created high-fidelity mockups for key screens to visualize how the simulated interface might look.
Through our research, we discovered that many newcomers disliked terms like "mentor" and "mentee" as they implied an unwanted hierarchy. To address this, we reframed these labels, referring to users directly by their roles: Skilled Newcomers and Local Professionals.
Sketching out user flows via wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframes to illustrate user-flows from different users' perspective.
Samples of high fidelity mockups.
To streamline the design process and enable rapid iteration, we leveraged Coda in combination with external Google Forms and email services to launch our MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Below is a snapshot of the pilot—click the link for the full demo.
Preview of SNAPP.
With the pilot, we were able to ensure most participants were satisfied with their mentorship experience. While I wasn't involved in the later phases of the initiative, I’m proud to have contributed to the pilot and even had the chance to provide career advice to some aspiring designers! You can access the full report here.
Snapshot of SNAPP report from 2018-2021.