George Mason University
Graduate students often struggle to build meaningful professional connections throughout their academic journey. Many face challenges finding research opportunities, connecting with faculty and peers, and maintaining valuable relationships after graduation. These gaps can limit access to mentorship, collaboration, and career growth opportunities when they are needed most. To address these challenges, I partnered with a cross-functional team to design a networking platform tailored specifically for graduate students and alumni. Through user research and stakeholder collaboration, we identified key pain points across the student lifecycle and created a solution focused on fostering meaningful connections, facilitating research opportunities, and supporting long-term professional relationships beyond graduation. The result was a platform designed to strengthen academic and professional communities while helping users build networks that continue to provide value throughout their careers.
Type
Brand
, Web
Outcome
Networking platform for graduate students & alumni.
The Institute for Humane Studies wanted to better understand these challenges and uncover opportunities to better support both students and alumni. Research revealed that many participants lacked easy ways to connect with peers, mentors, and opportunities relevant to their academic and professional goals. To address these challenges, we designed a platform built specifically for the IHS student and alumni community. The platform centralizes resources, highlights relevant opportunities, and makes it easier for students and alumni to connect, collaborate, and support one another throughout their academic and professional journeys.
Once we understood the challenges students, alumni, researchers, teaching professors, and academic entrepreneurs were facing, I mapped out the key user journeys and explored solutions through low-fidelity wireframes. This helped quickly test ideas, gather feedback, and shape the overall direction of the platform while ensuring the experience supported the unique needs of each audience.
Concept Development --- With the user journeys and platform structure defined, I explored multiple design directions to determine how the experience could best support the community and its needs. One concept embraced a lighter, more open aesthetic with an emphasis on imagery, creating an approachable and welcoming experience. The second concept took on a darker, more collegiate feel, utilizing structured grid systems to create a sense of credibility and organization. Exploring multiple directions allowed us to evaluate visual hierarchy, content organization, and overall usability before selecting a final direction. To ensure consistency across the experience, I also established a shared visual foundation through typography, color, and design principles, creating a cohesive system that could scale across the platform while maintaining accessibility and reinforcing the IHS brand.
The platform was built around three core pillars designed to address the needs uncovered during research: Connections, Programs, and Funding. Connections provides a dedicated space for members to discover and connect with others across the community. Users can search by area of study, interests, or expertise, while personalized profiles highlight research, publications, current projects, programs, and professional interests to help foster meaningful relationships and collaboration. Programs serves as a centralized hub for exploring available opportunities. Members can browse program details, view schedules, learn about upcoming events, and register directly through the platform, making it easier to discover and participate in experiences relevant to their goals. Funding helps users identify and pursue financial opportunities that support their work. The experience highlights active funding initiatives, available grants, and other opportunities, while providing a streamlined application process for research funding and related programs.
High Fidelity Designs - The home page serves as the central hub for the IHS community, providing a place for members to discover workshops, programs, discussions, and networking opportunities. Designed to support both exploration and engagement, the experience offers multiple entry points for users to grow their professional network, participate in structured conversations, and access resources that support their academic and career development.
The platform was built around three core pillars designed to address the needs uncovered during research: Connections, Programs, and Funding. Connections provides a dedicated space for members to discover and connect with others across the community. Users can search by area of study, interests, or expertise, while personalized profiles highlight research, publications, current projects, programs, and professional interests to help foster meaningful relationships and collaboration. Programs serves as a centralized hub for exploring available opportunities. Members can browse program details, view schedules, learn about upcoming events, and register directly through the platform, making it easier to discover and participate in experiences relevant to their goals. Funding helps users identify and pursue financial opportunities that support their work. The experience highlights active funding initiatives, available grants, and other opportunities, while providing a streamlined application process for research funding and related programs.
User Testing - To validate the experience, we conducted multiple user testing sessions using an interactive prototype with members of the IHS community. Our goal was to ensure the platform's structure, navigation, and core features aligned with the needs we uncovered during research.
The testing confirmed that the research-driven approach translated well into the experience. Participants responded positively to the platform's overall organization and found the three core pillars—Connections, Programs, and Funding—to be intuitive and valuable. They were able to clearly identify how the platform could help them build relationships, discover opportunities, and support their academic and professional goals.
This project reinforced the value of designing with the community, not just for it. By grounding every decision in research and continuously validating ideas with users, we created a platform that reflects the real needs of the IHS community while providing a foundation that can grow alongside it.
