Designing a Mobile Experience to Support Mentorship for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Indiana
Experience Strategy · Concept Development · User Journeys · Information Architecture · UX/UI Design · Mobile Experience Design
The BigApp was designed as a mobile mentoring and engagement platform for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana, helping strengthen communication, accountability, and engagement between mentors, students, parents, and program administrators. The app created a centralized digital experience for managing match relationships, tracking activities, supporting communication, and encouraging long-term participation within the mentoring program.
I partnered with agency and development teams to lead strategy, creative direction, and UX/UI design — helping shape the onboarding experience, user flows, interface systems, and overall product experience for the app.
My role focused on translating organizational goals, audience needs, and complex multi-user workflows into intuitive mobile experiences that supported communication, participation, engagement tracking, relationship management, and long-term adoption across multiple user groups through concept development, content strategy, information architecture, and visual design.
Creative Direction & Experience Strategy
Before visual design began, the work focused on defining how Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana should feel across every interaction — balancing trust, optimism, community impact, and long-term engagement.
The goal wasn’t simply to modernize the website, but to create an experience that better reflected the organization’s mission while helping multiple audiences — prospective mentors, families, donors, and community partners — quickly understand where they fit and how to take action.
Concept exploration focused on:
Establishing a clearer emotional narrative throughout the experience
Identifying opportunities to strengthen storytelling and connection
Creating a content structure that supported multiple audience journeys
Exploring visual approaches that felt human, welcoming, and scalable
Aligning mission, messaging, and user experience into one cohesive system
This strategic and concept-driven foundation informed the final UX/UI direction and helped shape an experience designed to build trust and encourage participation.
Key UX Contributions
User Flow & Journey Mapping
Designed end-to-end user flows supporting mentors, students, parents, and program administrators across onboarding, communication, activity tracking, and engagement workflows.
Defined guided onboarding journeys that helped simplify participation and improve activation for multiple user groups entering the mentoring platform.
Mapped interaction flows supporting mentor-student communication, relationship tracking, scheduling, program participation, and ongoing engagement management.
Sitemap & Information Architecture
Created scalable mobile information architecture organizing key app experiences including onboarding, messaging, match management, activity tracking, notifications, and engagement tools.
Structured intuitive navigation systems that allowed users to quickly access communication tools, relationship activity, program resources, and engagement features across the app experience.
Organized app functionality to support distinct needs across mentors, students, parents, and administrators while maintaining a cohesive platform experience.
Wireframes & Mobile UX/UI Design
Designed responsive mobile UX/UI systems and high-fidelity app interfaces supporting communication, relationship management, onboarding, engagement tracking, and activity participation workflows.
Created scalable interface patterns and reusable UI components that maintained consistency across multiple user experiences and evolving product functionality.
Developed interactive wireframes and mobile prototypes to validate workflows, improve usability, and support collaboration with agency and development teams throughout implementation.
Designed mobile-first experiences focused on clarity, accessibility, usability, and long-term engagement within the mentoring ecosystem.
Mentorship & Engagement Experience
Designed communication workflows helping mentors, students, parents, and administrators stay connected through structured engagement experiences.
Developed activity tracking and engagement systems supporting relationship accountability, participation monitoring, and program visibility.
Created onboarding and engagement patterns that encouraged ongoing platform usage and simplified mentor-student interaction management.
Collaboration & Product Delivery
Partnered closely with agency stakeholders and development teams to align UX strategy, technical feasibility, user needs, and implementation workflows throughout the product design process.
Helped translate organizational goals and mentoring program requirements into scalable mobile product experiences supporting long-term platform adoption and engagement.
Supported iterative UX/UI refinement through collaborative feedback, workflow reviews, and product evolution as the app matured.
Impact & Results
Launched on iOS & Android — The Big App launched internally for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana in 2016, helping reduce email clutter while giving mentors, students, parents, and administrators a centralized mobile experience for communication, activity planning, engagement tracking, and relationship management.
National Conference Showcase — The app was presented at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America National Conference as an innovative mentoring and engagement platform with the potential for expansion across agencies nationwide.
Scaled Beyond a Single Organization — Since launch, The Big App has supported more than 10,000 mentors across nine Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies throughout the United States, demonstrating the scalability and adaptability of the platform’s UX/UI framework.
Generated Sponsorship & Organizational Value — The platform contributed to more than $100K in sponsorship opportunities for BBBSCI, helping support continued organizational growth and program visibility.
Award-Winning Product Innovation — The Big App was recognized as a 2018 Indiana Innovation Award winner and was later nominated for a 2019 TechPoint Mira Award, highlighting the platform’s innovation, usability, and impact within the nonprofit and technology sectors.
Scalable Mobile UX/UI System — Designed flexible onboarding flows, communication workflows, engagement tools, and reusable interface systems capable of supporting long-term product evolution and multi-agency adoption.
By designing a structured, engaging, and easy-to-use mobile experience, I helped streamline mentorship planning, strengthen communication, and improve engagement tracking for mentors, mentees, parents, and program administrators. The project demonstrates how thoughtful UX/UI design can support meaningful human connection while scaling into a nationally recognized digital engagement platform.
