Anchor
Making career development feel a little less overwhelming.
UX Designer & Researcher
Academic · Group project
Figma · Prototyping
Four designers
A more connected way to navigate career development.
Anchor is an academic interaction-design project created by a team of four at the University of Michigan. We explored how students could find career guidance, opportunities and people to learn from without jumping between disconnected resources.
Career resources were scattered. So was the support.
Finding opportunities was only part of the challenge. Students also needed relevant advice, meaningful connections and spaces to learn alongside others.
Too many places
Career information and conversations lived across different channels.
Generic guidance
Students needed connections that reflected their goals and circumstances.
Limited shared learning
One-to-one advice wasn't the only way students could benefit from their community.
Different journeys called for different kinds of support.
Our research informed personas with different career goals and constraints. Cher wanted clearer, more personal mentorship. Dave's international job search highlighted why relevance matters as much as access.
Four themes shaped our direction.
Eight student interviews revealed recurring challenges that went beyond simply finding job listings. These themes helped us prioritise support, clarity and relevance.
From finding a person to finding your people.
I collaborated on the full research and design process with three teammates. Within the wider Anchor platform, I focused on three connected areas: helping students find alumni guidance, join group mentorship sessions and keep track of applications. This section explains my responsibilities; the final designs appear in Section 07.
Mentorship dashboard
I worked on the experience for discovering mentors and moving from browsing a profile to reaching out for guidance.
Group mentorship sessions
I designed the pathway for finding and registering for sessions where students could learn alongside others.
Application tracker
I contributed to the application-tracking experience, helping students keep career opportunities and next steps organised.
Making the next step feel obvious.
We organised Anchor around clear pathways to the resources students needed: mentorship, group sessions, events, jobs and application tracking. The information architecture helped us connect these features without forcing students to search across separate platforms.
As a team, we mapped the different journeys students could take across Anchor. My work focused on the user flows for finding and connecting with mentors, discovering and registering for group sessions, and exploring opportunities through alumni referrals. The diagrams below show the specific flows I worked on, rather than the full set of user flows developed by the team.
Finding and connecting with a mentor
From sketches to final screens.
This slideshow traces how Anchor developed, starting with early sketches, moving through low-fidelity wireframes, and ending with the high-fidelity designs.
Two ways to feel more connected.
These are the three parts of the finished Anchor experience I contributed to. Each screen follows from the research, user flows and testing shown above.
Finding the right person to ask
The mentorship experience helps students explore alumni connections and take action. After testing, we simplified registration by consolidating two competing registration buttons into one clear Register action.
Making shared learning easier to join
Group sessions offer another route to support beyond one-to-one mentorship. The experience brings session discovery and registration into a clear flow.
Exploring opportunities through alumni referrals
Alumni referrals offered another way for students to discover career opportunities through their university network. I worked on how these opportunities could be presented clearly, making it easier to explore a referral and decide what to do next.
Keeping opportunities organised
The application tracker sits alongside mentorship and career opportunities in the wider Anchor experience, supporting students as they manage their internship search.
Part of a larger, connected experience.
While I concentrated on mentorship and group sessions, Anchor was designed collaboratively. The wider prototype also brought together community posts, jobs, referrals and events.
A visual system for Anchor.
Our team developed a design library to keep typography, colour and interactive elements consistent across Anchor. It defines eight Inter text styles, a primary Amethyst palette, two secondary colours and reusable button states.
Colour with a purpose.
Amethyst is the primary colour. Oxford Blue 700 and Maize 500 are secondary colours, alongside neutral shades and status colours.
One typeface, eight styles.
The library uses Inter exclusively, with H1–H4, B1 and T1–T3 to establish hierarchy.
Consistent actions across the interface.
The library specifies solid primary buttons, bordered secondary buttons and text links for calls to action. Primary and secondary buttons each have active, hover and disabled states, including smaller versions.
Different surfaces for different content.
The guide places Type 100 (#F9F7F9) containers on white backgrounds for job cards, session reviews and calendars. Oxford Blue 700 (#10284A) is used for higher-emphasis containers, including recent messages.
What students thought, and where Anchor could go next.
Student feedback highlighted the value of bringing networking, mentorship, jobs and events together in one place. This was an academic prototype, not a launched product, so these responses are qualitative feedback rather than evidence of real-world adoption.
“I like how Anchor helps build real connections between current students and alumni. It makes mentorship easier and opens up valuable career insights that go beyond what you’d get on your own.”
Student, University of Michigan School of Information
“Anchor brings everything together in one place. Events, job postings, and networking opportunities are easy to find, which solves the problem of scattered information and makes it much simpler to plan for my career growth.”
Student, University of Michigan School of Information
What I would explore next
A mobile-first experience, more relevant mentorship matching, additional career preparation tools and a more useful application tracker could extend Anchor beyond the prototype.
Designing for the moments between finding and connecting.
Working on mentorship and group sessions taught me to think beyond whether someone could find the right resource. I had to consider what would help a student feel comfortable reaching out, joining a conversation and following through.
Anchor was also a collaborative project, so I had to think about how my flows connected to the wider experience. If I revisited the design, I would focus on testing what makes a mentor or group session feel relevant enough to take that next step.
Explore Anchor for yourself.
See how the mentorship and group sessions fit into the wider experience.
Anchor
Making career development feel a little less overwhelming.
UX Designer & Researcher
Academic · Group project
Figma · Prototyping
Four designers
A more connected way to navigate career development.
Anchor is an academic interaction-design project created by a team of four at the University of Michigan. We explored how students could find career guidance, opportunities and people to learn from without jumping between disconnected resources.
Career resources were scattered. So was the support.
Finding opportunities was only part of the challenge. Students also needed relevant advice, meaningful connections and spaces to learn alongside others.
Too many places
Career information and conversations lived across different channels.
Generic guidance
Students needed connections that reflected their goals and circumstances.
Limited shared learning
One-to-one advice wasn't the only way students could benefit from their community.
Different journeys called for different kinds of support.
Our research informed personas with different career goals and constraints. Cher wanted clearer, more personal mentorship. Dave's international job search highlighted why relevance matters as much as access.
Four themes shaped our direction.
Eight student interviews revealed recurring challenges that went beyond simply finding job listings. These themes helped us prioritise support, clarity and relevance.
From finding a person to finding your people.
I collaborated on the full research and design process with three teammates. Within the wider Anchor platform, I focused on three connected areas: helping students find alumni guidance, join group mentorship sessions and keep track of applications. This section explains my responsibilities; the final designs appear in Section 07.
Mentorship dashboard
I worked on the experience for discovering mentors and moving from browsing a profile to reaching out for guidance.
Group mentorship sessions
I designed the pathway for finding and registering for sessions where students could learn alongside others.
Application tracker
I contributed to the application-tracking experience, helping students keep career opportunities and next steps organised.
Making the next step feel obvious.
We organised Anchor around clear pathways to the resources students needed: mentorship, group sessions, events, jobs and application tracking. The information architecture helped us connect these features without forcing students to search across separate platforms.
As a team, we mapped the different journeys students could take across Anchor. My work focused on the user flows for finding and connecting with mentors, discovering and registering for group sessions, and exploring opportunities through alumni referrals. The diagrams below show the specific flows I worked on, rather than the full set of user flows developed by the team.
Finding and connecting with a mentor
From sketches to final screens.
This slideshow traces how Anchor developed, starting with early sketches, moving through low-fidelity wireframes, and ending with the high-fidelity designs.
Two ways to feel more connected.
These are the three parts of the finished Anchor experience I contributed to. Each screen follows from the research, user flows and testing shown above.
Finding the right person to ask
The mentorship experience helps students explore alumni connections and take action. After testing, we simplified registration by consolidating two competing registration buttons into one clear Register action.
Making shared learning easier to join
Group sessions offer another route to support beyond one-to-one mentorship. The experience brings session discovery and registration into a clear flow.
Exploring opportunities through alumni referrals
Alumni referrals offered another way for students to discover career opportunities through their university network. I worked on how these opportunities could be presented clearly, making it easier to explore a referral and decide what to do next.
Keeping opportunities organised
The application tracker sits alongside mentorship and career opportunities in the wider Anchor experience, supporting students as they manage their internship search.
Part of a larger, connected experience.
While I concentrated on mentorship and group sessions, Anchor was designed collaboratively. The wider prototype also brought together community posts, jobs, referrals and events.
A visual system for Anchor.
Our team developed a design library to keep typography, colour and interactive elements consistent across Anchor. It defines eight Inter text styles, a primary Amethyst palette, two secondary colours and reusable button states.
Colour with a purpose.
Amethyst is the primary colour. Oxford Blue 700 and Maize 500 are secondary colours, alongside neutral shades and status colours.
One typeface, eight styles.
The library uses Inter exclusively, with H1–H4, B1 and T1–T3 to establish hierarchy.
Consistent actions across the interface.
The library specifies solid primary buttons, bordered secondary buttons and text links for calls to action. Primary and secondary buttons each have active, hover and disabled states, including smaller versions.
Different surfaces for different content.
The guide places Type 100 (#F9F7F9) containers on white backgrounds for job cards, session reviews and calendars. Oxford Blue 700 (#10284A) is used for higher-emphasis containers, including recent messages.
What students thought, and where Anchor could go next.
Student feedback highlighted the value of bringing networking, mentorship, jobs and events together in one place. This was an academic prototype, not a launched product, so these responses are qualitative feedback rather than evidence of real-world adoption.
“I like how Anchor helps build real connections between current students and alumni. It makes mentorship easier and opens up valuable career insights that go beyond what you’d get on your own.”
Student, University of Michigan School of Information
“Anchor brings everything together in one place. Events, job postings, and networking opportunities are easy to find, which solves the problem of scattered information and makes it much simpler to plan for my career growth.”
Student, University of Michigan School of Information
What I would explore next
A mobile-first experience, more relevant mentorship matching, additional career preparation tools and a more useful application tracker could extend Anchor beyond the prototype.
Designing for the moments between finding and connecting.
Working on mentorship and group sessions taught me to think beyond whether someone could find the right resource. I had to consider what would help a student feel comfortable reaching out, joining a conversation and following through.
Anchor was also a collaborative project, so I had to think about how my flows connected to the wider experience. If I revisited the design, I would focus on testing what makes a mentor or group session feel relevant enough to take that next step.
Explore Anchor for yourself.
See how the mentorship and group sessions fit into the wider experience.
Anchor
Making career development feel a little less overwhelming.
UX Designer & Researcher
Academic · Group project
Figma · Prototyping
Four designers
A more connected way to navigate career development.
Anchor is an academic interaction-design project created by a team of four at the University of Michigan. We explored how students could find career guidance, opportunities and people to learn from without jumping between disconnected resources.
Career resources were scattered. So was the support.
Finding opportunities was only part of the challenge. Students also needed relevant advice, meaningful connections and spaces to learn alongside others.
Too many places
Career information and conversations lived across different channels.
Generic guidance
Students needed connections that reflected their goals and circumstances.
Limited shared learning
One-to-one advice wasn't the only way students could benefit from their community.
Different journeys called for different kinds of support.
Our research informed personas with different career goals and constraints. Cher wanted clearer, more personal mentorship. Dave's international job search highlighted why relevance matters as much as access.
Four themes shaped our direction.
Eight student interviews revealed recurring challenges that went beyond simply finding job listings. These themes helped us prioritise support, clarity and relevance.
From finding a person to finding your people.
I collaborated on the full research and design process with three teammates. Within the wider Anchor platform, I focused on three connected areas: helping students find alumni guidance, join group mentorship sessions and keep track of applications. This section explains my responsibilities; the final designs appear in Section 07.
Mentorship dashboard
I worked on the experience for discovering mentors and moving from browsing a profile to reaching out for guidance.
Group mentorship sessions
I designed the pathway for finding and registering for sessions where students could learn alongside others.
Application tracker
I contributed to the application-tracking experience, helping students keep career opportunities and next steps organised.
Making the next step feel obvious.
We organised Anchor around clear pathways to the resources students needed: mentorship, group sessions, events, jobs and application tracking. The information architecture helped us connect these features without forcing students to search across separate platforms.
As a team, we mapped the different journeys students could take across Anchor. My work focused on the user flows for finding and connecting with mentors, discovering and registering for group sessions, and exploring opportunities through alumni referrals. The diagrams below show the specific flows I worked on, rather than the full set of user flows developed by the team.
Finding and connecting with a mentor
From sketches to final screens.
This slideshow traces how Anchor developed, starting with early sketches, moving through low-fidelity wireframes, and ending with the high-fidelity designs.
Two ways to feel more connected.
These are the three parts of the finished Anchor experience I contributed to. Each screen follows from the research, user flows and testing shown above.
Finding the right person to ask
The mentorship experience helps students explore alumni connections and take action. After testing, we simplified registration by consolidating two competing registration buttons into one clear Register action.
Making shared learning easier to join
Group sessions offer another route to support beyond one-to-one mentorship. The experience brings session discovery and registration into a clear flow.
Exploring opportunities through alumni referrals
Alumni referrals offered another way for students to discover career opportunities through their university network. I worked on how these opportunities could be presented clearly, making it easier to explore a referral and decide what to do next.
Keeping opportunities organised
The application tracker sits alongside mentorship and career opportunities in the wider Anchor experience, supporting students as they manage their internship search.
Part of a larger, connected experience.
While I concentrated on mentorship and group sessions, Anchor was designed collaboratively. The wider prototype also brought together community posts, jobs, referrals and events.
A visual system for Anchor.
Our team developed a design library to keep typography, colour and interactive elements consistent across Anchor. It defines eight Inter text styles, a primary Amethyst palette, two secondary colours and reusable button states.
Colour with a purpose.
Amethyst is the primary colour. Oxford Blue 700 and Maize 500 are secondary colours, alongside neutral shades and status colours.
One typeface, eight styles.
The library uses Inter exclusively, with H1–H4, B1 and T1–T3 to establish hierarchy.
Consistent actions across the interface.
The library specifies solid primary buttons, bordered secondary buttons and text links for calls to action. Primary and secondary buttons each have active, hover and disabled states, including smaller versions.
Different surfaces for different content.
The guide places Type 100 (#F9F7F9) containers on white backgrounds for job cards, session reviews and calendars. Oxford Blue 700 (#10284A) is used for higher-emphasis containers, including recent messages.
What students thought, and where Anchor could go next.
Student feedback highlighted the value of bringing networking, mentorship, jobs and events together in one place. This was an academic prototype, not a launched product, so these responses are qualitative feedback rather than evidence of real-world adoption.
“I like how Anchor helps build real connections between current students and alumni. It makes mentorship easier and opens up valuable career insights that go beyond what you’d get on your own.”
Student, University of Michigan School of Information
“Anchor brings everything together in one place. Events, job postings, and networking opportunities are easy to find, which solves the problem of scattered information and makes it much simpler to plan for my career growth.”
Student, University of Michigan School of Information
What I would explore next
A mobile-first experience, more relevant mentorship matching, additional career preparation tools and a more useful application tracker could extend Anchor beyond the prototype.
Designing for the moments between finding and connecting.
Working on mentorship and group sessions taught me to think beyond whether someone could find the right resource. I had to consider what would help a student feel comfortable reaching out, joining a conversation and following through.
Anchor was also a collaborative project, so I had to think about how my flows connected to the wider experience. If I revisited the design, I would focus on testing what makes a mentor or group session feel relevant enough to take that next step.
Explore Anchor for yourself.
See how the mentorship and group sessions fit into the wider experience.