CampusBuzz .
The customizable student groups suggester app
Addressing the problem of finding student organizations and events on school campus and creating a better experience for new students through a smartphone application.
OVERVIEW
US school on average has 300 student organizations,
1 in 4 students does not feel like they belong to the campus community as they are unaware of the engagement opportunities they can get involved in. This issue is arising due to the poor form of advertising about student organizations and not providing enough information about the motives/benefits of different organizations.
PROBLEM
How might we help new students in browsing, searching and knowing best-suited student organizations in an efficient and easy way?
SOLUTION
A customizable smartphone application to present students with information on different student organizations and events happening around the campus thus giving new & current students an opportunity to engage with the community, be more social, resolve their queries & so on.
RESEARCH
Identifying the problems
The main goal of the research was to empathize with the user and understand the goals, motivations, pain points so that I could design a better solution for them.
User Interviews
Conducted semi-structured interview sessions with 5 students and 1 admin person of a student organization.
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Interview with students to know about their experiences, approaches & pain points
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Interview with student organization admin to know more about how they promote their organization, what questions they get from students on daily basis
Market Research
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Searched and read about - market landscape & existing approaches to identify the gaps between services provided and user needs
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Analyzed existing solutions offered by Arcadia University, Temple University organization website Interfaces & Corq app
DATA ANALYSIS
Affinity Diagramming
Based on the notes from interviews, I constructed an affinity diagram to categorize findings and to get a better understanding of collected data.
Research Insights
Takes decision of joining/not joining a group based on recommendations from friends or other students
Don't get to know about various student organizations & events at campus
Thinks if organization motives/tasks matches with interests
Prefers online medium than paper-based promotions
Need information about group working, motive, ratings/reviews, hosted events
Like to know and connect with more people
Specific requirements like membership fee or membership requirements should be mentioned upfront
USER PERSONA
Understanding the user
BRAINSTORMING
Exploring ideas & opportunities
Interactive Surfaces
Surfaces such as walls, tabletops
Need to be on campus to explore organizations
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Augmented Reality
Immersive experience & know organizations nearby
Location-based augmented form suggestions might not be much useful for exploring organizations
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Integration with school website
Students use canvas (academic dashboard) daily
Dashboard already contains lot of information
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Customizable mobile app
Interest organization exploration through filters & customization
Easily accessible irrespective of location or time
SELECTED SOLUTION
By considering the limitations of each idea, I selected the solution -
CampusBuzz - Student Groups (Organizations) & Event Suggester Mobile Application"
Defining the functionalities
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Select particular interest (Organization or Event)
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View all (Organizations & Events)
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Filter by interested categories, perks, distance & so on
Explore
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Organization details- User ratings, members, contact, description, category, perks such as free food, past events, upcoming events, cost & membership conditions (if any)
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Save Organization/Event
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Join/Leave group
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Event Details
Details
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Customize News feed by selecting interest categories
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Facebook utilization to add friends from Facebook (Sync friends from Facebook)
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Read/react to friends post or trendy posts
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See activities from friends & other students and take decision accordingly
Feed
Value Proposition
WIREFRAMING
Low Fidelity Prototype
Initially, I started with creating paper-based version of the prototype. In this version, I created screens with a focus on user flow and reducing the number of steps required for completing a task, this will eventually reduce the cognitive load on user.
Once I decided on the user flow and analyzed needed improvements from paper prototype, I created wireframes using Sketch tool
My Organizations
Past Events
Customize Feed
Sync Facebook
Notifications
University ID Log In
Students can login to CampusBuzz with their university ID (CAS Log In) to minimize the efforts of creating one more account
Students with recent admission offers will have university ID but not the CAS passwords, consideration of those users is necessary as they face a lot of difficulties/queries and they don't know anyone to ask to.
Sign Up with ID option will help them create their account- Name, School Email ID, University ID, create a password will be asked
Explore Organizations, Events
Students can select Student Groups or Events (or view all ) and accordingly user flow will follow
Explore Screen 1 will also have cards to know more about Explore Groups and Explore Events features
Information can be filtered using filter option where users can select from different categories, perks and other filters such as distance, ratings etc.
Student Group (Organization) Details
Users can get detailed information about the group by clicking on student group thumbnail they are interested in. Details such as Photos, videos, ratings, members, categories -group belongs to, perks, detailed description about motives, benefits to members, upcoming events, past events, membership fees & membership requirement (if any), etc.
Easily noticeable call to action button for join group &
leave group is provided under options on top right corner of screen
Feed to get recommendation from friends & other students
Feed feature is one of the important features. Firstly it will ask user to select categories which they are interested in through customize option and then posts related to these selected categories will appear in their feed. This feature will be useful to check popular groups/events, friend activities, and their experiences
Reflection
CampusBuzz app will be a problem solver for new as well as current students because -
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Students get a lot of queries related to adapting to a new country, new culture, accommodation, school formalities, etc. By joining orientation or related groups, they will get to know other students and can get their questions answered.
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New, as well as current students, are very much interested in getting involved, doing good for the community, being more active socially and making new contacts
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By showing all groups upfront (unless the user adds filter), app is providing students with exposure to more & more organizations - letting them try and then decide.
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I think If I would have followed the idea of refining interests on sign up flow, students won't even look & try new groups
Promotion
CampusBuzz can be promoted in school by -
Promoting about the app in School Orientation Events, Digital Advertisement Boards, Interactive Displays, Prospect Books, Paper Based Advertisements, Canvas (academic dashboards) Notices, School Website, etc.
With this promotion, new and current students will get to know about the app.
Extended Work
Due to time constraints, I focused more on major flow from user perspective. In future I would like to-
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Design concept & prototype for Admin Flow - Adding organization, Adding Event, meeting check-In, Events check-In, Student involvement Progress graphs, etc.
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Contextual inquiry during School Orientation Events to know more about the context
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Conduct usability evaluation to know from users about app issues & recommendations
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