Conducting User Research 

Since I was working on starting a new application I needed to define a brand and mission. I focused on using the most relevant findings to direct me through the design process. 

Student Surveys 

We surveyed a couple of students from the University at Albany to figure out if students intentionally avoided reaching out to students when faced with class difficulties that can easily be resolved by communicating with a classmate. 

According to our findings on actions they would take we discovered: 

20% Email the professor at home and wait for him to email you back 

75% Try to figure it out on your own with the resources you have 

5% Reach out to any student in the class 

Despite these results…

Most students believe that networking within their courses is important. 

Most students agree having other classmates to work with helps them improve academically. 

These results display how most students are willing to try to figure it out on their own even if it’d be easier to wait for a professor to respond to an email or reach out to classmates for help. However, most seem to avoid reaching out to a student more. 

Student Interviews

Many interviews were conducted with University at Albany students at the campus library. We wanted to empathize students feel about reaching out to a student if they need help or support in class. Below are a few quotes from interviewees in regards to how they feel about reaching out to a student if they need help.

We discovered that 94% wanted an easier way to communicate with their classmates. 

We discovered that students struggle with initiating the communication. This demonstrates how students find communicating with their classmates difficult but know that it’d be beneficial to their academic experience to have their support and would like to interact with them.  or support:

• We discovered that around 80% of the students we spoke with wanted an easier way to communicate with their classmates.

• We discovered that students often struggle with initiating and communicating with classmates about course material difficult.

• Students also agreed on how interacting with their classmates more about course matters could be beneficial to their academic experience.

User Personas

In order to define the brand and target market I decided to establish two User Personas based on the most common use cases I discovered when conducting the interviews. 

The communication barrier in college classrooms (especially lecture centers) has restricted students' from connecting with other classmates. 

There isn’t a process that feels natural for students to build productive relationships with their classmates every semester. Even though students are given the convenience of being in the same location on campus, it seems as though the main difficulty arises from the initiation. Reaching out to another person needs to be less overwhelming. Students find it challenging to

reach out to their classmates for support. They aren’t motivated enough to step out of their comfort zone and meet new students…an arrangement that benefits both parties.

Final Problem Statement

I went on to create a problem statement.

“There isn’t a provided process that feels natural for students to initiate

relationships with their classmates. Students need to know which students are

interested in supporting one another academically from their courses.”

Ideating Solutions

Before getting started I wanted to reframe the problem statement in a way that allows more ideas to flow in. 

How might we: provide a process that simplifies the initiation stage of meeting a new classmate and motivate students to collaborate together? 

I proceeded to determine solutions to address the users' problems. We wanted the app to create study groups for students. I had an idea of the features users needed so my focus was figuring out how to implement them into the platform.

Information Architecture

I wanted to come up with a conveniently organized and structured route to direct users to accomplishing their goals with as little effort as possible. It was important for me to spend most of my time during this stage because of its strong value to determine the platform’s success.

User Flow

Before moving on to creating wireframes, I wanted to organize the most intuitive page flow. I wanted to understand, list and connect all the pages in order to come up with flawless routes for users. Having all the pages laid out also allowed me to gain a clearer vision to set up the most efficient navigational hierarchy and simplest path for users. 

Below is a chart depicting the directions of how users can navigate throughout the app, including adding a new study group with classmates.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

After coming up with the user flow, I moved on to sketching low-fidelity wireframes to determine the structure and content of each main menu screen users will come in contact with most often. I anticipate coming up with a consistent UI design through focusing on upholding compatibility amongst the main screens. Doing this also allows me to save time on figuring out a fixed direction I’d like to go with the UI design before wireframing on Figma.

Sketching Logos

I explored multiple concepts for the logo by sketching my ideas as they came. I wanted the logo to have a detailed illustration that added a cheerful tone. Education is understood to be an often bland and tedious affair so it was important for me to oppose this perspective with a more laid-back and enjoyable visual approach.

I decided to move forward with the sketch I felt worked best for the brand. I chose to add a vibrant orange color to the logo. The color Orange is known to symbolize determination and joy. I refined and developed the final logo with the focus on the target audience.

I decided to move forward with the sketch I felt worked best for the brand. I chose to add a vibrant orange color to the logo. The color Orange is known to symbolize determination and joy. I refined and developed the final logo with the focus on the target audience.

Visual Design Toolbox

I created custom icons and came up with a visual system in order to add consistency and establish a brand identity that brings an exciting approach to the world of academics while upholding a mature and professional aspect.

Iterations

Iterations were made to the process for students to be apart of a study group for a specific course. This change would cover a possibly common use case scenario where a student who may prefer to be assigned a group chat instead of selecting one.

High-Fidelity Prototype

The high fidelity prototype was delivered, providing the real-life presentation of the final product.