RU READY
My role: UI,UR
An college navigator and community builder for school clubs for Rutgers, this app also features a custom character creator to boost engagement. Students can create their own unique avatar to represent themselves within the app and their chosen club.
This not only adds a fun and personalized element to the app, but also helps students feel more connected to their virtual community. The character creator could offer a range of customization options, from hairstyles and clothing to accessories and facial features, ensuring that each student's avatar is as unique as they are.
Problem
Rutgers has issued this Request for Proposals to establish a partner to explore, define and build
an interactive product. As part of the selection process, RFP respondents are asked to develop
a pilot for a program focused specifically on how
to provide the student and faculty population on Rutgers New Brunswick campuses a means to support their own and each other’s identity,
sense of well-being, and day-to-day lives.
Solution
Offer a mobile app that connects students with each other through campus involvement. It allows users to see and register for upcoming events around them based on their interests and hobbies. Features: sync calendars, view friend activity, create groups
Survey
Muilti question survey delivered virtually to Rutgers Students, Understanding the background of our users, Understanding the way our users live and interact with the world, Understanding the essential parts of life where our users need assistance.
Design ProcessÂ
Once the data returned, we organized it and began to form it into a user persona. This action takes us as a group for approximately one hour to complete. We found that our average user is a single, 27 year old female graduate student who lives with roommates and whose current position is a full-time project manager. We decided to name this person a jane.
We started to form Jane’s habits from the survey research that we gathered. Jane has a very inactive lifestyle, having little to no social time, and not going out very much. She spends much of her time working and doing homework. Jane works at least 40hrs a week, 10hrs of class time, and 12 hrs of homework spending a total of 62 hrs week on work alone.
User JourneyÂ
Her morning routine was standardized. She wakes up, does her hygiene regimen, eats, and gets ready for work. The work day for her was mainly performing tasks and delegating work to her coworkers. After work, she heads to school to complete class and homework, while also making time for group meetings. Finally, her
day ends when she still does a little bit more homework, but after that, she has the rest of the time for herself.​
Sketch&
PrototypeÂ
Now that we have our targeted user crafted, we have separately begun to draw ideas for the potential product. Once completed, we came back together and looked to see what ideas delivered the most value. The following steps were taken to write down ideas for a product to help solve Jane’s problems while keeping in mind the guild lines that Rutgers University has given us. Once we came back as a group, we picked our best and most practical ideas for the prototyping phase
Prototype goal
To create an easy to use onboarding process Â
Allow users to connect with their character
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Quickly access different functions
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Create APP that would keep the student users coming backÂ
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To create a avatar that would make user feel connected and invested in app
Usability Testing
We then began a user survey of the wire to learn about its shortcomings and usability. The first of our survey was done by me, where I had the user explain how they felt about the product in its early stages and if it was a product they would use in the future. This process took approximately 20 min. From this, we learned that our project had potential, and what stood out the most to that user.
Result&
InsightsÂ
Friends ActivityÂ
​What would you like to see on a friend's activity page?
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Better to have a pin feature to pin my favorite friends who can see my activity status
Users were OK with sharing personal information
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There were split opinions on the customizable avatar
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There was confusion about some buttons and their placement
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Users expected the calendar functionality to more closely match native calendar apps on their device
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Users felt overwhelmed by button options
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There were questions and concerns about location sharing
MapÂ
​What do you think about this function?
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Very informational and intuitive
Useful for making new friends
The add event flow is interesting
Onboarding
​What is your first impression?​​
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Avatar is cool and interesting
Too much text on Sign up screen
Calendar
How is the calendar use experience?​​
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Using process is a little complex but can understand how to use it
CustomizeÂ
​What do you think of customize?
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Not necessarily
Should be better to include in the setting
