Project Branca
Overview
Problem:
- This project is part of a continuous effort of the Innovation Hub at UofT to elevate various aspects of the university experience for students.
- UofT students tend to live all over the city. As shown in our research this residential distance can result in
-
difficult for students to bond outside of the classroom, making it challenging for them to cultivate a sense of belongingness to the university community
-
It can further be detrimental to their academic performance and mental well-being
Solution:
We introduced a social application designed to be safe and easy to use for students to
-
find their peers living near them and
-
promote events and communication for them to facilitate meaningful relationships with each other.
My Role:
-
Core Concept Founder
-
Team Facilitator
-
Lead & Conduct Interviews & Usability Tests
-
Lead prototype design studio & evaluation
-
Low-Mid Fidelity Prototype Design
-
Presenter for our three playbacks
Client:
Innovation Hub at the University of Toronto
Platform:
Mobile Application
Sector:
Student Life
01 Secondary & Primary Research
Understanding the Users
Secondary Research:
-
Feeling belonged is highly beneficial for students to achieve academic success and cross-cultural interactions on campus.
-
Lack of belongingness significantly fueled students' dissatisfaction with their university experience.
-
Only 1/3 of students expressed genuine satisfaction with their university journey.
-
Making friends and fitting in can be tough for them at first.
Primary Research:
To grasp the current living situation of UofT students and how willing they are to connect, we conducted three semi-structured interviews and a set of questionnaire surveys that covered 18 participants.
Questionnaire findings:
-
UofT students live all over the Greater Toronto Area.
-
Students spend little time with other students outside of class.
-
Most students are only somewhat satisfied with their experience at UofT.
Interview findings:
-
Students who live far from campus often make friends through in-class activities.
-
When it comes to staying connected, most interviewees prefer meeting in-person rather than online interactions.
-
While expressing high openness to connect with strangers, participants also worry about privacy intrusion and safety issues.
Affinity Map
We then convert our research data into key points, organizing them into cluster groups based on their similarities. After that, we give each group a title that reflects the theme it represents."
02 Utilize the Research Data
Empathizing with the Users
Using the data obtained from user research, we began to empathize with the users and reflect on the feelings and thoughts they may have regarding our topic.
To actively and vividly observe our issues and potential solutions, we devise our user persona so that we can look at the problems through the lenses of our users. Introducing Ameilia, the Alienated:
Now, let's take a look at a day of typical struggle for Amelia here. Drawing this map helped us isolate three pain points that we can address using our product.
03 Ideation & Solutions
How Can We Help Amelia
It was time for us to flex our creative muscles for Amelia. We started to ideate what we could do to help Amelia stop being alienated and detached and start building connections.
Final Round Ideas:
-
After voting, we have some winners for our prototype design.
-
Two of my ideas have made it to the final round by team voting.
To-be scenario
After implementing our solutions, Amelia's day has become a lot better. This is how her day would look like with our product:
The name Branca:
/ˈbɾan.kə/ Latin for" Branches"
As we are approaching the point where we need a brand name for our project, I came up with and presented this name to the team.
-
I believe using our product, students can spread out like branches and create mini UofT communities across the city.
-
Luckily, the team approved it and adopted it as the brand name for our project.
04 Prototypes!
Usability Testing
-
We put our concepts into hand-drawn sketches.
-
We then converted them into interactive low-fidelity prototypes using the Marvel application.
We recruited:
-
5 UofT students
-
They have different academic backgrounds
-
They live in different locations across the GTA area
The Test:
Principle: Think-aloud
Duration: 15 minutes
Form: 6 tasks + a short post-task interview section
Task 1: Login In
Try logging in to the APP and explore the home page
Task 4: Join Event
You want to find an event near you and join
Task 2: Chat
You received a new message and you want to reply
Task 5: Create Event
You want to create an event and share to a group chat
Task 3: Forum
Finding some good restaurants in your new neighbourhood
Task 6: Neighbour Alert
You would like to welcome a new member
We concluded four insights from the tests:
-
Optimize the main navigation bar design to have clearer icons and textual descriptions.
-
Put even more emphasis on users’ privacy, allowing them more control and liberty of showing their presence.
-
Have more sensible task flows such as having a confirmation page after creating an event.
-
Introduce new functions, including a contact list, profile page, save-for-later and search function for the event page.
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Task flows 1
First time user
-
Simple and fast signup process requiring only a few pieces of information
-
"Neighbour alert" puts the new user's profile card first on the list at the top left of the screen, prompting visibility that encourages other members to reach out to them
-
Profile cards and status messages are from members of the same neighbourhood
-
Privacy toggle removes their profile from the homepage
-
The top filter selected in the demo shows members who would like to hang out at the North York Centre
-
Users can chat with other users living nearby and view their information by tapping on a profile card
*hover to play
Task flows 2
Neighbour and Event Functions
Neighbour
-
The neighbour tab is a special forum focused on the user's neighbourhood
-
All the posts you see are from students living right around your area
Event
-
Users can see upcoming gatherings and events
-
These events are all organized by students in their neighbourhood
-
Users can join an event to their liking, and a group chat will be available for those who are in this event
-
Users can create their own event, which will be marked with a special crown icon
*hover to play
05 Next Steps & Reflection
Next Steps:
-
Because our homepage has the most significant issue out of all navigation tabs, our next step strategy is to focus our design reiteration on that aspect
-
We will ideate on and create multiple variations of the homepage design, with each variation integrating a different insight from current user feedback.
-
We will conduct usability tests with all variations among UofT students and gain insights into each variation
-
Based on their insights, we will narrow down the variations that received the most positive feedback based on collected data and discard the variations where most users had trouble navigating
-
With additional insights and perspectives from users, we will keep implementing them on the variations kept, reiterate and test on users continuously narrow down on the best design versions of the homepage
-
Eventually, we will produce a high-fidelity prototype for all UofT students to enjoy
Lessons learned
Be creative, be theoretical
While we were going over our final ideas, we realized we neglected the privacy and safety concerns which can wield a vital effect to our users. As we were struggling to find a way to address it, I introduced Charles Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory to the team as a guiding principle. It led to our three methods of solution: UofT's UTROid login credential, personal information hashtags, and precise geo-location obscuration.
Be expressive and ready to get challeged
UX design is all about ideas, but ideas do not have a right or wrong answer. Through this project, I learnt that it is important to speak you mind, but it is even more crucial to be prepared that your ideas will get altered or squashed later.
Never be afraid to take charge
I have worked in many teams, and the leader role usually has seldomly been vacant. However, I have been taking the leader position many times in this project, as my teammates may prefer the supportive roles. Making calls and decisions can be intimidating, but I realized that having someone to take up the responsibilities and make those hard choices is essential to make progress as a team.