Connect U
A social platform to help college students
find nearby events, places, mentors and more.
My role
Research, UX design, Interaction design
Tools
Figma, Miro, Flowmapp
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Team Member
Individual
Project Time
3 Months
Overview
A social platform to help students who moved to a different place, city or country enhance their college experience by letting them find their kind of people and events happening around their place and also find mentors from similar majors who can help them guide through their career.
Design Road Map
Problem
Approach
Ideation
Result
Research
Interviews
Surveys
Competitive analysis
Design oppurtunities
User journey map
Storyboarding
site map
Low fidelity prototypes
Usability testing 1
Final screens
Usability testing 2
Define Problem
Problem Discovery
Having moved to a new country for the first time in my life and pursuing
my master’s in a University, staying in a new place I got to experience and I
get to hear a lot from my friends and classmates about how it is so
difficult to move to a new place and start afresh and it gets little tougher
when we don’t have people around and end up feeling disconnected and
unbelonged. here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
84%
of students that go to university mental health services report the main reasons of their visit as either loneliness or academic stress.
Defining Problem
How to help university students find friends based on their interests to feel belonged in a new place?
User Research
To overcome any of the assumptions and biases I started researching and interviewing users to learn more about their experiences. I conducted,
1. User Surveys
2. One-one Interviews
3. Focus groups
1.Initial User survey
71% of students feel that haven’t met people that match their interests.
92% of students were interested in meeting new people online.
60% users feel detached and out of place due to lack of friends.
52% users mentioned lack of career guidance as the reason for their stress.
After defining the problem and performing initial user survey, I interviewed 8 students and I had casual conversations with a bunch of people. Through a synthesis I was able to create a typical journey map of students experience and extracted 3 main pain points of students while they are in college
2.User statements from interviews
Pain points and how they can be turned into design opportunities?
3.Competitive Analysis
After research I analyzed four most popular apps surrounding this goal/productive space. I found what are the limitationsof each application and thereby it brought me a step closer to the solution.
Redefining the Problem
Redefining the problem statement based on the findings from user research
How to best support students in maximizing every part of their college experience?
Ideation
I brainstormed all the ideas based on the pain points and design oppurtunities that I derived from the user research on paper and pictured user journey maps to understand and derive a better solution to the problem.
1.Testing Design Concepts
I thought of different solutions such as college club, mobile application etc., and finally went with designing a mobile application as it is more easier for students to meet online and it has a better reach than a club does.
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2.Application features
I finalized the solution with three main features wholly based on the research that I did. They are,
1. Attend/host events
2. Find Mentors/Mentee
3. Discussion Box
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3. StoryBoards
I did storyboarding to have a clear understanding of the student journey while using the application.
Finding a mentor, discussion box
Hosting an event
4. Brainstorming App Design
As there is more than one feature to focus on I created two different solutions that will allow students to easily understand and find what they are looking for.
Design A
Design B
5.A/B Testing (USER TESTING 1)
Once I am done with the basic prototyping I performed user testing to get feedback from students and also from fellow designers.
User Testing 1 Results
1.Testing results have shown that students chose Design B over Design A.
2.They wanted to access their activity which was missing ( to view their activity they have to go to the profile page)
3.No search option for mentors page. Students wanted to search for their department toppers or others they knew that they would definetly get best guidance form.
6.Design Improvements Post testing
Design Improvement 1
Added the attended tab to the events page. To view the previous attended/hosted activity.
Design Improvement 2
Added your mentors page to view their ongoing mentorships. Added search feature to the mentors page.
Final Solution and Design
Browse, Join or host events
Students can browse events nearby based on their interests and can host events at their convenient place and time for as many as people they want to.
Discussion Box
Students can post any academic questions in the university tab and general questions such as reviews, feedback, any giveaways, suggestions in the general tab of the discussion box.
Find Mentors
Students can find mentors related to their major, send requests to them and can create a mentor chat to get help with anything related to coursework, internships, certification etc.
Onboarding
Giving a brief description about Connect U for students when they use the application for the first time. Connect U helps students to find or host events happening nearby based on their interests and help them find a career mentor to help them through their college life.
Sign Up
Users should create an account with their college email Ids to verify that they belong to the particular college and choose if the want to be mentored or want to mentor and pick their interests.
LEARNINGS
Giving the particular problem I wish to solve priority
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By focusing on the specific problem at hand, I can ensure that my efforts are directed towards finding an effective solution, increasing the chances of success and meeting the needs of users more efficiently.
​Seeking feedback frequently and early from users
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Regularly gathering input from users and experienced designers allows me to gather valuable insights and perspectives, helping me identify potential improvements and iterate on my design more effectively, leading to a stronger and more user-centric solution.
Improve my story telling skills
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Enhancing my storytelling abilities enables me to effectively communicate the purpose, value, and impact of my project.