STUDENT CONNECT
With the focus of solving a problem that was found during the opening empathise phase, this university module produced Student Connect. Which allows university students to video chat with other students who have similar interests. Student Connect has onboarding, profile customisation, filters, video chats alongside trophies, challenges and further ways to message the people they connect with. With the social effects of COVID-19 still fresh, many university students hadn’t met many others or had the experience they expected and wanted. This app should help fix this problem.
DETAIL
STUDENT CONNECT
A key objective for the module was to synthesise a problem, which was found through target audience interviews, and then design a solution. During these interviews it was discovered that even though technology and digital communication was considered to be important, there was a real need for face to face and in-person activities for my audience. This was further exasperated by the restrictions. Which had only recently been lifted.
REASON
STUDENT CONNECT
A way to cater to both the technological and in-person needs of our future users was defined to be the main goal. During the next set of research and ideation, an idea based on video chatting with other students in similar societies or courses was tested, using low-fi prototypes. With feedback, alongside more secondary research, this was further modified to allow users to set their own filters meaning it was not just course or society specific. With other features being added as high-fi prototypes were designed and then tested, such as the ability to add users on different internal and external platforms and added customisation giving users a reason to continue using Student Connect. Alongside a quiz and reward system which encouraged users to complete app specific goals.
REASON
STUDENT CONNECT
The target demographic was pre-selected, by the module brief, and was university students. However finding a niche or a particular target audience within this was one of the project goals. Once the opening research and interview phases had finished it was thought that the target niche could be the subjects that connected these students, in addition the idea of combing or connecting digital and physical social activities was another aim. More primary research later on helped to suggest that this would be well received by students. Once a specific audience had been decided on, personas were created to ensure that a reference was available to use and test on, when the design phase started.
DEMOGRAPHIC
STUDENT CONNECT
Student Connect was created primarily on Adobe XD, with help from paper low-fi prototypes. One of the module aims was to learn and utilise an iterative design process. So throughout this module different phases of work, new research methods for example, were undertaken for the first time. With key findings from these being used to help craft the end product. Brand guidelines were produced alongside this app, to ensure for consistency in the future.
METHOD
