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Collegiate Mind
A Mobile App Designed with the health and well-being of the college student in mind.
The demands and expectations of college can be a stressful and many students need an support and a community that can help foster and enhance their social-emotional health, as well as mental health and wellness
Duration- 4 weeks
Tools- Figma, Adobe XD, Coolors.co, Canva, Pexels, Miro
My Role- UXUI Designer/ Researcher/ Manager
Step 1: Research
Target Audience
Traditional and Non-traditional College Students interested in building community, developing and maintaining time and stress management, and enhancing their mental health and wellness.
Goals
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To provide resources for college students to focus on their health and wellness
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Increase academic success rates among college students
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Promote advocacy for student health, mindfulness, and community
Methodology
We took an evaluative approach, conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with participants (n=5), current college students and alumni. The interviews were about their experiences and matriculation as traditional college/ university students. Our team used social media and word-of-mouth to recruit participants who currently attended or graduated from a 4-year college/university, interviewing three (3) women and two (2) men
Interviews
I conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with current and former college students, asking them questions about their college experiences and wellness and stress reduction needs.
Examples of Interview Questions:
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What do you think are your traits you need to have as a successful college student?
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What does/did a typical day like for you?
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Tell me about your first significant experience as a college.
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What inspires/ inspired you to be a college student?
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Think back to a significantly stressful time as a college student. Describe why it was stressful and how you managed your stress.
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What activities do/did you like to do to help you reduce anxiety and alleviate stress as a college student?
Competitor Analysis
I decided to research possible competitors of the Collegiate Mind App Design.
This app design is focused on college students and their overall mental health and wellness, with an emphasis on:
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Community Building
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Mindfulness
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Physical Activity
Prioritized Features:
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Free option
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Many college students have limited funds, but are in need of quality resources that will help them during college.
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College Specific
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The culture of college is unique and managing stress and increasing wellness practices is important.
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Step 2: Define
College Students
The opportunity to attend college is, often times, a pivotal one for both tradition and non-traditional students. 8 in 10 college students report high levels of stress. Students that struggle while in college outnumber those who don't. About 30% of students on campus who seek mental health treatment report stress being the cause, while 60% report more severe levels of anxiety.
Improving Health and Wellness
In many cases there are resources available to students on college campuses, but the rate if stress and anxiety remains high. How can an app help provide resources and a sense of community that helps college students manage their stress and improve their health and wellness?
Card Sorting
There were themes that came from
Stress Management
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Advising and Coaching
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Stress Relief
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Community/ Staying Connected
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Time and Stress Management
User Insight
College students need a streamlined and comprehensive tool to manage their stress, promote improvement in physical and emotional wellness, and encourage socialization and a sense of community.
Problem Statement
College students could use better approaches for their stress management throughout each academic semester. They would benefit from a platform that would help to bolster their confidence, earn achievements and stay organized to build and/or maintain their optimal wellness.
Personas
Based on the user interviews, two personas were created. We referred to them throughout the entire product development process.
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Researching potential users and interviewing former and current college students helped determine what was needed to create the user personas.
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Each of the personas were traditional college students who were enjoying their college experience but needed more resources in helping the navigate their way through their college years.
Step 3: Ideate
I like, I wish, What if
Feature Prioritization
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Choosing mentors
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Calendars and reminders
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Ability to add friends and groups
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Recommendations of events and programs
User Flow
The users’ steps were mapped out to see how their journey could be simplified. Reaching the intended goals of the product smoothly.
Step 4: prototype
Sketches
Hand sketching the low-fidelity wireframes allowed for a flow of initial ideas. First thoughts were to create a design that was appealing to traditional college students and help their navigate their responsibilities.
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The main purpose of sketching the low-fi wireframe was to brainstorm the structure and design of the Collegiate Mind App.
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The interviews influenced the sketches and we wanted to highlight features that would help resolve their pain points, such as:
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wanting to have access to mentors and advisors,
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ability to connect with family and friends
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improve time management
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Stress Relief
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Lo-Fi Wireframes
At the beginning of the wire-framing process, lo-fi wireframes were created for testing the features.
Guiding Questions
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I was useful to create and test the lo-fi wireframes to make sure the features and ides were inline with users wants
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Adobe XD was used to build the Lo-Fi wireframe
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The Lo-Fi wireframes were used for testing and iterations were made based on their interview results.
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Users though that it was a good concept, but needed some life.
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The color theory/ mood feature was a bit confusing
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The initial focus for the design was for college student athletes, but many expressed that it would be good for it to be available to all college students.
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Hi-Fi Wireframes
The hi-fi wireframes included some noticeable changes from the lo-fi.
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Updated the color palette and style guide, making it more vibrant
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Removed the color theory/ mood feature
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Enhanced the journal, event sharing, events, scheduling, and music
Step 5: analyze
Usability Testing
Before finalizing this current iteration of the product, a testing round was conducted on the Hi-Fi prototype order to reveal possible usability problems.
Users were asked to complete 3 Tasks:
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Sign-up or login successfully, then navigate to profile screen
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Invite friends to Homecoming Step Show Event
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Edit Journal Entry
Methodology
5 users participated in virtual prototype testing that included specific tasks that was based on the user flows created.
The participants were asked to join a zoom meeting, given access to the high fidelity prototype, and asked to share their screens as they navigated through the prototype completing the tasks.
Results
Overall, the users provided positive feedback the features and mentioned the enhancements that could have used for improvement, including:
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Some confusion about getting back to the menu screen
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There was some hesitation in finding the “my journal” option
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Getting back to the home was confusing
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A animation or guide telling the user to scroll may be good
Future Possibilities
There are more advance feature that could be added to this design including:
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Instant messaging
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Live video chat
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Mood tracking
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