Design Makeathon Challenge April 2023

iSucceed

Conducted research and created a high-fidelity prototype of a website to help students, within the College of Information Science, optimize networking, career, and advising resources within a 24-hour time period

Problem

Undergraduate and graduate students in the iSchool face information overload and difficulty locating resources on the website, making it difficult to network with others, find career opportunities, and make advising appointments.

Solution

We developed a webpage database for iSchool students that will act as a supplementary resource to the iSchool website.

We decided on a web page since users stated they access iSchool-related information via desktop devices. We also realized having a mobile device could be cluttered, make the information harder to see, and make it so information is only available if the app is downloaded.

  • Overall: 24 hours

  • Discovery & Research: 6 hours

  • Design & Testing:

    12 hours

Timeline

Tools

  • Adobe Illustrator

  • Google Surveys

  • FigJam

  • Figma

  • Roshida Herelle

  • Anjali Verma

My Role

  • UX Researcher

  • UX Designer

Team

My Design Process

Generative Research

User Interviews + Surveys

Low-Mid Fidelity Prototypes

Analysis

Figma Prototype

Next Steps

Generative Research

We wanted to understand what current students in the iSchool thought about the existing iSchool system, so we looked on Reddit because students use it for the following reasons:

  1. Find out courses that could prepare them for a career

  2. Guidance on how to achieve their goals

  3. Find people within the iSchool to connect with

Competitive Analysis

Through competitive analysis, we found that some colleges within UMD…

  1. Have an advising portal that makes setting appointments easier

  2. Guidance on how to achieve their goals through professional networking opportunities

  3. help students find opportunities to connect with each other

Interviews

During the ideation phase of the project, we conducted in-person interviews with two graduate students and one undergraduate student. I also created a Google Form Survey that four undergraduate students, within the College of Information Science, answered. This was used to help the creation of user personas and to inform the design. Together with the team, we prepared an interview script with 17 open-ended questions, focusing on our target audience’s concerns about resource access and how they go about finding career/ networking opportunities. I interviewed one student, took notes for the second, and observed the final. We referenced the user interview findings throughout the entire design process.

Main Issues Based on Survey + Generative Research:

  • All students view iSchool materials on a desktop/computer

  • 75% of students connect with other students in their classes

  • 25% of students use InfoSci group chats to ask major-related questions

  • Some found the iSchool website confusing due to information overload

Main Issues Based on Interviews:

  • 2 graduate students rely on word of mouth, info from their cohorts, emails, and newsletters for opportunities, events, and courses

  • 1 graduate found the website overwhelming when finding resources

  • The undergraduate student, a double major, had trouble navigating the website for specific course info and relied on drop-in advising. They preferred a more accessible page and scheduled advising.

  • When asked how they find job opportunities, 3 undergrad students reported they use Linkedin while 1 undergrad student reported they use Linkedin and WayUp.

  • 3 live interviews: 1 person said they use LinkedIn, while the other 2 use LinkedIn, newsletters, and word of mouth.

Analysis - Affinity Mapping

Patterns in the User Interview Data:

Connecting the dots.

  • iSchool website is overwhelming, which makes it difficult to find things

  • Students use LinkedIn, Google search, and word of mouth for career opportunities and networking

  • Students do not feel supported by the department when it comes to finding job opportunities and career resources

  • Undergrad students wish there was a better way to schedule meetings with advisors, stay updated on their degree progress, and know what classes they need to take.

  • Graduate students enjoyed the ease of scheduling their advising appointments through the convenient platform provided on the website.

SWOT Analysis

User Personas

  • Undergraduate User Persona

  • Graduate User Persona

Our Key Features

StoryBoarding

We created a storyboard to show how iSucceed could alleviate Ethan's pain points.

Site Map

Low-fidelity Wireframes

Mid-fidelity Wireframes

Branding

  • We created a logo for the webpage and made sure to tie it back to UMD by using their colors

  • We wanted to make sure our tone was inviting but also representative of the iSchool by relaying information in a concise way.

Badges and Iconography

We created badges for users to create a fun incentive for using iSucceed

  • Badges are acquired by doing things like completing the profile and adding skills.

  • We used an icon pack to make sure there was consistent branding throughout

Figma Prototype

Our goals for this prototype:

  • Provide a place where students can easily make an appointment with their advisors

  • Help students with like-minded goals connect with one another

  • Give students easy and quick access to networking and career resources

Usability Testing

We had two users test our prototype

  • The user looked for pre-skills career prep on the career page instead of resources.

  • We can rethink our information architecture

  • The calendar color made it hard to see the dates so we changed the color to make it easier to see

  • Both users thought our interface was intuitive and well-organized.

  • Both users appreciated the ability to connect with other students.

  • We tested how fast users could locate the pre-skills preparation document on the iSchools original website and then on our supplementary one

Next Steps

Due to the nature of this 24-hour challenge, with more time, we would have fully fledged out the prototyping for the graduate student portal.

01

More User Testing

We want to conduct further user testing to understand better how we can improve our user's experiences and to ensure our solution is successful.

02

Expand Courses Page + More Buttons

With more time, we would develop the courses page, giving customizable options to structure schedules. We also wish to add more interactivity through added buttons.

Explore Feasibility and Backend

03

We plan to take more time to consider practicality and hope to develop the backend of our webpage dashboard.

Learnings

We learned how to collaborate on a project, walking through the entire UI/UX process in a short amount of time. We each played to our strengths and taught each other a lot about Figma and Adobe Illustrator.

Thank You!

Please check out my other Projects!