Course: SI 422 | Project Duration: 9 Weeks | Team: Navigators, 4 UX Researchers
UM would like to create a campus wayfinding app to help students.
Research Question: What are the biggest challenges that students face in finding what they need on campus?
Conduct interviews: 30-minute sessions with audio recordings and note-taking. Full interview Script
Interview Data Analysis: Affinity Diagram, Miro board.
For all the 8 interviews our team has conducted, we generated statement that starts with "I" to help us better understand participant's perspective and contextualize their feelings, behaviors, or experiences.
The interpreted codes are transferred into an affinity diagram to identify patterns and findings.
Insight 1: Navigating on campus is challenging due to limited resources and support.
Insight 2: Students require assistance not only in reaching campus buildings but also in navigating within a building to find specific classrooms.
Survey Design and Analysis: Navigators Survey Design Spreadsheet.
My team gathering insights from a diverse pool of 26 participants. Through a comprehensive analysis, we determined the most pertinent insights aligning with our project objectives. Utilizing data visualization techniques, we crafted visuals that combine and compare responses across multiple survey questions. These visualizations serve as a powerful means to understand the participant perspectives.
Conducted a thorough comparison of responses to survey questions Q8: How confident students feel when finding an unfamiliar campus location and Q9: How long it takes students to locate an unfamiliar campus spot.
The bar chart illustrates the contrast between students’ confidence before attempting to find a new location and the actual time spent navigating to a new place compared to their expectations.
33.3% of students who reported being very confident in finding a new place on campus discovered that it actually takes longer or much longer than expected to locate the new destinations.
For students with a neutral confidence level in finding a new place, half of them mentioned that it takes longer than expected to locate the new destination.
Conducted a thorough comparison of responses to survey questions Q12: Most challenging types of locations for navigation on campus and Q13: Ranking the usefulness of methods when unable to find a classroom inside a building.
Participants rarely seek information on devices when navigating. This observation may suggest a potential shortage of online resources.
Asking people for help is generally considered the most useful idea, with 50% of participants selecting this option.
For navigating inside the building to find a classroom, reading maps/signs is deemed the most useful by over 40% of participants.
After analyzing survey and interview findings, I created a storyboard depicting a student efficiently navigating a new classroom building using this app. This highlights the app's potential to streamline both building and classroom navigation.
Evan, struggling with poor time management while balancing school, work, and social commitments,
aims to efficiently navigate campus for classes and quick food options.
Reveals a common theme: overwhelming busy schedules.
Identified a need for streamlined campus navigation.
Nora, a junior at Michigan, introverted and not familiar with Michigan's campus in her previous two years,
aspires to become comfortable doing things alone and savoring her time.
Students are unaware of the full array of campus facilities.
Highlights the need for a comprehensive guide to the university's layout and resources.
Illustrates the challenges faced by a student unfamiliar with the campus while seeking an ideal study spot.
Underscores the current navigation struggles faced by students.
Highlights the necessity for a user-friendly and efficient app to enhance the on-campus experience.
After the collaborative effort of group research to understand the problem space and identify our target users, I plan to propel the project forward by translating insights into tangible solutions. After a thorough analysis of key findings, I delved into the design process. In the initial stages, I sketched out the wireframes to visualize the structural framework of the mobile application.
Following the wireframing stage, I advanced to iterating through multiple prototypes. Afterwards, I proceeded to develop the high-fidelity design. This phase involves refining the visual elements, incorporating brand aesthetics, and ensuring a cohesive and polished user interface.
An integrated and organized navigation platform designed to guide students across campus to their destinations.
Discover nearby buildings through tailored recommendations.
Search for specific destinations, such as buildings and classrooms.
Campus navigation with diverse route options.
Shortest route navigation within a building.