UBCCreative
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
USED TIME
15 Days
INSTITUTION
University Of British Columbia
PROJECT MEMBERS
Shiyu(Will),Caitlin,Bamidele
MY CONTRIBUTION
Drawing a series of simple wireframes on paper according to Caitlin's information architecture, and determining the application logic and typography of the entire app.
Designing a basic mid-fidelity model with Adobe XD, then adding animations and images to make the whole design realistic.
When the app design was finished, I asked Bamidele, another member of my team, to make some suggestions for my app from the perspective of users. Based on his feedback, I made some adjustments and improvements to my app.
Draft
mid-fidelity prototype by Adobe XD
BACKGROUND OF THIS APP
Our project was to build a service that enables UBC student users to find collaborative partners across various creative mediums. Both personal experiences of our group members and an analysis of recent requests and posts on the UBC Graduate Community forum indicate that creative students in non-art related fields of study often tend to have difficulty finding and connecting with other artists to collaborate with, or are unsure of where to begin.
Similar online communities aimed towards UBC students (such as Reddit/ubc and the UBC discord server) are decentralized, difficult to search, and are unlikely to reach all students with these creative needs or skills if they are not actively on or aware of those platforms.
"it ishard to find someone else to collaborate for photo shoots during my spare time because I know nobody"
Community Forum
TARGET AUDIENCE
The app would cater to UBC students on the Vancouver campus, to ensure that all students using the app are within a close distance of each other. Using the UBC Student Enrolment data in Figure 2, this would mean a capped user base of about 59,000 possible users. However, this could be extended to other campuses depending on the success of the app.
UBC enrolment for 2021/22 at the Vancouver campus (Planning and Institutional Research Office (PAIR), 2021)
USER PERSONA
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
There were several drafts of the information architecture, beginning with a rough first draft using ideas from the inspiration apps (see Figure 4). This structure was then sent to Will, who used it as part of his UX design process. The top priorities for the structure of the app were the Profile, Project, and Feed, with an additional messaging system. These would be the most important aspects for someone using the app with the intent to join or create collaboration projects.
final draft of the information architecture
PROBLEM & SOLUTION
Problem
The forum posts are also easily ‘lost’ to those seeking collaboration, an app with the singular purpose to match interested parties would be a more efficient way to meet these needs.
Students who are in non-arts related programs are less likely to interact with and encounter other creatives in person who they might want to collaborate with, because their area of study is not focused on the arts.
Solution
Our solution was to create a mobile app that would be aimed entirely at UBC students, intended to assist them with making more efficient and simple connections with the type of collaborators they are looking for.
We focused on the importance of having a centralized platform that can fulfill the information-seeking needs of non-arts students who are mostly in science, business, technology, or other programs but still have meaningful creative hobbies that they wish to explore and collaborate with others on.
First Step
We could begin with collaborating with some clubs on campus. We can find all clubs at UBC from AMS Campusbase, such as CSSA and UBC Photosoc. We would encourage them to post their events on this app, and ask more users to join. Even though we found website forums and other versions of social media to not reach the fullest possible audience, we could also take advantage of scattered user pools to broadcast the existence of the app, such as on the UBC graduate forums, discord, or reddit. Since this app will be launched in the Apple Store, users should be able to easily find the app there through searching.
PROS AND CONS
Pros
Apps are convenient and easily accessible from a smartphone, compared with a website, and are geared towards quick and simple communication.
Cons
there are many functional similarities to existing apps, such as Instagram and Facebook. It is also difficult to convince users to move their energy to a new app, especially well-established ones.
CHALLENGES
We need a back-end developer to build our app. More than that, we also need some funds from investors to launch this app. The interaction design of this app also needs to be adjusted from time to time.
USABILITY TEST
To test our and improve our design, we created a survey that measures the ease of use by users. The results were then analyzed and incorporated into improving the application. Click here for the original usablity test document and consent form.