JULIE KIM
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Current existing methods
Communicate with your friends & family who lives oversea in a more fun and active way!
FINAL SOLUTION
Don't let time zones be a barrier. Explore your friend's avatar to instantly grasp their location's weather, timezone and activities empowering you can connect seamlessly without hesitation.
All-in-one information in a glance
EFFICIENCY
SURVEY RESULT
INTERVIEW RESULT
students use 3+ different methods to connect with the residence hall
9 out of 10
countri engagement
72.7%
"It's hard to communicate with RAs"
I don't know when the RAs are available to chat with me, and I feel disrespectful to speak to them upfront or knock on their door when I need something spontaneously
"I feel alone"
No one I mean no one socializes. SAIC dorms need to help residents socialize better and RAs need to organize events for floor bonding
"Disrespectful in shared work spaces"
People are not considerate in shared work spaces. They play loud music, shout during midnight, etc while they are not the only one in the place.
"Hard to report issues"
The laundry room is always broken, no food on the vending machine, fitness center machines are not working but I have no idea where to report these issues.
CURRENT SOLUTION
8+ platforms confuse residents to find the suitable platform
Currently there are over 8 ways to manage tasks related to their residence life which is inefficient to look up for different platforms every time. Residents may have to visit different platforms to complete various tasks such as requesting maintenance, calling security, attending events, and checking announcements. In some cases, there may not even be a platform available for communication. This makes residents hard to find the appropriate platform for every situation which is ineffective and confusing.
INSIGHT
Residents needs a platform to communicate, engage, and manage tasks
Efficiency
Users want to manage tasks like booking events, requesting maintenance, calling RA more easily.
Users want to engage more with other residents. Getting to know more school friends make their campus life more joyful.
Users want more communication between residence faculty and RA to solve emergency & ongoing problems.
Engagement
Communication
INTERVIEW
Why is it hard for international students to communicate with people who live in different countries?
We conducted 5 interviews with students who live far away from their family and friends to sort out insights about this problem
Susan
Cayce
Thein
• 13 hour difference
• 3 year study abroad experience
"It’s hard to communicate because of the different time zone and I’m personally too lazy to reply to people’s message. I think people are just very busy and don’t have enough time to communicate with each other"
• 14 hour difference
• 7 year study abroad experience
"Since we’re living in different time and space, it makes me feel like we are living in different phase of our lives. So I don’t know what topics we can share with each other"
• 2 hour difference
• 1 year study abroad experience
"I no longer have consistent conversation with my old friends back home because we no longer experience things in the same space. I miss the intimacy we used to have with face to face conversations."
RESEARCH
What makes international students feel lonely?
According to NAFSA, 50% of the international students face mental health issue due to the loneliness they experience while studying oversea alone. This loneliness largely came from the students’ disconnection with their longterm supportive system: their friends and family back home. Figuring out what it is like to communicate with friends or family who are residing in different countries, we tried to figure out how students are currently communicating and what kind difficulties they are facing.
Instragram account
Housing Portal
Engage SAIC
- View Events
- View Announcements
- Manage Application
- View Events
EXISTING PLATFORM
NON-EXISTENT PLATFORM
Front desk Security
Resident Advisor
- Emergency Contact
- Request Maintenance
- Complaint
- Roommate Issue
- Emergency Contact
- Visitor Check-in
- Complaint
Community Engagement
- Connect Resident
- Share Campus Life
"Platforms are not organized which makes it hard for residents to manage tasks, request help and find resources"
PREFERRED COMMUNICATION METHOD
Video Call
Phone Call
Message
PREFERRED EXPRESSION
Photo
Meme
Emoji
Users tend to find out that communicating via video call is most successful in bridging the gap. It requires effort to meet the circumstances, but enables to share moments together.
"Being Live" is the key to increase intimacy
Users enjoy expressing themselves throughout alternative ways like emojis since it's fun and easier to share thoughts and feelings.
"Have fun" to share your moments
USER STORY
"As a SAIC resident, I want to effectively communicate with residents, RAs, staffs so that I can gain better living experience during my college life."
User wants more flexibility for communication
PERSONA
Crazy 8 + How might we
FINAL DESIGN
Crazy 8
How might we
How might we make users feel more present with their friends and family?
How might we let users navigate different locations and timezones more effectively?
How might we help users easier to share moments to update their life?
How might we let users communicate more fun and active with their friends and family?
HOW MIGHT WE?
Initial sketches to visualize ideas
PAPER WIREFRAME
GOALS
- Identify problems of the design while using the application
- Figure out how the users react with the core features
- Check users satisfactions to prioritize the features
Testing to gain feedbacks and find problems
USER TESTING
3 major improvements after user testings
IMPROVEMENT
FINAL PROTOTYPE
-
TIMELINE
March 2023
-
ROLE
UX/UI Design
UX Research
-
TOOL
Figma, Blender
Adobe Creative Suite
-
TYPE
Team Project
Keming Li, Jackie Vu
"GLOBOND is a social communication platform helping people who are living abroad communicate with their family and friends easily"
-
AWARDS
Salute Design Competition - Merit Award Winner
BU Catalyst Designathon - Honorable Mention
KEY VISUALS & FEATURES
DIGITAL WIREFRAME
What will be some possible solutions?
IDEATION
Bringing up possibilities like...
-Easily update your status
-View your lover's surroundings more easily
-Sharing moments
-Interaction starter kit
After conducting user research, we started ideating some possible solutions based on the major pain points "Time, Intimacy, Topic"
- Show time / weather
- Active hours
- Global time stamp
- Share calendar / timeline
- Share moments together
- AR/VR experience
- Archive moments
- Express emotions virtually
- Daily Prompt
- Automatic conversation
- Post questions
- Conversation prompt
Time
Intimacy
Topic
OVERVIEW
Globond is a social communication app to bridge the gap between international students and their lovers residing in different countries. As a team, we came up with creative functions to share daily life and topics to chat, so people can feel more connected intimately even though they are residing far away.
Catalyst 2023 is a UI/UX designathon held every year by Boston University, this year at 2023 Globond was selected as one of the top 6 finalists out of 130+ participants.
1
Users are confused by different timezone and different living environment
PAINPOINTS
2
3
Users feel disconnected due to lack of intimacy; not having recent updates of each other
Users hesitate communicating, due to lack of conversational topics
SURVEY RESULT
73%
gave up communicating with their friends/family residing in a different country
94%
feel lonelier due to lack of communication
Challenge of communicating with people virtually
We conducted 20+ international students to understand what their pain point is like when communicating with people residing in different countries.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Invite your friends to live session and build unforgettable memories together. With the live-time, users will experience the closeness as if your friend is right beside you, no matter the distance - bridging the gap with the intimacy of shared moments.
Stay together
INTIMACY
Even miles apart, the Interaction Starter Kit ensures that the distance is just a number. Connect effortlessly, bridging the physical gap with new conversation topics, making every conversation feel like you're right there together
Endless conversations
INTERACTIVE