JULIE KIM
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Current existing methods
SAIC students living in dorm expected engagement, supportive, joyful campus life before starting the residence life. Students who live in the dorm have difficulties connecting with new friends or communicating with residence faculties. This made over 50% of students move out from the dorm. SAIC Resident is designed to increase engagement, communication, and productivity for better residence life.
OVERVIEW
How can we provide a better living experience to residents?
Mobile application for students to communicate and manage residence life easily
SOLUTION PREVIEW
SURVEY RESULT
INTERVIEW RESULT
students use 3+ different methods to connect with the residence hall
9 out of 10
residents wants
more engagement
83.3%
"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.
DESIGN PROCESS
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
RESEARCH GOAL
How wide is the gap between resident's current residence life and their expectations?
Let's take a look about...
- How residents are currently solving the problem
- Residents expectations of the residence life
- What improvements the residents want
- Pain points that residents are experiencing
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"
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
Organizing results to define user needs
INTERVIEW & SURVEY
What made residents hard to live in the dorm?
Went through in-depth interview and surveys to collect qualitative data and quantitative data. Conducted survey and interviews from 10+ residents including 3 different dorm type, 1-3 year living experience to find out user's pain point.
Survey
Interview
Going over questions like...
- How do you look up for resources about residence life?
- What did you expect before living in the residence hall?
- What are the pain points living in the residence hall?
- How did you communicate with RAs?
- What action did you take when you have issues?
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."
Users want more socializing
PERSONA
DEFINE PROBLEM STATEMENT
Residents need a platform that support their residence life to engage with people and manage tasks easily.
Crazy 8 + How might we
FINAL DESIGN
Crazy 8
How might we
Bringing up possibilities like...
-Chat with RA & Residents
-Communicate through feed
-Sell and buy products through marketplace
-Book and request events
-Scan student ID when entering dorm
-View maintenance, security request status
-Access to quick links related to residence life
-Report issues through application
Initial sketches to visualize ideas
PAPER WIREFRAME
DIGITAL 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
PROTOTYPE
-
TIMELINE
3 weeks
-
ROLE
UI Design
UX Research
-
TOOL
Figma
Adobe Creative Suite
-
TYPE
Solo Project
"SAIC RESIDENT is designed to leverage student's living quality for a better campus life"
Ideating process for the best solution
CRAZY8 +HOW MIGHT WE
Crazy 8
How might we