Case Study: VioletHub — Enhancing Campus Connection for NYU Students
In response to the challenge of improving the college experience for students and fostering a sense of connection on campus, our team embarked on a project to create VioletHub, an all-in-one app designed exclusively for NYU students. This case study provides an overview of our journey from the initial concept to the iterative development of VioletHub.
Week 1: Project Kickoff and Ideation
- We initiated the project by establishing a collaborative framework using Trello, outlining weekly plans, and documenting our brainstorming ideas.
This laid the foundation for our later discussions and task assignments.
Week 2: Defining the Problem and Ideation
- Through team meetings, we did more brainstorming and refined our focus on the challenge of improving social connections in the post-COVID-19 technological age. This led to the formulation of the problem we want to solve: “How might we improve social connection in the technological age after COVID-19? ” Our ideation process involved mind mapping and concept discussions, ultimately shaping the direction of our project.
Week 3: Conceptualization and Prototyping
- Continued with the prompt of how we could improve the social connection after the pandemic. We were thinking about having college students as our main audience.
- Then we interviewed some NYU students with different backgrounds, asking them: “How would you describe the community at NYU?”. Most of the answers we got were that they all somewhat feel disconnected from the NYU community.
- So in that case we shifted our HMW question to: “How might we improve the college experience for students to feel less lonely/more included on campus?”
- With a targeted problem statement, we began exploring solutions. As we started working on the prototyping mapping, we decided to develop an all-in-one app, only for NYU students, where they can interact with each other and find the resources they might need.
- During our brainstorming, we came up with many different features that we would like to incorporate in the app: online games, a campus map that has a navigation function but also allows you to discover friends nearby (like the Snapchat one), a school discussion board (like Discord), Rate My Professor, and a section showing weekly events and activities on campus.
This week also marked the shift to prototyping using Figma, setting the stage for the development of VioletHub.
- Some questions we have for our target audience:
- Some notes we got from the feedback gallery:
Week 4: Prototyping and Design
- As we progressed into the development phase, we outlined the pages of our app on this doc. Besides the features we discussed in our previous meeting, we also incorporated some ideas we got from the feedback gallery. Later on, we split our tasks by highlighting which pages we want to work on in the doc.
- As we progressed into the development phase, we outlined the pages of our app, integrating NYU colors and fonts for a cohesive design. Troubleshooting Figma-related challenges and importing design elements further streamlined our prototyping process.
- Since we are creating an app for NYU students, we decided to integrate NYU colors and fonts for a cohesive design.
- We are going to use Figma to create the prototypes for our app.
Week 5: Development and Naming
- Our team delved into developing the VioletHub prototype, overcoming challenges and ensuring consistency in style and interactions.
- The app’s name, “VioletHub,” was chosen to align with NYU’s identity.
- We spent some time troubleshooting some Figma questions since some of us don’t have much experience with Figma.
- We created a figjam file for user flow mapping because the incorporation of it helps to enhance the app’s structure and logical flow. We will also work on Stakeholder Map and Value Proposition Canvas in this file.
Week 6: Finalizing Prototype and Planning
- We finished our initial user flow mapping of the app.
- Continuing our work on the Figma prototype, we added interactions, refined details, and ensured a unified style:
- On the campus map, users can always tap on any of the students nearby to see their profile and connect.
2. For the private chat feature, we added a chat window so users can actually “read” the message.
3. We added a fold/expand option on the class discussion board, so they can choose to fold/expand the messages of any class.
- Simultaneously, we commenced planning for our project presentation, marking the transition from development to presentation preparation.
Week 7: User Testing and Iteration
- Our next step is user testing. We listed out some questions we would like to ask users when conducting user testing to improve our app.
- Then we dropped down our interview notes in this spreadsheet. Synthesizing the results, we identified areas for improvement:
- Introduction:
Problem
— Users were Unclear that it was a tutorial. (Suggested Solution: clarify before having users jump right into the tutorial. )
2. Home:
Improvement:
— Logout Button is very noticeable, which might increase the possibility of user logout. (Suggested Solution: change the location of the logout button)
— Notification needed, so users can see the update from the chats/discussion. (Suggested Solution: red dots notification)
3. User Profile:
Problem
— Back to Home button doesn’t make sense because the user flow initially takes the user from the login page to the user profile page, while they’ve never been on the Home page at this time. (Suggested Solution: change the user flow, taking users from the login page to the home page instead of directing them to the profile page. )
Improvement
— Hobbies should be sth edited by the user after they log in since it’s not the information linked to the NYU account.
— While users found that they can see posts of the user they click on on the Campus Map page, they wonder if there’s a feature to see posts created by themselves.
4. Game Center:
Problem
— It doesn’t fit well in the app overall, and most of the users don’t play games that much. (Suggested Solution: Remove the feature. )
5. Campus Map:
Improvement
— They would like to see live events/club activities happening nearby and see if their friends are also attending the events.
— Just showing the people who are in contact on the map is enough.
—Users wonder what it looks like on the map if they don’t have a profile image uploaded. Suggested Solution: Add one more person with no profile image
6. Events:
Improvement
— RSVP button needed
— Change the dates into the format of “Sat, Dec 02” instead of just saying “Saturday”, which makes users a little confused.
7. Discussion & Chat Board:
Problem
— It’s hard to find the private chat, it doesn’t seem to be in the same category as the other two public discussion boards. (Suggested Solution: take private chat out and make it a feature)
8. Professor & Course Reviews:
Improvement
— Would like filters for different departments and majors. (Suggested Solution: users can just search the department/major by using the search bar)
Week 8: Iterative Development and Presentation
- Armed with user feedback, we iterated on VioletHub’s prototype, addressing identified issues and implementing suggested solutions. Then we ended up with prototype version 2.
- We also made some updates to the user flow mapping.
- And we came up with two versions of the stakeholder map.
- For a better demonstration, we created a user persona.
- Simultaneously, we collaborated on creating presentation slides using Pitch, aiming to showcase the evolution of our project and its potential impact.
We got some valuable feedback from our classmates after presenting our pitch:
- Thinks the user profile was helpful.
- Would like to add dorm reviews.
— This is a great idea! It’s something we would like to include in the future. We think a lot of students, especially freshmen, are going to find this helpful while they are choosing the dorm.
- Thinks the prototype looked good and had good details.
- How did you choose the features in the app?
— We came out with these features with different inspirations:
For the Campus Map, we got inspiration from Snapchat, which has the feature of seeing friends nearby. With consideration of some students mentioned that sometimes they have trouble finding NYU buildings, so we decided to have that feature.
For discussion boards and private chats, we were inspired by Reddit and Discord. We would like to have a public space for NYU students to post anything they want to share with the community/their classes and a private space where they can hang out and talk with their close friends.
For the event board, we noticed that it’s hard to find NYU events in one place, they are scattered on different NYU websites. Thus we want to hold a platform where all the NYU events are organized here to see.
For Professor Rating & Course Reviews, we took inspiration from Rate My Professor and Coursicle, and we combined their functions into one feature.
- Would you want it to be associated with NYU or not?
— For now, we want it to be associated with NYU. But if we have a chance in the future, we want to extend our app’s audience to students from different universities.
- Which stakeholder do you think would be the most influential — who should you reach out to next?
— Probably NYU students and NYU admin. We’ve reached out to the executive director of the Center of Student Life at NYU to express our interest in developing this app for NYU students. We are still waiting for a reply!
- How would you get people to use it?
— We would like to promote the app through physical posters, e-posters, emails, etc.
- Why did you include the location of students on the campus map?
— We aimed to increase student connections with this feature. But considering that some students might worried about their privacy, in the future we will include an option in the app settings to let users choose if they want to be seen by other students on the map.
Conclusion
VioletHub represents our dedicated efforts to enhance the college experience for NYU students. From ideation to iterative development based on user feedback, the process reflects our commitment to creating a solution that fosters connection and inclusivity within the campus community. The journey outlined in this case study includes our collaborative approach, creative problem-solving, and the evolution of VioletHub into a meaningful tool for NYU students. Looking forward, if possible, we hope to publish this app and continue its development to further extents, realizing its full potential in addressing the challenges of loneliness and fostering a sense of community on campus.
