VioletHub — SDI Final Case Study
by Shourya Jasti
Hello readers!
My name is Shourya Jasti, and I am a sophomore at NYU. I’m studying Business, with concentrations in Finance and Econometrics, and a minor in Technology, Management, and Design. For my Service Design Innovation class, our final project assignment was to design a new service that could aid a community of our choice. Here’s an overview of our process, thoughts, and final outcome.
[Choosing a Direction]
Since we were able to choose a topic and target userbase on our own, our first step was to find an area that all of us were interested in. Some ideas we were interested in were:
- Finding a way to improve the connection and communication between the delis in NYC and their customers.
- A service related to airports and the process of buying an airplane ticket.
- Helping the NYU Makerspace publicize their offerings — services, machines, and events.
- Improving the student community at NYU, and making it easier for students to access both each other and on-campus events.
Considering our roles as NYU students, and the resulting interest we have in improving our community, our group decided to focus on topic 4.
[The Problem]
Here’s an overview of the problem we looked at:
- There’s a lack of community and social services at NYU.
- Students feel lonely, and this feeling was amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- There aren’t any current NYU resources that have solved this problem.
[Primary Research]
To better understand the community at NYU and how students view it, our group interviewed 12 NYU students of different backgrounds, and asked them this question: “How would you describe ‘community’ at NYU?” The results demonstrated how disjointed NYU students feel from one another, with many students giving answers such as:
“What community?”
“Disconnected.”
“Elitist.”
“Many micro-communities…can feel lonely if you don’t find your niche.”
[Secondary Research]
During secondary research, we took a look at current programs that have done a good job of connecting people. Some examples we found were Strava, which is a service that successfully created social networks based on common hobbies (running and biking), and VR Chat, which is a way for users to interact and become friends with one another while playing video games.
We also took a look at research and articles that explored human connections. An article released in 2020 made me realize the importance of social technology, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Social technology is any technology that facilitates communication and social interaction. These technologies, especially ones with messaging services, play a crucial role in maintaining connections with peers in the modern world. NYU’s campus is so spread apart that we thought it would be important to find or create a similar service for the students.
The effects of the pandemic haven’t just disappeared. According to a Forbes survey, “59% of respondents say they find it harder to form relationships since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to just 13% of people who find it easier.” Another “25% [of respondents] report feeling anxious — and 20% said they feel scared — about socializing with friends or family they haven’t seen since the onset of the pandemic.” Here’s some food for thought: If it became harder for the respondents to reconnect with people they already knew, how difficult would it be for them to take the initiative to meet new people?
Our team thought that the lasting effects of the pandemic made it even more necessary for a change at NYU — most of the current students were in high school or college during the pandemic, and it has had an immense impact on the way we socialize and connect with one another.
[HMW Statement]
After all of our research and group discussions, this is the problem statement we came up with: How might we improve the college experience so that students feel less lonely and/or more included on campus?
[Ideation]
While coming up with ideas, we looked at items that we, as NYU students, would want to change or create on campus. We also talked to our classmates about ideas that they’d like to see incorporated, and here’s a collective list of ideas that we came up with:
- Students would like to know who is in their classes and majors.
- Students wanted access to activities that would help them connect and bond with one another.
- Students would like to have a community forum for different interests.
- Students wanted to post events on their own and say things such as “I’d like to go watch X Movie tomorrow, does anyone want to join me?
- With regards to the NYU Makerspace, students wanted a way to reserve mentor timeslots or machine timeslots via chat.
- Students wanted a way to get both course and professor ratings that were only relevant to NYU.
- Students wanted a group chat for the large lecture classes that they were in.
- Students wanted to easily see where their friends are since the NYU campus is spread apart and oftentimes it’s hard for people to coordinate/communicate with one another and make spontaneous plans.
- International students wanted a “penpal” type situation, where they were matched with a mentor or friend from the same geographical location.
- Students wanted a good balance — they wanted something that would encourage people to connect while not making them feel as if they were forced to socialize.
- Students wanted a better way to find and attend the events that NYU hosts.
In order to fit several of these needs, our team decided to design an app that has several desired features. We decided to narrow down our features to a few specific ones — a campus map where you could see others’ locations, an events page to view NYU-specific events, discussion/chat boards for students to communicate with one another, a page for students to review courses and professors, and finally, an online game platform where students can connect while playing simple games.
While designing these features, we looked for inspiration from several existing services: Snapchat, NYU Engage, Reddit, Discord, Rate My Professor, and Game Pidgeon. These services all have features that are similar to or connected to the ones we wanted to create:
[Stakeholder Map]
Before starting with our prototypes, we created a stakeholder map. During this process, we centered our product around the intended user: NYU students. We then took a look at who these students may interact with, as well as the people that would be needed in order to get the app functioning. We made two versions. The first placed stakeholders on a graph based on the level of influence they had vs the level of interest they would have in our product. Through this graph, we realized that we should focus on those who belong to the top right corner of the graph — they have the most influence and interest in our product. The second differentiated stakeholders between whether they had a direct or indirect relationship with the user.
[User Persona]
We also created a user persona to exemplify the type of user that we are designing this service for. Meet Jessica Green! She is currently a junior at NYU, and lacks both a campus and a sense of community. She finds it hard to meet new people and make new friends — NYU has some resources, but they’re spread apart and she finds it hard to keep track of everything. She also wants course recommendations, professor reviews, a chance to talk to her classmates, and to attend new events but is struggling to figure out how to do all of this.
[Low-Fi Prototype]
Here’s a picture of our Low-Fi Prototype, which was created using Figma.
As you can see, the app pages all look very different from one another, and they’re not really developed yet. While creating this original prototype, we also made a Design System, which is shown below. This system included all the official NYU colors and fonts, as we wanted to match our app with the university’s branding as much as possible.
[SiteMap]
After creating our low-fi prototype, we made a sitemap so that we could figure out the proper flow for our first prototype. Take a look below!
[Prototype 1]
After creating our original prototype, we expanded it to improve our offerings as well as the flow of the app, and this resulted in the first prototype. Here’s a run-through of all the components we included:
Tutorial — The tutorial was an introduction to the app that had a brief description of each feature.
Login — Students were to log in using their NYU email, which ensures that only NYU students can use the app. This step also allows the students’ basic information to be uploaded to the profile (name, major, year, etc.)
User Profile — Since the accounts are connected to the students’ NYU accounts, some of the information will already be filled out (name, major, year, etc.). The student can fill out the rest of the information as needed.
Home Screen — This page allows easy navigation to each of our main features. It is also where the logout, settings, and help buttons are located so that students can find them conveniently.
Campus Map — This page is where students can see the different campus building locations. They are also able to see the locations of other students. Due to privacy concerns, we aim to offer the students different options — their locations can be both private or public. If private, they have the option to only allow their friends to view their location or to turn their location off completely. If public, then everyone using the app will be able to view their location. Due to time constraints, we were unable to build these features into the prototypes, but we hoped to explain the concept clearly during both the presentation and this case study. When a user sees another person’s icon on the map, they can click on it to view their name, email, bio, and a small social media profile.
Chat Board — This page has three components: a private chat, an all-school discussion board, and a class discussion board. The purpose of this was to allow students to comfortably connect with and speak to each other in different settings. Whether it’s a conversation with a close friend (during which the user would use the private chat) or a question posed to their entire class (during which the user would use the Class tab), we hope that this will create a bridge for communication between the students.
Weekly Events — The purpose of this page is to help NYU students find new events to attend on campus. Currently, students have to enter NYU Engage and go into each club’s individual page in order to find events on campus. By putting all the events in one place and including an option to filter by whether the event is in-person or online, we hope to make the events at NYU easier to find and attend. If students are able to get access to more events, then they will also have increased opportunities to meet and bond with others.
Course and Professor Reviews — One of the common complaints that we heard was that it was hard to find proper course and professor reviews. Although RateMyProfessor has many reviews on it, it’s often hard to find NYU professors and search results often show professors from other universities. As of now, there isn't a commonly used course review system. As such, we decided to incorporate a course and professor review page in our app, so that students can easily see upperclassmen’s opinions on various NYU-specific courses and professors.
Game Center — In order to create a fun environment where students can meet and get to know one another, we added a game center to the app. We decided to add games that are both popular and easy to play, and our final selection included Darts, Mini Golf, Chess, 8 Ball, Cup Pong, and 20 Questions.
[User Testing & Findings]
After finalizing the first prototype, we decided to conduct some user testing in order to better understand what potential users thought of our app and to figure out what changes they’d like to make. If you’d like to take a look, here’s the document where we recorded our findings.
We received a lot of feedback, below is a compilation of the major findings:
- Users didn’t understand what the tutorial was. They opened the app expecting to directly log in and were confused because instead of that, they were being shown a lot of information.
- Immediately after logging in, users were shown their user profile. They were confused because at the top left of the page, there was a left-facing arrow pointing towards the home screen, but they hadn’t previously accessed the home screen.
3. The distinctions with the chat center types were confusing — the private chat, all-school discussion board, and class discussion board were all under the same feature.
4. Users were confused by the fact that they couldn’t see chat notifications from the home screen — they had to enter the chat feature and then choose the specific chat type in order to see notifications.
5. Students wanted to see events on the campus map as well, as this would make it easier for them to find events.
6. Students also wanted an RSVP option for the events so that they could confirm their attendance.
7. Students wanted to know what events their friends were attending so that they could use that information to help decide whether or not to go.
8. Many of the users didn’t like the game screen — many said they wouldn't use it, and that they didn’t think that it matched the purpose of the app.
[Prototype 2]
We added multiple changes to our final prototype according to the findings from user testing.
Introduction — In order to reduce confusion regarding the tutorial, we included a page informing users that they were about to see a tutorial. We didn’t want to take it out because we believed that it was still important to give the users an introduction to our app and its features.
Home Screen — We believed that the confusion regarding the “backward” arrow could be resolved by changing the flow of the app. Originally, users went from the login page to the user profile, but in the 2nd prototype, users go from the login page to the home screen, where they then have the option to edit the user profile.
Chat Board — In order to reduce the confusion regarding the different chat types, we decided to split the chat feature into two: the Private Chat and Discussion Board. Now, users choose one of the features from the home screen. If they choose Discussion Board, they have the further option to differentiate between all-school or class discussions.
Campus Map and Weekly Events — In order to best incorporate user feedback, we added events to the campus map. This way, users could easily locate events. Furthermore, on the events icon that shows up on the map, there are two attributes: on the bottom left is the total number of attendees, and on the bottom right are the profile pictures of all the user’s friends who are attending. After clicking on the event, the users now also have the option to RSVP to the event.
Games Center — Since the users we spoke to didn’t enjoy the Games Center as a feature and didn’t think that it should be included, we decided to remove it from our app completely.
[QR Code]
If you’d like to access our final prototype and take a better look at our features, here’s the QR code!
[Scalability]
We believe that our app has great growth potential. First, we will grow our user base within NYU, and then we look forward to expanding to other universities. We would also be excited to partner with high schools and create a similar system for them that is adjusted for the needs of high school students. Finally, when the app is well-developed, we would like to offer it in different languages, so that it can be used internationally as well.
[Sustainability]
With regard to sustainability, we believe that there will always be a need for our app because there will always be students both in and outside of NYU. To be sustainable for our users, we promise not to keep their data for long periods or to sell it to outside organizations. This is a rising concern for the general public, and students in particular, because information regarding our purchasing patterns, website usage etc. is becoming widely collected, and this is something that most people are against. Finally, to ensure that our app follows user trends and stays up-to-date, we will ensure that we will continue incorporating user feedback accordingly.
[Diversity of Voices]
Ensuring that all the users feel safe using our app is one of our top priorities. As such, we have multiple plans to make sure that our users are able to comfortably voice their thoughts and opinions:
- Work on spreading cyberbullying awareness throughout campus.
- Include a filter in our app so that curse words and slurs are blocked.
- Use AI to filter harmful statements and/or photos that may be sent through the chat.
- Implement an app administrator who oversees the app and steps in when they see a user harming another user.
- Adding an option to report harmful users so that their accounts can be suspended.
[Next Steps]
Our next steps include…
- Gathering more user feedback so that we can incorporate the needs of study abroad and graduate level students & get feedback on the changes we’ve made for our 2nd prototype.
- Reaching out to NYU so that they can incorporate it as part of their official apps — this will make the app seem more trustworthy and students will be more likely to use it.
- Developing the App to include it in the app store offerings, so that we can use and test it in real-time, and understand any improvements that need to be made.
[Presentation Feedback]
We presented our prototype as well as the steps we took to develop it last Wednesday (12/13). Here is some of the feedback we received:
- “I think the profile was a good idea and is very helpful for people to get to know one another.”
- “I would like to add dorm reviews to this app.” — I think this idea is great! I remember having to hunt through all kinds of obscure online posts to figure out my freshman-year dorm choices, and I think having this information in one place would make it a lot easier for future students.
- “I think the prototype looked good and had good details.”
Here are our responses to the questions our audience had:
- “Why did you include the students’ location as part of the Campus Map feature?” — We decided to include the students’ locations as part of the map because a lot of students wanted to see their friends’ locations. As previously mentioned, when creating this application in real life, we would have to take various privacy concerns into consideration. We want to ensure that everyone has a safe experience while using our app, and as such, we will do a considerable amount of testing and research before releasing this feature.
- “How did you choose the features to add to the app?” — We chose the features based on the desires of the students we talked to; there were many students who had the same goals, so we prioritized those when deciding on features.
- “Why would you want the app to be associated with NYU? In my experience, people don’t want to use things associated with the university?” — I believe that associating the app with NYU would make it easier for students’ information to be transferred over from the NYU systems, and it would also be easier to get NYU event information. In addition, the association with the NYU brand would create a layer of trust and safety. Doing so would also give us access to a lot of resources that a large institution such as NYU can provide. However, in the case that we partner with NYU and this results in fewer students using our app, we would have to look into other options.
- “How would you get people to use the app?” — Many students are actively seeking to build a community at NYU, and so we believe that word of mouth would be particularly effective. If we speak about this app to our friends, they tell their friends, and so on, we can build a cross-campus chain of users. Partnering with NYU would also aid in this — our app would be included in the email blasts that the university sends out regularly.
- “Which stakeholder do you think would be the most influential — who should you reach out to next?” — The stakeholder we think would be best to reach out to next is the NYU Admin team, specifically those who run the Center for Student Life. The Center for Student Life is always working to improve students’ experiences at NYU, and part of this is building the NYU community. Our app could make a huge positive difference in students’ ability to make friends at NYU, which has been a common issue among the student body for years. We believe that the Center for Student Life would be interested in helping to develop and garner support for our app since our goals are aligned.
[Lessons Learned]
The key learning that stuck out the most to me is the importance of user testing. Without user testing, we wouldn’t have found the flaws in our first prototype, and our app wouldn’t have been successful if launched. We were also able to get new ideas from the interviewees, and we wouldn’t have had the same diversity of thought if we hadn’t conducted the interviews.
The other key learning I gained from this project is the importance of understanding your teammates' priorities and being organized. If our group hadn’t taken the time to understand each others’ skills, priorities, and working styles, then completing this project would’ve been much more difficult. In addition, taking the initiative to make an organized schedule and set a meeting time every week was extremely useful, and it helped keep us on track.
Thank you so much for your time, and feel free to reach out with any other ideas or questions!
