Using a Mural board, a stakeholder map was created to understand the relationships involved and groups to keep in mind through the development of the project. International students depend on multiple parties for success and it's important to address their impact on the process.
An empathy map was made focusing on the unique struggles of Jasmine, an international student with a student visa about to begin their freshman year. It was important to understand the problem areas in their current process. What themes revolve around these issues?
To begin brainstorming, a journey map was created with the intention to find solutions to some of the stages where international students struggled. With a focus on four main pain points, big ideas were explored. This allowed us to think beyond easy solutions and come up with unique answers that could improve an international student's experience. How could we be differentiators? These influenced our storyboards, that visualized how our ideas could be impactful.
Three final personas were made to organize all the insights collected throughout the research process. Extreme users were included to showcase that even the most unique experiences were considered.
Multiple sketches for each screen were done and critiqued by other group members. Focus was on icon placement and possible use of components. The final design was a combination of the best features from each sketch.
Sketches were then improved on in Figma, beginning with a wireframe.
Due to the short timeline of the project, only a few screens were produced with a focus on two scenarios. Colors were considered based on simplicity and the emotions they produced. Already established layouts were used as well, to reduce the learning curve for our application.
A forums page was created with the steps to create a post and a tasks page with the steps to complete a task.
This presentation was created collaboratively and intended to showcase the problem and how our idea would be able to improve an international student's experience. By walking others through our process, they are able to further understand the need for our application.
Feel free to try our application firsthand.
Focus on two scenarios:
1. Completing a task
2. Asking a question on the forum
