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Bear-In-Mind

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A Scheduling app extension that can aid busy students with their conflicts and have a healthy academic work-life balance

01

Problem

We were each assigned an area of topic on which we had to design apps. Our team got anxiety and friendship as our topic and we had to develop a product that helped solve problems that might occur around them.

02

Logistics

Team: Nancy Nhat Nguyen, Bryon Anderson, Yingkit Shi, Pedro Martinez, Jovan Morales Hurtado

Role: Team Lead + UX/UI Designer

Timeline: 10 weeks

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03

Research Methods

Surveying, Interviewing, Usability Testing, Prototyping, User personas.

04

Solution

Then we settled on the idea of building a product around scheduling for students as it can be very hard to plan events and manage classes and work at the same time.​

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Initial thoughts 

Brainstorming 

This product was developed as part of a class project for CMPM 131: User Experience for Interactive Media at UC Santa Cruz. After receiving our assigned focus area of anxiety and friendship, we conducted a brainstorming session to explore various ideas, as shown below. To guide our creative process, we used key questions to drive our ideation and ensure we were addressing the core needs of our target audience. Additionally, we created a production plan to keep the project on track and ensure we met all deadlines throughout the timeline.

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Understanding the users

How talking to potential users allowed us to develop the product:

Through our brainstorming sessions, we identified a common struggle among ourselves as students: balancing time management with maintaining a healthy social life. Many of us found it difficult to build meaningful connections and relationships while also managing academic responsibilities. This led us to consider developing a scheduling support app, which could help users better organize their time and address the challenges of "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out).
To ensure our design was rooted in real user needs, we created user personas and journey maps based on our own experiences, as well as insights from other students around us. This allowed us to empathize with our target audience and understand the pain points we were aiming to solve.

Initial Prototyping 

Feature Generation

We then tried to draw out and put together our ideas, while also recruiting potential users for feedback on our ideas/features and prototypes.  We did so using various methods in ux such as Method: Word-Concept Association, Sketches Krazy 8, Storyboarding, and paper prototypes as well as user maps.

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Design and Development

Sketching | Wire framing | Prototyping

We began by utilizing generative design principles and surveying students to gather feedback on the features they found most appealing or problematic in our initial plan. Based on their responses, we refined the product concept and moved forward with sketching the key screens.

To visualize our ideas, we created a paper prototype and tested it with users for initial feedback. After reviewing the paper prototype, we transitioned to a more polished digital version by developing a prototype in Figma. This allowed us to further refine the user experience and design elements before moving on to high-fidelity mockups.

User Testing

A/B Testing | Surverying

We then tried to draw out and put together our ideas, while also recruiting potential users for feedback on our ideas/features and prototypes.  We did so using various methods in ux such as Method: Word-Concept Association, Sketches Krazy 8, Storyboarding, and paper prototypes as well as user maps.

Takeaways and Insights

Reflecting on the project, here are the key lessons and improvements we identified for future iteration
  1. Improved Research:
    • Conduct more extensive surveys and interviews early on to pinpoint specific problem areas more accurately.
  2. Comprehensive Design:
    • Ensure all necessary screens and features are planned and integrated into the project from the start.
  3. Refined Focus:
    • Move away from traditional calendar functionality and focus on innovative scheduling options. For example, track the actual time students take to complete tasks and use that data to provide personalized time estimates.
  4. UI Enhancements:
    • Redesign the user interface to make it visually appealing and user-friendly. Avoid pale colors like lilac, which can strain the eyes, and opt for more accessible color choices.
  5. Feature Development:
    • Fully develop and refine the check-in feature for better usability.
    • Automate the scheduling process to save users time and effort.
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