The Problem
The original focus of the research for this project was about understanding how European students experience their adjustment period in the UK and how this affects their wellbeing. The aim was to develop a service or a product that focuses on the students’ wellbeing, and to help them by enhancing their happiness and wellness during their integration period in the UK.
Overviewing the insights that came out of the research stage, the researcher concluded that these issues are related to all international students and not just the European students. Therefore, the target user group has changed to International new coming students. The focus now is on the loneliness that students feel during their adjustment period, an insight generated from previous research. By helping students build strong connections and networks, will prevent them feeling lonely and indirectly enhance their happiness and wellness during their adjustment period, as it was at the beginning of the project.
The outcome of this projects is LU360°, which is a service with omni-channel touchpoints that helps students build connections before coming to Loughborough University so that they can have the chance to meet people in advance and not be lonely when they arrive in the UK. Also, students will have the opportunity to experience a live introduction tour with 360° technology. This means that they will be introduced in the campus area with the guidance of a buddy, who is going to facilitate the tour and be a member of the Student’s Union. This service helps the students keep in touch and grow a network in Loughborough University and have fun with other 360° features.
Overviewing the insights that came out of the research stage, the researcher concluded that these issues are related to all international students and not just the European students. Therefore, the target user group has changed to International new coming students. The focus now is on the loneliness that students feel during their adjustment period, an insight generated from previous research. By helping students build strong connections and networks, will prevent them feeling lonely and indirectly enhance their happiness and wellness during their adjustment period, as it was at the beginning of the project.
The outcome of this projects is LU360°, which is a service with omni-channel touchpoints that helps students build connections before coming to Loughborough University so that they can have the chance to meet people in advance and not be lonely when they arrive in the UK. Also, students will have the opportunity to experience a live introduction tour with 360° technology. This means that they will be introduced in the campus area with the guidance of a buddy, who is going to facilitate the tour and be a member of the Student’s Union. This service helps the students keep in touch and grow a network in Loughborough University and have fun with other 360° features.
The user research started with the timeline tool, which was supported by interviews. At the beginning of each session, a brief semi-structured interview was conducted in order to make the participants feel more comfortable and extract some basic background information of them. The questions were related to their age, course, interests, where they lived before, what made them come to the UK to study etc. After the short interview, students were asked to recall through storytelling their journey since even before coming to the UK until coming to the UK and feeling that they have adjusted. This storytelling approach allowed the students to remember the various stages that went through their journey, what were their thoughts and feelings during each stage and with whom they interacted with.
The interaction design started developing alongside with the experience prototype. Firstly, the designer generated interaction design pages for the chosen touchpoints. The designer presented them by paper prototype in low fidelity to make a decision on the layout to one participant. Afterwards, detailed sitemaps and task flows were created for each touchpoint and then a medium fidelity was developed and imported in marvel to start the first round of evaluation. The first round included two expert users. According to the results of the evaluation, the designer improved the design work in high fidelity visuals. The second round of user testing was conducted with basic interaction again in marvel. This round involved two expert users and one normal user. Improvements in the design were made again after the feedback from the evaluation in a high fidelity interactive prototype,which is the final version of the design. The interactive prototype was tested with one expert user but no improvements were made due to limited time
The interaction design started developing alongside with the experience prototype. Firstly, the designer generated interaction design pages for the chosen touchpoints. The designer presented them by paper prototype in low fidelity to make a decision on the layout to one participant. Afterwards, detailed sitemaps and task flows were created for each touchpoint and then a medium fidelity was developed and imported in marvel to start the first round of evaluation. The first round included two expert users. According to the results of the evaluation, the designer improved the design work in high fidelity visuals. The second round of user testing was conducted with basic interaction again in marvel. This round involved two expert users and one normal user. Improvements in the design were made again after the feedback from the evaluation in a high fidelity interactive prototype,which is the final version of the design. The interactive prototype was tested with one expert user but no improvements were made due to limited time
Define
Develop
Deliver
Why this project provides an excellent User Experience
This project provides an excellent user experience since it is based on detailed user research with actual users involved both in the research and evaluation phase. It is a project based on the double diamond method, which a human centered design approach. The user experience principles are based on the personas and user requirements generated from user research. The final design both in the interactive and visual design, meets the experience principles communicated within the project brief. An explanation on how this is achieved is explained below:
1. Effortless: There is minimum effort from the user since there is a clear onboarding process that navigates the user to achieve some first touchpoints (e.g. setting up the profile and arranging a date for the introduction tour)
2. Responsive: It is responsive to users’ needs because there is a variety of tours and events the user can choose from to view or attend according to their needs.
3. Dialogue: Through questions and the responses of the users, the service finds out about the users’ personality and interests.
4. Sociable: It is a service that its purpose is to build social active networks.
5. Generous: Experiences can be shared at any time through social media. Also, experiences of older students; who in this case are the buddies, are shared with the users; who in this case are the new coming international students.
6. Fun: The user is having fun because the 360° technology is a new engaging technology that gives the opportunity to the users to interact with it and not just be passive viewers.
1. Effortless: There is minimum effort from the user since there is a clear onboarding process that navigates the user to achieve some first touchpoints (e.g. setting up the profile and arranging a date for the introduction tour)
2. Responsive: It is responsive to users’ needs because there is a variety of tours and events the user can choose from to view or attend according to their needs.
3. Dialogue: Through questions and the responses of the users, the service finds out about the users’ personality and interests.
4. Sociable: It is a service that its purpose is to build social active networks.
5. Generous: Experiences can be shared at any time through social media. Also, experiences of older students; who in this case are the buddies, are shared with the users; who in this case are the new coming international students.
6. Fun: The user is having fun because the 360° technology is a new engaging technology that gives the opportunity to the users to interact with it and not just be passive viewers.
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This project has been nominated for the UXUK Awards 2017.
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