Grompus
The Problem
Digital Prototyping
2022
About
Worked on a design team to create an app to help students return to UT Austin campus and want to meet more people around campus, but they are struggling to do so because everyone has a different level of comfortability with Covid-19.
The Challenge
Design Features
Groumps achieved the ability to find organizations and join different groups on campus while feeling comfortable to understanding the organization's Covid-19 protocols. As a team we were able to polish our UI and create a functioning, high-fidelity prototype
Design Journey:
Here I will document my contributions to the overall success of the app my team and I developed.
Journey Mapping and Information Architecture:
In our team, we began by crafting a journey map, setting up the information architecture, and planning the workflow. I played a key role in creating the journey map and shaping the information architecture. These assignments helped me realize the significance of these tools. While working on the journey map, I made sure to identify problem areas and establish a persona that would guide the entire project. The information architecture laid the groundwork for our app, demonstrating how content and features are structured to create a user-friendly experience.
Mid-Fi Prototype
As a team, we used the insights gathered from our information architecture, journey map, and workflow to develop ten use cases. I was responsible for creating these use cases by considering the various assets and applications that potential app users might find valuable. These use cases, along with our other tasks, guided our design process and led us to create our initial mid-fidelity wireframes. Since we aimed for our app to seamlessly integrate into the University of Texas Campus, we based our design off of the web-based learning management system Canvas, widely used by University of Texas students. My personal focus was on designing the home screen, ensuring it mirrored the Canvas wireframe, in addition to the groups and results pages. This phase of the project highlighted the importance of using a design system to ensure that all app wireframes harmoniously matched each other, even if they were created by different team members. You can explore a prototype of a specific journey flow we were working on below.
Mid-Fi Prototype
Competitive Analysis
Collaborating as a team to conduct a competitive analysis was a valuable task that greatly enhanced our design process. It enabled us to identify both the strong features used by other platforms and our own platform's position among them. This assignment encouraged me to adopt an analytical perspective, looking at competitors not only as a designer but also as a user.
Final Design
For our app, Groumps, we needed to prepare a final presentation, and we were tasked with developing a clickable, functional digital prototype for user testing. This prototype would allow users to interact with the app and test specific features, such as profile settings, prerequisites for joining groups, and the group discovery process. As a team, we devised a standardized test script to ensure consistency across user interviews and to extract valuable feedback. To facilitate this testing, we created a high-fidelity prototype with enhanced visuals and functional buttons. Due to time constraints, we implemented a "test path" where we focused on the most critical features for full functionality.Through user interviews using our high-functioning prototype, we gained valuable insights to enhance the user experience. This feedback has been instrumental in refining our design for future iterations and achieving a successful application.
This experience has been a significant growth opportunity for me as a digital UX designer. It exposed me to crucial aspects of the UX design process, such as journey mapping, information architecture, and use cases. Additionally, it allowed me to further develop my skills in Figma. I now have a high level of confidence in my app design capabilities and am grateful for the valuable learning experience provided by this course. You can access the final high-fidelity prototype of the app via the button below.
Final Design