Woosh App
Support UI/UX Designer + Researcher
A tool to help students reduce academic stress and connect with other UTD students on campus.
Project Title
The Woosh App – An app to help users reach out to peers for academic issues and build a campus community at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)
Project Type
Target users – students at UTD.
Project Type: Mobile Application
Tool: Figma
Project date: Jan. 2022 – May 2022
Role:
Support UI/UX Designer + Researcher
Project Summary
This project’s primary focus was on product design and UX research from a course taught at The University of Texas at Dallas. The course is Design Research Method taught by Professor Mark McKinney. Based on the observational research our team conducted, we then had to create a problem based on our hypothesis and then create a UX solution to this problem. Design was not a priority when it came to this project but rather how our team observed a problem, conducted research + interviews, and our approach towards a UX solution to said problem. This project mainly examines my teamwork and research skills.
Challenge
Main problem: Students are struggling to manage academic stress and connect with people on campus.
Our team’s hypothesis: UTD students are not comfortable talking to professionals about their academic issues and mental health, but would rather reach out to peers for these issues.
Based on this hypothesis, we then interviewed several UTD students and then took some notes from a Focus Group. The key takeaways from the focus group are listed below:
1. Needs
“Have organized sections of what needs to be addressed”
“Reach Info with few tabs as possible”
"Incentivize over competition”
2. User Protection
“Privacy settings are incredibly important.”
"Students should be anonymous but require Student ID to be shown on login to prove oneself.”
3. Academic
“Internet Studio II got progressively harder.”
“Helpful to know how much work required in syllabus.”
“Unknown difficulties ahead.”
Interview results:
9 out of 11 (~81.8%) interviewees say they are uncomfortable with speaking to a guardian or professional about their mental health.
8 out of 11 (~72.7%) interviewees say that time management was one of their main stressors in school.
Out of our interviewees, the individuals more involved in extracurriculars on campus felt more included versus those who did not.
Jobs to be done
JTBD: When I am stressed, I want to find ways to alleviate the stress, so I can perform better on my school tasks and improve my mental well-being. When I am lonely, I want to connect with people on campus, so I can form meaningful relationships.
From all the data our team gathered, we primarily focused on ways students can alleviate academic stress and connect with peers on campus.
The result of this project is the final wireframes the lead designer and I had designed. From this course, I learned how to conduct interviews, research, observe focus groups, and test prototypes to a potential user. If I was able to redo this project, I would change the design of the wireframes and make it more visually appealing. Overall, this project was very informative and showed me how to conduct proper UX research which then became an essential skill for my future projects.