Main Design Cycle
MDC expresses what it is about your design that enables it to have a positive impact on a problem.
Throughout the entire Main Design Cycle, we carefully modified our MDC and decided to concentrate on: "Helping students make sense of the breadth system in Unimelb, while assisting them in exploring the full possibilities and generating choices."
This MDC solves a practical problem for students and sets a reasonable scope for this project.
Main Design Concept (MDC)
Ideation - Relevant Technology
Each group member studied a existing technology to get inspirations.
I found it interesting to compare how Google Map visualise physical geography to how we can visualise the abstract subject landscape. For instance, Google Map generates navigation to a destination, which inspired me to generate study plans for students who pursue a particular vocation.
Ideation - Persona & Senario
Each team member created a fictional character to depict a typical user of our app. Here is mine:
Main Prototype Development
Based on all the analysis, we started to develop the first iteration of hi-fi prototype. Here are the main pages:
Usability Test
Usability Rationale: We used Don Norman and Jacob Nielsen's usability theory to examine our platform thoroughly.
User Based Evaluation: We asked 6 participants to perform a series of tasks within the app, and collected their feedback.
Numerous details and several main functions were modified according to the tests.
Sample Modifications
Brea(d)th Out
The task of my graduation project is to design an interactive digital technology in an evidence-supported, user-friendly manner. I raised the team's attention to a problem that have existed for long: university students wasting their study opportunity for lacking future plan. After research, we decided to design an app to help students choose breadth subjects. (Subjects outside of the student's major)
A team of five worked on the project. I lead the team and devoted my ideas heavily.
My Role
Team Leader & UI/UX Designer
Time
2022 Aug-Nov
When starting the project, we only had a general direction about helping university students plan their study better. The initial idea was encouraging previous students (info providers) to share experiences with future students.
A "rich picture" was created to analyse all related stakeholders to understand the whole landscape of the challenge, so that we could identify needs that worth focusing on, and avoid offending anyone.
Then we interviewed 6 significant stakeholders in-depth, such as how they carry out related tasks now and what features they want in such an app.
Preliminary Design Cycle
Field Study
Crucial Field Study Conclusions
For students: We must present the vast and dispersed information they need in a concise and organised manner;
For university: This app can be problematic by disclosing too much information - a balance needs to be found;
For info providers: We must encourage them to contribute more by using their time efficiently and protecting their privacy.
Rich Picture Map
My preliminary Design Concept
Each team member developed a preliminary design concept to address a particular aspect of the challenge.
The interviews revealed that many students would choose breadth subjects to complement their major. Thus, I created a system to assist students in discovering subjects based on the content connections.
An innovative idea "subject web" lists all available subjects as a web. The colours and linking lines indicate their content connections, exploring a new way to visualise the subject landscape.
Final Prototypes
In the preliminary cycle, we feel strongly at a lost of where to start. Later we realised that it was because the preliminary topic "helping university students plan their study better" was too broad. Analysing user groups and their specific needs helped us to identify the key focus of the project.
In the main cycle, we did not have the chance to conduct further research, such as how students choose breadth subjects in detail, and understand subject landscape thoroughly. If more time allowed, we might be able to design more critical functions.
Last but not least, as an academic project, this topic provided an opportunity for us to conduct detailed analysis and innovative design on a situation we are familiar with. However we understand that, since selecting breadths happens at most twice a year, this product might face the dilemma of having very low usage, if this product were to be developed. In business projects, critical user demands and financial returns will be the key factors determining whether the project can be proceeded.