Student Life Tracker
I designed a platform for students to discover and engage with student groups, clubs, and campus activities based on detailed feedback from 60+ students.
Role:
Product Designer (from concept to delivery)
Timeline:
12 weeks
Tools:
Figma, Miro, Google Colab
Methodologies:
Design Thinking, User Research, Iterative Prototyping, Usability Testing
The University of Toronto (UofT) is known for being one of the best research institutions in the world with almost 100,000 students enrolled. However, for years, many students find the social scene to be underwhelming, with some even describing it as mediocre.
IMPACT: This concept holds significant promise, with the potential to engage and benefit up to 100,000 students.
The Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
To get a more accurate understanding of the current situation, we designed and conducted a series of surveys and interviews with students. We had 41 survey respondents and invited 24 students for the interview. For more details, check out the study protocol.
Sample Questions
How active do you think UofT social life is?
Where do you get most of your information on UofT student life/clubs/activities?
What resources or platforms have you used to explore club options, and how was that experience?
As the only one on my team with a background in data science, I was able to clean and analyze our quantitative data from our surveys and use Python to create data visualizations.
Key Themes & Insights
DIVERSITY
Clubs could sometimes be non-inclusive, toxic, or fail to provide accomodations for either commuters or International students.
"Clubs can be very cliquey."
"Commuting makes extracurriculars harder."
SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT
Students saw many benefits to joining clubs, including networking and meeting friends.
Examples:
Help with making an impact
Resume and skills building
Link to professionals
Connecting with their college.
ACCESS TO INFORMATION
It can be hard to find information about events unless you already know were to look. People mentioned there is almost no visibility for small clubs.
SCHOOL LIFE BALANCE
People mentioned how clubs could be competitive, inflexible, and stressful, especially as they get busier.
User Persona
Morgan needs a way to…
find club information at UofT so that they can participate in clubs at school.
better balance school work with extracurriculars so that they can live a balanced life while still excelling at academics.
join a club that aligns with their goals so that they can remain engaged with their peers and larger school community.
know when club events and orientations are happening so that they can spend their time on campus wisely.
We each spent time brainstorming ideas and writing them down on sticky notes. Each person got a unique colour and created 3-6 quick ideas that could address our users’ pain points based on the need statements. We put these ideas together into a prioritization grid.
We focused on 3 happy paths–the Bulletin Board, the Club Event Calendar, and the Campus Event Calendar. During the lean evaluations, our users mentioned the two calendars were unintuitive and the bulletin board needed more navigation features.
After improving our design, we asked some new participants to complete a series of tasks using our low-fidelity prototypes. We encouraged them to think aloud and provide feedback on their experience.
We had more positive feedback this time with users being able to complete more tasks. Only a few minor adjustments were to be made.
Login and Profile
Users can log in with their UofT credentials to get access to their dynamic class schedules. It also allows easy verification of users.
Once logged in, they can customize their profile with their interests and clubs to help keep track of what to look for in the future.
Bulletin Board
In our research, we found that bulletin boards on campus were actually useful for reaching out to new members, but were limited to location and printing costs.
For this reason, we added a shared bulletin board, where users can post events and advertisements. They can filter events by tags and search key words.
Cross Reference Calendars
Users can view events in a calendar format and compare them with their class schedules. They can then add or remove events from their personal calendar.
This makes it easier for them to find out which events they can go to, without the extra step of having to pull out another app.
See Prototype
This project introduced me to the complexities of team dynamics in design. Beyond just communication, I learned how to navigate different working styles, consider diverse perspectives, and create an environment where critical feedback was encouraged. I'm incredibly grateful for a team that encouraged this mindset, reinforcing that great design isn’t just about the product, but about the people shaping it.