WEEKLY
JOURNAL
Welcome viewers to our weekly journal or design process. This app was created after 6 weeks of research, ideation, designing, prototyping and user-testing. Here is the complete week by week walkthrough for the same.
Week 1
This week, we were tasked with brainstorming a mobile application idea aimed at supporting international students. After engaging with several of them, we learned about the challenges they face regarding housing and roommate searches. We conducted thorough research and developed solutions to address these issues.
RESEARCH AND PROPOSAL
Several articles and blogs online showed how international students are being hit by homelessness, discrimination and harassment by their landlords and roommates. To solve this issue we came up with the idea of creating an app NestVan where the users could login only if they are a student, and then look for a house or roommate within the same app.
IDEA AND INTERACTION FRAMEWORK
We identified the specific audience within the given context, defined their goals using personas, and outlined how users would interact with the system. For that, we created a set of sketches for the features and how the users would lead through the interactive path. Also, with every issue discussed in the personas, we added insights on how the existing apps, that have more or less the same concept, are facing criticism by their users.
Week 2
Our team was tasked with selecting one interactive system idea based on our research, feedback from last week's presentations, and our collective preferences. The assignment required us to refine this idea and focus on developing a prototype for the chosen system.
Week 3
For this week, the team was asked to use various techniques, such as wireframes, flow charts, screen mockups, renderings, or interface storyboards, to demonstrate how the proposed interface could function and appear. We were encouraged to refine and improve any existing designs and include details of the style guide and pattern guide, such as typefaces, color palettes, grid layouts, and interaction patterns.
DESIGNING INTERACTIONS
After choosing which idea and user flow to go with, we made different mockups showing different fonts and colour palettes.
Included interactive map, basic clean filter, only blue as the main colour
Included blue and yellow colour as the theme, modern style of filters and row formatted housing options, no map
INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE
Incomplete prototype - missing navigation bar, unresponsive filters and search bar
Week 4
To create the prototype, our team used ProtoPie to develop a high-fidelity, multilinear interactive prototype that captured every step and interaction of the main features of our interactive system. We began by outlining the core user flows and identifying the critical features necessary to ensure seamless interaction with the system. Throughout the process, we adhered to the design principles and usability components learned in class, focusing on clarity, consistency, and user-centric functionality.
Week 5
To conduct the pilot user study, our team began by selecting appropriate methods that aligned with the scope of our testing. We opted for a combination of Think Aloud Testing and structured interviews. Participants were given tasks to perform on the prototype, allowing us to observe their interactions and gather qualitative feedback in real-time. To ensure diverse testing conditions, we tested the prototype in its intended context wherever possible and included one participant via a video connection for remote testing.
TESTING AND PROPOSAL FOR REFINEMENTS
After the user study, we found a few major issues in our app. Thus, solutions were proposed to match the needs of the users
FINAL DESIGN
Week 6
Taking all the feedback and reworking on most of the pages, we were able to refine our designs and make every bit responsive. Here is the final result/protype
