Project Overview
Spot! Background Story
Jake and I set out to create a solution that would help college students and their friends discover affordable attractions and connect with one another, while on a budget. Through our research we discovered that students at Farmingdale State College on Long Island are often unaware of affordable attractions nearby. While commuter students are more familiar with local options, many dorm students were less informed. We also discovered a lack of connection between commuter and dorm students, limiting opportunities to create meaningful relationships.
With all of these insights in mind, we developed Spot, a mobile application designed to address these challenges. Spot aims to help students explore local attractions, develop friendships between commuter and dorm students, keep track of schedules, and create a memorable experience while being mindful of their budget!
Timeline
(2022) - 9 Months
Members
Manuela Mensah
Jake Miller
Role
UI/UX Designer
User Experience Researcher
Tools
Figma
Photoshop
Project Overview
Key Objectives & Challenges
Our Problem Statement
Creating a mobile interface for students that attend Farmingdale State College to discover discounted attractions while discovering and developing friendships with commuter and dorm students.
Key Objectives
Finding a way for college students/friends to meet up with one another while on a budget.
Creating a application that develops and creates relationships between dorm and commuter students
Developing new relationships between commuters and dorm students.
Questions we had:
How can we make increase students' awareness of nearby attractions?
How can we improve the relationships between commuter and dorm students?
What features will be helpful to bring dorm students and commuters together?
SOLUTION OVERview
What is Spot?
Spot! is a mobile service designed to build relationships between commuter students and non-local students to create more meaningful relationships while discovering affordable and local attractions unlike competitors such as Unidays, The Nudge and Student Edge.
Spot! Walkthrough
Project Overview
The Design Process
Research
Scope of Data
Interviews
Surveys
Personas
Personas (3)
Empathy Map
Journey Map
UI Workflow
Wireframes
Sketches
Int Model
Info Architecture
UI Comps
Hi-Fidelity Comps
Next Steps
RESEARCH
Understanding the problem
How'd we discover this problem?
When I lived on campus I wanted to explore different areas nearby, but often struggled finding affordable attractions, times and days everyone was free, and a mode of transportation with friends.
Finding an area within our budget range was the most difficult, and many of us didn't have a car; we relied on taking Uber, Lyft or carpooling with a friend.
NEXT STEPS
We first conducted interviews to see if students around campus know about affordable attractions, and if they're able to get around LI with no problem.
RESEARCH
How'd the interview process go?
We interviewed nine students and wanted to focus on discovering if people:
Have any issues with finding areas locally to hang out with their friends?
Struggle finding time to hang out with friends?
See transportation as an issue they face?
Our Discovery:
Transportation and getting around Long Island is difficult if you don't have a car.
Many dorm students aren't fully aware of affordable attractions.
Commuters are aware of affordable attractions but many aren't as close to the dorm students.
Our initial problem was EXTREMELY broad but after conducting surveys we decided to keep it to just Long Island since it would be easier to gather information.
RESEARCH
We first conducted interviews to see if students around campus know about affordable attractions, and are they able to get around LI with no problem.
Commuter Students
"Usually I can make plans pretty easily with a few of my friends but getting everyone together is hard nowadays." - Commuter Student
Problems Students Encountered:
Discovering affordable attractions around Long Island
Commuters aren't befriending dorm students
Students know of affordable attractions but don't have enough people to hang out with
Survey Data
31 Students
12
10
3
5
1
I am friends with Dorm Students
11
6
2
4
8
I know about affordable and fun places on Long Island
Neutral
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
Dorm Students
"I don't have many friends, let alone friends with cars, so it's hard to really get off campus and hang out." - Dorm Student
Problems Students Encountered:
Transportation around Long Island
Discovering Affordable Attractions
Befriending Commuter Students
Creating a concise schedule to hangout with friends.
Survey Data
23 Students
9
7
6
1
Issues with Friend Availability occurs when making plans
7
6
1
4
5
I am aware of affordable places to visit near my dorm
Neutral
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
PERSONAS
Understanding our Personas
After conducting surveys and interviews we discovered who are three top personas would be. But during our second iteration of Spot! We heavily focused on Commuter Students and Residential Students. We saw students that utilized public transportation had similarities between the two.
Who is Fundify for?
Our Target Audience
The target audience focused heavily on feedback we received from surveys and interviews. Once we discovered the problem students were facing we were able to focus on creating three of our target personas.
Commuters
Commuters - Public Transportation
Residential Students
Dorm Student - Persona
Meet Ava - The Residential Student
UI Workflow
What our 2022 Designs consisted of ...
Our first semester for this project focused heavily on research, discovering the problem and how to solve it!
We were given the task to come up with ideas and what we thought the application would look like. This included creating grayscale comps and mid-fidelity wireframes.
Very minor details stuck with what we created for our 2023 iteration!
UI Workflow
2022 Grayscale Comps
These ideas were our very first round of iterations. We created what we thought our application might look like and transformed them into mid-fidelity wireframes in our first semester of working on this project.
We looked for inspiration and applications similar to the one we wanted to create.
UI Workflow
2022 - Mid Fidelity
Our first Mid-Fidelity wireframes were not our strongest. Color scheme and execution the idea did not stick and wasn't entirely something I was proud of.
We presented our findings to the class and discussed what could be better with our designs and asked other students what they would look for.
The Research
What we did in 2023… it got better!
We focused heavily on developing our interaction model and information architecture. We slowly began to understand what we had to do and what was necessary to be successful.
We went back to the drawing board, redid sketches and focused on making Spot! better than it was before.
We focused on the User Experience side of things!!
UI Workflow
How will Spot Operate?
Jake and I created our own chapters but kept a sense of cohesiveness when it came to creating our interfaces for the final solution.
Spot! Sketches Mar. 2023
UI Workflow
Profile Settings - Interaction Model
In the users profile they are able to access a multitude of options. They can edit their profile, adjust their notifications and access their saved offers and recommended offers.
Friendly Rides - Confirm Request
Friendly Rides is a key feature of Spot! This is where users are able to view students that are providing transportation to the affordable attraction they are planning on going to. Users can check each vehicle’s remaining space, making it simple to coordinate transportation with friends or new acquaintances.
UI Workflow
Request Ride
Requesting a ride in Spot! is one of our key features the application provides. Users that attend Farmingdale State College can request rides from students going to attractions they're attending and are interested in.
View Prototype
UI Workflow
Save Discount
Users can access hot spots and discover affordable attractions within the area. From here students are able to discover discounts different attractions are offering.
UI Workflow
Spot! Calendar
Students no longer have to worry about struggling to find out the next time their friend is available. They can now input their schedules so their friends can see when everyone is free.
Hi-Fidelity Wireframes
In Conclusion...
Final Thoughts & Takeaways!
Spot! was one of my very first full hi-fidelity projects I worked on. It went through plentiful iterations and helped me grow as a UI/UX Designer. I’m thankful I was able to learn from my mistakes and understand the full process. This is a project where I was super happy with the turn out!
However I would love to fix up the entire design and create something better than what I’ve displayed. I know with my current skills and expertise now I can develop an even more amazing iteration.
The main focus of Spot! is to connect college students based on their schedules and interests. The mobile app allows users to input their class schedules and extracurricular activities and then find friends who have similar free time. Users can plan outings and adventures with their friends and coordinate transportation to events.
Our design team used an iterative design process, gathering feedback from users and making improvements to the app based on their input. We also conducted user testing to evaluate the app's usability, functionality, and overall user experience.
PDF Details
The PDF goes more in depth on the project Manuela and Jake worked on. Showcasing both of their full iterations. Overall a full summary of the work from our Fall and Spring Semester!
View PDF
Let’s Connect!
If you like any of these projects and want to learn more please don’t hesitate to reach out!
© 2024 Manuela Mensah