For Us By Us
Project Type
App Design
Date
February - August 2024
My final project as part of my Masters degree was to design an app that can help to address a UN Sustainable Development goal. For Us By Us is a university partnership programme which aims to tackle educational inequality in Higher Education through a personalized platform for black students to reconnect with their studies and communities.
For Us By Us Home Screen
Problem
I identified that there is a racial awarding gap in university degree classification with black students less likely to achieve a 1st or 2nd upper degree than their white counterparts. User research highlighted that these students often feel marginalized, othered and distrustful of their universities due to experiences of racial discrimination and a lack of representation that has pervaded throughout their educational journeys.
For Us By Us - Ticket Booking Flow
Solution
I designed a university partnership programme which gives black students access to resources and information from different UK universities that can help support them in their studies. These resources include black mentors, culturally relevant events and university action projects. By creating a safe space and a large community network, these students can feel less alone and more motivated to get the best out of their degrees.
Project Roadmap
Project roadmap showing key stages and methods/tools used
User Research and Insight Generation
Card sorting activity with key stakeholders
As part of my primary research l conducted interviews and a card sorting/relationship mapping activity with black university students, black lecturers and staff involved in Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at Loughborough University. This highlighted why the awarding gap exists and their experience of present and potential future interventions from the perspective of key stakeholders. I analysed resulting data using a thematic analysis and generated 4 key design insights.
_edited.jpg)
Insight Prioritisation Matrix
The insights were as follows:
-
Black students lack trust in university
-
Black students have self-limiting beliefs
-
Black students experience hypervisibility
-
Black students feel isolated
Thematic Map and Design Insights
Thematic map
Ideation and Concept Evaluation
Ideation Session
I held an ideation session with 6 target users asking them to ideate around the central themes of my design opportunities: trust and self-limiting beliefs. We explored questions such as 'What does trust mean to you? How would you rebuild trust? How would you overcome self-limiting beliefs?'. Using word cloud software I further explored the keywords emerging from these exercises to create possible design solutions.
Concept Evaluation Methods
Using a SWOT analysis and IDEO’s Feasibility, Desirability and Viability model, I evaluated my 3 design concepts. Idea 1 - a Black Excellence hub on campus and Ideas 3 - a partnership programme amongst UK universities were individually not strong enough, so I drew on elements from both to create my final concept - For Us By Us.
Storyboarding and Customer Journey
Storyboard
Key Personas
I created and refined two key personas based on my user research. Temi - the black universit student who wants to feel like she's part of an inclusive community. And Martin - a young, black professional who wants to see students he relates with succeeding and will play an integral role in inspiring and motivating these students. I detailed their personality traits, motivations and pain points which helped me to stay user-focused through this process.
_edited.jpg)
User Storyboard
I further contextualised my target user Temi's journey interacting with F.U.B.U through storyboarding. The User Journey Map highlights the overall process of Temi and Martin using F.UB.U sequentially. By mapping their emotions at key stages using emojis I gained a deeper understanding of the impact of my design across the lifecycle of F.U.B.U.
User Journey Map
Low Fidelity Wireframing
_edited.jpg)
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I then created low-fidelity mockups on Figma showing the early onboarding Flows and Features. I wanted F.U.B.U to integrate into the pre-existing 'My Lboro' app which is a hub that all Loughbourough University students use for their daily tasks. From here, enrolled students can log in, book and pay for events and never have to leave MyLboro.
I modelled this booking flow taking inspiration from existing ticketing platforms such as Ticketmaster and DICE. This was to ensure the flow matched users mental model and felt simple, familiar and modern.
Getting Started On F.U.B.U
Onboarding User Flow
The onboarding flow takes students through a series of questions around the skills they want to build, their goals and any barriers they believe could get in their way. This information will be shared with their mentor so that support can be tailored to the individual student. This allows a unique level of personalisation to the black student experience helping to address feelings of loneliness and isolation identified in the research phase of this project.
I believe F.U.B.U has the potential to build an expansive community of black students and professionals who support and uplift one another, alleviating feelings of loneliness and isolation. My next steps would be to design the back end of the service to include how mentoring will be facilitated on a logistical level e.g software, training etc. but also a psychosocial level for example how making mentoring more culturally aware for this particular group of students.