The design challenge was to create a product that facilitates or enhances students’ commute.
The product aims to provide practicality such as routes and class schedule to help students move around campus, and to encourage walking through fun challenges and activities which also increase students’ involvement on campus.
The health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle are becoming increasingly concerning. Despite the many health benefits of walking, many people fail to incorporate it into their daily routine.
Students, in particular, may struggle to find motivation to walk more amidst their busy study schedules. Walking the same route every day can also become boring and they may crave more engaging activities on campus.
In order to balance the needs of students to navigate campus easily and the aim to encourage more walking, I designed this app to include both practical features and gamification elements.
Let’s break down each screen in detail.
I designed a 12-question interview to gain insights and build empathy for the intended product users. 5 interviews were conducted with schoolmates.
The goal was to identify pain points and potential areas for enhancements during students’ commute.
The interview findings were summarized into empathy maps, personas and a behavioural map.
I decided to focus on developing an app for students who walk on campus because I noticed there are few apps tailored towards this group, and I saw an opportunity to create a unique and unexplored solution.
I created a journey map of the persona who walks to class to brainstorm opportunities to improve students’ walking experience.
Students walking to class find it boring to walk the same route everyday. Also, they may feel lonely in school and sometimes wish for more interactions with schoolmates during their walks.
Students experiencing these pain points are often reluctant to take longer walks. Even though they want to walk more, they still will pick the most direct route to class.
The app will provide different route suggestions and a platform to befriend schoolmates. There will be weekly tasks and step challenges which are easily fit in-between classes.
This app aims to make walking fun and easy. Students will be able to integrate walking into their daily routines and hence maintain healthier habits. Also, they will be able to engage in campus activities and make friends along the way.
I created a narrative describing idealized interactions between the persona who walks to class and the app.
I established user stories and design requirements which would serve as the foundation for the app's development and guide the design process.
Colour Palette
I chose to incorporate pastel colours in the app's design as they evoke positive and uplifting feelings that align with the app's main goal of creating a fun and enjoyable walking experience for users. I also made sure the colours passed the contrast test for accessibility (WCAG 2.1 Level AA).
Typeface
The monolinear typeface “Poppins” was used because the rounded shapes and clean lines create a friendly and approachable vibe.
Icon & Button
Rounded icons and buttons were created for the interface because they add a playful and welcoming tone to the app's visual design.
I initially planned to incorporate the day's class schedule into the home screen, but after considering the users' needs, I decided to display only the upcoming class to declutter the interface and prioritize the most crucial information.
Additionally, I removed the inbox function because it is redundant given the availability of other communication apps. Instead, it would be more convenient to enable users to share their challenge progress and invite friends through these popular apps.
On the class schedule screen, I added an edit button (in the form of a pencil icon) to signify that users can modify their chosen route at any time.
Originally, I tried to display the time required for each route visually, but it ended up being unclear and taking up too much space, which could have been used for more essential information, such as the map and challenge details. The visualization of time was therefore removed.
Another iteration was to list the suggested routes in a carousel format where users would swipe horizontally. But this format limited the space available for each route box. The final design has been changed to a vertical scrolling format to allow users to see all available routes at once and quickly skim through them.
After this project, I realized having a clean dashboard as the home screen is a game-changer when it comes to summarizing essential information for a digital product. It is important to identify what users truly need in order to design a dashboard that keeps users’ attention and helps with quick decision-making.
The next steps for this project are designing engaging challenges with social features to promote bonding among schoolmates. Additionally, I plan to incorporate sharing and invitation functions to allow users to invite friends to join challenges and view each other's progress.
