Design, User Research, Utility, Community, Engagement
Student project for New York University - NYU Engage
Project Manager, product designer, from research to conception, visualization, testing
3 months
The existing NYU Engage platform, while functional, has several defects that hinder its effectiveness in fostering community among students. Key issues include a cumbersome event registration process, poor integration with students' schedules, and a lack of personalization, making it difficult for students to discover and participate in relevant events. Additionally, the platform's interface is not user-friendly, leading to confusion and lower engagement rates.
The redesign of NYU Engage was driven by the need to address these shortcomings and create a more intuitive, efficient, and engaging experience for students. The redesign focuses on improving usability by streamlining the event registration process, enhancing integration with students' calendars, and providing personalized event recommendations based on individual interests.
The new benefits of NYU Engage Redesigned include a more seamless and personalized experience that allows students to easily find and attend events that match their interests and schedules. The platform now supports spontaneous and organic community formation, with features that encourage casual interactions and deeper connections among students. Overall, NYU Engage Redesigned aims to better meet the needs of students, creating a stronger sense of community and belonging within the NYU campus.
"How or why do new students struggle to find community at NYU, and see what, if anything, can be improved or developed as potential solutions." - Initial Question Framing
The initial objective is to understand why first-year NYU students struggle to find communities.
With a focus on user experience design and the importance of community engagement, I conducted interviews with NYU students and staff to assess the effectiveness of the NYU Engage platform. These discussions explored how well the platform facilitates social connections, supports students in discovering and joining clubs and organizations, and addresses the challenges associated with building a strong campus community.
Goals
1. Understand what motivates students to use NYU Engage for connecting with clubs and organizations.
2. Determine the specific usability challenges that students encounter while using the NYU Engage platform.
3. Investigate the obstacles that prevent students from effectively connecting with clubs and organizations through the platform.
4. Assess how well NYU Engage facilitates students' engagement with clubs and organizations at the university.
Key findings from the survey highlighted that classes and lectures (83%) are the most common avenues for meeting new people, followed by introductions through friends (48%) and spending time in on-campus public spaces (38%). Significant bonds are most often formed through attending classes together (83%) and collaborating on academic projects (66%). Despite these findings, students reported difficulties in connecting, citing a lack of opportunities outside of shared classes, challenges in committing to events, and a desire for more advance notice of activities. These insights will inform future iterations of NYU Engage, aiming to better meet student needs for social connection and engagement.
Students prefer making meaningful connections in smaller, more intimate settings where they feel comfortable and often attend with an acquaintance. Top 3 deal breakers: location, inconvenient timing, and social unfamiliarity with those attending the event.
The most common way for new NYU students to make social connections is in class or during lectures, followed by being introduced by friends.
Students are likely to build deeper bonds through day-to-day errands such as study and academic projects and casual hangouts for fun instead of purposefully attending clubs and events.
A community is defined by shared commonalities and the time members spend together, creating a sense of safety and belonging. Communities offer a safe space, foster social interactions, and facilitate networking among members. Examples include friend groups, NYU-organized clubs, dormitories, and class cohorts. The study highlights the importance of shared backgrounds, passions, and a sense of camaraderie, which contribute to the formation and sustenance of these communities.
Students are motivated to join communities for several reasons:
1. Seek to find people with similar interests,
2. Strengthen bonds through casual interactions,
3. Share knowledge and resources,
4. Enjoy free perks like classes and food, and engage in fun, pressure-free social activities.
Students use platforms like Discord, Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp to stay connected. Events at NYU range from small gatherings to large institutional events, with a noticeable gap in medium-sized events. Commuting patterns and lifestyles affect club participation, with commuters facing different social dynamics than dorm residents. While many students form connections through academic collaboration, forming deep relationships through clubs is challenging due to superficial interactions.
Students are motivated to join communities for several key reasons: the desire to be accepted and respected, the appeal of casual and spontaneous events, the enjoyment of fun and company, the importance of having something in common with others, the preference for well-organized community events, and the value of sharing knowledge and resources. These factors play a significant role in how students choose and engage with their communities.
NYU Engage (existing platform) offers a comprehensive set of features including event menus, event search, recommendations, event details, and integration with organizations, making it a robust platform for event coordination and student engagement. However, it lacks certain functionalities like event filters, discussion/chat options, and user profile management, which are available in other platforms like Partiful and Evite. Enhancing these areas could further improve NYU Engage's ability to facilitate meaningful connections and engagement among students.
However, the redesigned NYU Engage platform addresses these gaps by incorporating event filters, discussion/chat options, and enhanced user profile management. These improvements aim to offer a more personalized and interactive experience, enabling students to connect more effectively, manage their engagements with ease, and build stronger communities within the university.
For market competitive analysis, NYU Engage (existing platform) is a versatile platform that caters to both casual and serious/professional event coordination within a public domain setting. Compared to Partiful, which focuses on private and casual events, and Eventbrite, which serves more public and professional purposes, NYU Engage occupies a unique space that blends the accessibility of public events with the flexibility to cater to a broad range of student needs, from casual gatherings to more formal academic and organizational activities. This positioning allows NYU Engage to serve as a comprehensive tool for fostering community engagement within the NYU student body.
Based on the insights gained from initial user research, competitive analysis, and flowchart evaluations with potential users, the user journey and interaction flow for the NYU Engage redesign gradually form. This process was further refined and validated through usability tests and user feedback to ensure the new design effectively meets student needs for event discovery, social connection, and community engagement.
The IA for the NYU Engage redesign focuses on streamlining navigation for event discovery, social connections, and personalized recommendations, guiding users from login to managing their schedules with ease.
With the low-fidelity prototype, the event coordination and the general structure of NYU Engage redesign platform could easily be tested in usability tests.
The visual design for NYU Engage was developed through a process of iterating from mood boards and style tiles to the creation of a comprehensive UI kit, based on the first version of the style guide. This approach ensured a cohesive and user-friendly interface that aligns with the platform's goals of enhancing student engagement and community building.
The visual design for NYU Engage was developed through a process of iterating from mood boards and style tiles to the creation of a comprehensive UI kit, based on the first version of the style guide. This approach ensured a cohesive and user-friendly interface that aligns with the platform's goals of enhancing student engagement and community building.
During onboarding, users can personalize their event recommendations based on their interests. They also have the option to sync their Google and Albert calendars, with their interests appearing as filters in event recommendations.
The hi-fi version feature allows users to browse, find, and join events with ease. The feed is personalized to match the user’s preferences, offering tailored event suggestions based on their interests and activities. This streamlined experience encourages users to engage more actively with campus events and social opportunities, making it easier to connect with peers and participate in university life.
In the NYU Engage (redesign), the search function is prominently placed on the top navigation menu, making it easy to find and access. This placement enhances user convenience, allowing for quick and efficient searches, and improving overall navigation within the platform.
NYU Engage (redesign) includes a robust calendar feature designed to help students manage their schedules effectively. By consolidating all saved events in one place, the platform enables users to achieve a better work-life balance, ensuring they can easily keep track of both academic and social commitments.
NYU Engage (redesign) makes it easy to create and host events directly from various pages, including the Home Page and Calendar Page. This streamlined process allows users to quickly set up events and manage them efficiently within the platform.
NYU Engage (redesign) includes a feature that allows users to easily invite friends to events. This function helps reduce the anxiety of attending events alone by encouraging users to bring along friends, making socializing more comfortable and enjoyable. Whether it's to avoid talking to strangers or simply to spend time with friends, this feature supports a more connected and engaging student experience.
The usability test for the NYU Engage (redesign) was conducted remotely via Zoom. Recorded sessions captured participants' facial expressions, verbal comments, and navigation choices, providing valuable insights into their emotional responses and interaction patterns. Our team took detailed notes on aspects such as task completion rates, navigation, and overall satisfaction, offering a well-rounded view of user engagement with the application.
The test involved 3 participants per session, each lasting about half an hour, focusing on evaluating a new feature that helps students explore and connect with NYU events and peers. The results highlighted both ease of use and areas for improvement, such as the need for more intuitive features like "hosting event," "add events," and better navigation controls. The findings, along with participant feedback, satisfaction ratings, and recommendations, are documented for further refinement of the NYU Engage (redesign) platform. For comprehensive details, including the testing report, usability test plan, rainbow sheet on data observation and documentation, and post-test activities, please refer to the linked documents.
The Think-Aloud Protocol Research for the NYU Engage Redesigned prototype aimed to evaluate the platform’s usability and effectiveness in fostering community engagement among students. The study involved observing participants as they navigated the platform, verbalizing their thoughts and actions, which provided real-time insights into their user experience. Key findings highlighted areas for improvement in navigation clarity, UI design, search functionality, and event information. Recommendations included simplifying navigation with clearer labels and tooltips, enhancing the UI for better distinction between sections, integrating search and filter options more effectively, and providing more detailed event information. The study also reflected on the research process, suggesting the addition of clearer instructions and an evaluation rubric to better categorize and analyze participant feedback. The attached document documented as one of the testing sessions in 3 usability tests.
The heuristic evaluation (click for detailed document) of the NYU Engage (redesign) feature revealed several key insights: The system effectively uses language and concepts familiar to users, aligning with existing NYU Engage and other social event platforms, though it currently lacks a profile and "friend" display feature, which slightly impacts the social connection aspect (rated as a minor usability problem). The feature minimizes cognitive load by making essential elements like menus and filters easily visible, though there are ongoing improvements to the color layout (rated as a cosmetic problem). Consistency is maintained across the platform by adhering to familiar terminology and actions, ensuring users understand the interface intuitively. Finally, the feature adheres to a minimalist design principle, focusing on community building through events, with plans to incorporate more color and imagery based on usability feedback, while maintaining a clean, focused interface.
I learned a lot from user feedback, which allowed me to observe how users interact with our prototype, identify patterns in their behavior, and determine areas of confusion or difficulty. This was a significant "aha moment" because it revealed unexpected user behaviors and preferences that were not initially considered. By closely analyzing these interactions, I gained deeper insights into the users' thought processes, which ultimately guided us in refining the design to better align with their needs. Understanding the nuances of user feedback highlighted the importance of continuously iterating on our design to ensure it is as intuitive and user-friendly as possible.
Each round of user testing brought new insights, revealing the needs of our users. Adapting our designs based on these findings, whether it was as simple as adding a research button or adjusting accent colors, proved to be highly effective. This iterative approach demonstrated how making evidence-based design decisions can significantly enhance the user experience. By continually refining the prototype in response to real user feedback, we were able to create a more polished and functional product that better meets the expectations and needs of our target audience.
In terms of team collaboration, our project benefited greatly from the diverse perspectives within our group. In-person open discussions and brainstorming sessions allowed each of us to contribute unique ideas and expertise, which coalesced into a well-rounded and innovative final product. However, one area I would improve is the structure and focus of our meetings. While the open discussions were invaluable, having a more structured agenda could have helped us stay on track and ensure that all critical aspects of the project were thoroughly addressed. Implementing regular check-ins and clearly defined roles could enhance our efficiency and collaboration in future projects.
