Felicia Fishel Design - SkillShare App

Date Started: February, 2021

Date Completed: April 27, 2021

Programs Used: Figma, Google Survey

Project: Over the course of the class Graphic Design 3 focusing on UX Design, I was tasked with creating an online experience that could help improve campus life. The project idea that I selected was Skill Sharing. The project description writes that, “Merrimack has a diverse group of students from over 30 majors. But if you wanted the assistance of a student from another area of study, it could be a challenge to find them. Imagine for example, if a sports team wanted a graphic designer to help with a poster design or if a student film needed someone who studied a different language. Think about how a new online tool could aid the process of connecting groups and people across campus.” My prototype SkillSpace works to solve this problem as it creates a convenient and social platform that elevates learning. SkillSpace is designed to be a platform for colleges across the country, not being limited to Merrimack strictly. By providing an easier way for students to find help with difficult classes it works to rely upon the schools community to help each other succeed and grow.

Process: In order to create this app there were other steps that needed to be taken before going into the design process. The first step of this process was to create a Problems and Hypotheses document where I listed out five to seven problems around my project that I believed were on campus. With this I also needed to write out potential solutions to the problem spaces as well as creating hypotheses for each one. After this came the creation of research questions that would be developed to ask students during the interview process as well as ten questions that could be used within my survey. These research tools would then be used to create a User Experience Brief, which would then be turned into a presentation to show the findings of the research. Within this brief was the research process to learn about the behaviors and needs of college students. The presentation contained the findings of the conducted survey and three user interviews and the identified problems that exist upon campus. The brief also included creating a persona that amplified the problems and needs of a regular college student at Merrimack. Lastly, the task was also to do a competitive analysis of other apps or services that are currently available to students.

Findings: Through the user interviews and survey I found that there were problems with getting academic help on campus, mainly in classes that students are not specifically majoring in.

Over the course of my survey I found that 47.1% of those who partook in the survey did not know where the Academic Help center was located on campus. Secondly, 47.1% of the surveyed had only used the service once. This immediately stood out as an opportunity to create a service that allows students to quickly and easily get the help they need.

During this time of research I also found that many students who needed the help with their classes were primarily in classes outside of their major. With this in mind, it showed another problem as the college's resources were limited in which the academic help center could help with particular programs or classes. The third main problem that I found is that besides e-mail, going through a teacher, or purely knowing students in the classes that you're taking means that there is no direct way for students to find other students that can potentially help with homework and projects.

User Flow and Prototypes: After developing the proposal the next step was to produce three tasks that the persona would try to complete within the app. Following the tasks was a user flow which broke down each section of the story to create a flow chart. From the flow chart the viewer can easily see the way the story is broken down. Utilizing the flow chart, I began developing the first draft of a wireframe. From the wireframe came the came draft of a prototype for each of the persona stories mentioned previously. Using Figma, the wireframes developed from the user flow began being created as I worked to find the correct layout of the app and the features the app would provide. Knowing that the three main problems had to do with convenience, accessibility, and broadening academic help I focused on creating the app to do with these principles.

Persona: Within the project the next step was to create a persona of a Merrimack student that would potentially benefit from the app.

My persona consisted of a 20 year-old female, commuter student, and is also currently working a part-time job while in college. This persona is short on time and has a relatively organized and strict schedule in order to juggle are her responsibilities. Many times she is not able to get the help she needs with her classes with her busy schedule and cannot make it into the help center between the rigid 8-4 schedule.

She needs a way to quickly and conveniently get help with the classes she is taking.

Prototype 1

Competitive Analysis: Through my research I found that the biggest competitors in this field is an app that is called SkillShare. The app is not specifically made for colleges and is more of an open platform that shows different tutorials and has lesson plans. The feature of having tutorials and resources directly provided on the platform allowed me to integrate a version into my app development. Other competitors include the Academic Help Center, Merrimack Newsletter, E-Mail, and LinkedIn offer features that students need but none that have all the features.

Final Prototype: In order for the app to be convenient I began developing a system that would allow users to choose from two options when it came to getting help. One way was to develop a button that gave the user the option to “Create a Post” or “Quick Schedule” depending upon the timing and due date of the help needed. If the help was needed immediately, the user would follow simple instructions from a predefined list of available options that they needed help with or create a longer post that was not due for at least a few days. The Quick schedule did not allow for many choices or customization of topics that a normal post would allow for because the “helper” on the app will be familiar enough to help with that project. Besides this feature the next was in the way the students interact and participate within the app. Students automatically will link their Merrimack account right to the app accountant, this way we are able to better match students in different areas of study to help resolve any projects or other related work. After completing multiple user interviews the app needed to be tested by real users to see if they were able to complete all three tasks from the User Flow. From here, after receiving feedback the app then moved into the design stage. After doing much research on other companies and inspiration I was able to develop an app design that merges the new and old but also doing fun at the same time.