A student-led project to develop a navigation app that improves the experience of students and visitors navigating a large campus environment. The app was designed to offer easy-to-use, location-based services for finding key campus locations and events. Goal To create a navigation solution that simplifies campus navigation for students, faculty, and visitors, making it more accessible and user-friendly.
Role Lead Researcher: Spearheaded research activities, conducting surveys and interviews to understand user pain points.
UI Designer: Designed intuitive interfaces for the app, ensuring ease of use for diverse user groups. Challenge Columbia College’s large urban campus can be difficult to navigate, particularly for new students and visitors. The lack of a centralized, intuitive system for wayfinding meant there was a need to create an app that could address these issues and make navigation on campus more efficient. Approach/Research Methods
Surveys: Collected data from students, faculty, and visitors on common campus navigation pain points. Interviews: Conducted in-depth interviews with new students and visitors to understand their experiences. Competitive Analysis: Researched existing wayfinding solutions used by other universities. Design Process
Wireframing: Created low-fidelity wireframes to map out the app’s navigation flow. User Testing: Conducted usability tests to iterate on the design based on user feedback. Visual Design: Designed a clean, intuitive UI that minimized friction for first-time users. Prototyping: Developed interactive prototypes to test the app in real-world settings. Usability Testing: Led usability testing sessions to refine the app’s interface and features. Tools
Miro: For collaborative brainstorming and user flow mapping. Zoom: For remote user interviews and usability testing sessions. Adobe Illustrator: For creating icons and custom UI elements. Figma: For wireframing, prototyping, and UI design. Design & Development CampusNav was designed with simplicity and accessibility in mind. The app featured GPS-enabled wayfinding, an interactive campus map, and information about campus events. Its user interface was designed for quick, easy navigation, with clean visuals and minimal steps to access key information.
Outcome
Created a functional prototype of CampusNav, which was well-received by stakeholders during testing. The app was designed to improve campus navigation, reducing stress for new students and increasing efficiency for returning students and staff.
Key Learnings User Research: Learned the importance of user centered research in shaping the final product. Usability Testing: Gained insights into iterative design processes and improving UI through feedback. Collaboration: Developed project management skills by leading user research and UI design teams. Problem-Solving: Improved problem-solving skills by addressing complex navigation issues in real-time.