University of Washington
international student exchange
“How might we help new international students at UW find roommates and mentors in their search for reliable off-campus accommodation?”
The Design Question
My Role
UX Researcher/Designer
Team
3 Researchers/Designers, 1 Project Manager
Duration
3 months
Tasks
- Surveys and interviews
- Defining the scope of the project
- Brainstorming ideas
- Sketching
- Designing use cases
- Prototyping
Tools
- Pen and Paper
- Session Recordings
- Typeform
- Post-its
- Google Docs
- Adobe Illustrator
process summary
how it started
Our team was looking to explore what problems international students face before and after arriving in the United States. The idea was to create a solution to help make the transition to their new lives easier by solving their major concerns and problems.
We originally set out with
“How might we help international students easily adjust to life in the United States?”
Research Questions
We came up with 6 research questions that would help us probe further.
How do students find adjusting to the new life now?
Is there something they want, and is not available?
What are the obstacles they face and how do they overcome them?
Do they miss home? If yes, what is it about home that they miss?
Is there help already available?
What is the biggest problem they faced during their initial days in the US?
Diving deeper - Finding answers
As we conducted our research and gathered the data, we discovered that the students had difficulties with language, cultural differences, finding accommodation, food, making friends and even getting around the city. We used a combination of methods to gather both quantitative and qualitative data.
Flow analysis
We did a flow analysis of the process that International students go through to live in the United States.
A flow analysis was crucial for our group because three of the members were familiar with the steps having recently completed them but the other member needed to be informed of the process.
focus group
We conducted a focus group with few graduate students who had recently moved to Seattle. The questions were about three broad areas: Pre-travel, arrival and everyday life in Seattle.
Asking broad, open-ended questions helped us to delve deeper into those topics. We chose the focus group because in it, participants can bounce ideas off of each other, which might bring up ideas that the researchers might not have thought of.
interviews
We conducted Interviews with four international students . The interviews were semi-structured adhering to a basic script of questions for guidance, while maintaining the ability to probe deeper on specific responses. The interviews enabled us to ask “why” questions in an attempt to understand user’s thinking and behavior. The users poured in their thoughts and were very expressive in narrating their real stories.
survey
We composed a 15-question survey using Typeform, targeting International Students. Surveys were posted on various Facebook pages for Seattle-based International Students. Multiple types of survey questions were used- Likert scale, yes/no questions, and written responses. The survey allowed us to do quantitative analysis on our target users. We could look at how specific subgroups rated difficulties compared to the larger group.
personas
When the data was sorted it was clear that
- The off-campus students had more difficulty than the on-campus students.
- Males had a harder time with accommodations than the female students.
- Women had more difficulty socially than men.
We thus identified three major personas who would be using our system.
design requirements
Our research findings discounted the assumption that food was the major pain point. We came to realize that students had the most difficulty in finding accommodation and local people to connect with. We refocused and narrowed down on the most challenging aspect of housing for the UW students. It was clear that the solution should meet some design requirements.
- The solution should work for international students across countries and time zones.
- They do most of the research and planning through the internet. The solution should be technology based.
- It should give them a good idea of other students looking for accommodation who can possibly be their roommates.
- It should show the available options for off-campus accommodation.
- It should connect them with a mentor who can guide them in the process.
- It should be a safe and secure platform with verified university students as users.
Hence, we rephrased our design question to focus on the off-campus accommodation.
“How might we help new international students at UW find roommates and mentors in their search for reliable off-campus accommodation?”
initial sketches
paper prototype
This is a paper prototype of a mobile app design to help ease the transition of international students at UW by providing accommodation suggestions with fellow students near the university and pairing them with able mentors who can guide them in the journey.
The paper prototype was then tested with the users. The user was asked to perform the following tasks:
- Task 1 – Click Sign-In to establish a secure connection
- Task 2 – Enter username and password to login
- Task 3 – Create a User Profile and save it
- Task 4 – View recommendations for roommates
- Task 5 – Access the ‘filters’ to refine your search and filter results based on a criterion (ex. Price Range)
- Task 6 – Select and view a profile (Bruce Wayne)
- Task 7 – Send a message to the person (Bruce Wayne)
- Task 8 – Add Bruce to your homegroup (roommates list)
- Task 9 – Send a message in your homegroup window
The tests gave us rich feedback.
- The application needs to have a uniform look and feel.
- We will have to use the same terminology throughout.
- Lengthy forms that require a lot of user input should be broken down into multiple screens.
- We also missed adding some basic action buttons on the screens like ‘Send’ and ‘Back’.
It was good to run the test with the users early in the design process, helping us incorporate the changes right away. The users were very excited about the product. They said they would love to use it.
design solution
The final design solution is a mobile app for the UW students. The solution satisfies all the design requirements and helps users complete their top use cases of roommate search, mentor discussion and airport pickup.
