Development

To tackle the design challenge, myself, and a team of three information designers collaborated in the design process. We consulted existing design precedents online, developed questions for a public engagement survey and conducted ethnographic interviews. These methods assisted us in our design research to learn more about the design problem and connect empathetically with users of our design and understand their challenges. By engaging in multiple forms of design research, we discovered that we had unnecessarily broadened the focus of our design problem by considering challenges with building connections and community among MRU students—both academically and socially.

During concept development, I assisted in narrowing the focus of our design solution by developing user personas that determined the specific social needs of the students—ensuring they were addressed and incorporated into the solution.

We developed several low fidelity prototypes of our app throughout the design process, to assist in ideation and synthesis of our ideas for our design solution. The clickable prototype of the interfaces of our app allowed us to conduct user testing. I developed a series of exploratory and specific tasks that we used to conduct user tests of our design solution with students—which resulted in valuable feedback that could assist us in future design iterations.

Final Concept

Our final high-fidelity prototype, of our mobile app appropriately addressed the needs of our user. The app, Your MRU was designed as an exclusive, informal, and multifaceted virtual platform for MRU students to socialize and build community. We designed Your MRU to be self-contained for MRU students, partially anonymous and casual, with multiple integrated social media features.