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IU MOBILE REDESIGN
A story about reducing student frustrations
UI/UX
Mobile
Research
INTRODUCTION
Over the summer, I interned at Indiana University's UITS, where I worked on our native mobile app. This app caters to over 57K monthly users. Students use it to navigate everyday life on campus.
MY ROLE
Research
Conceptualisation
UI design
User testing
THE TEAM
1 designer, 1 product manager and 15+ engineers.
TIMELINE
May 2023 - Aug 2023
Overview of existing app
View upcoming classes
Access ID Card
Clock into on-campus jobs
IU Maps
Our very own
version of google maps
There is a lot more, but these are some basic things they do on the app
THE PROBLEM
Growing student population at IU leaned on the mobile app
The features were not user-friendly and accessible which made it ineffective
WE WONDERED
What features to fix first?
Since there were sooo many..
I had to narrow down given my limited three-month timeframe, overhauling the entire app was not a feasible option.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
We surveyed students to determine their feature usage and motivations
Use the app for
clocking in and out of their on campus jobs
Use campus maps to navigate/track buses when on campus.
Use it to access their ID card to get onto buses
👇 What challenges did I tackle?
TAP ONE TO KNOW MORE
Understand what’s wrong with the app
RESEARCH DISCOVERY
Redesign the bus tracking
experience
BUS TRACKING FEATURE
Solving for the absent minds of IU workforce
REDESIGN KUALI TIME
RESEARCH DISCOVERY
Understanding the problem
Conducting a thorough audit using Heuristic Evaluation resulted in identifying that there were issues like
-
Complex Navigation
-
Tedious task flows
-
Accessibility issues
-
Too much information
Heuristic Evaluation
I LOOKED CLOSELY AT
🚌 + ⏰
Bus Tracking
Clockins-out
CONTEXTUAL INTERVIEWS
Observing them use the app
Conducting Contextual Inquiry, I gained valuable insights into their preferences and usage patterns.
😤
Frustrated with too many clicks to find what they need.
🤨
Find it challenging to locate information easily
🤔
Less intuitive interactions leading to deterring engagement
Contextual Inquiry - Observations
BUS TRACKING
Bus tracking
The challenge
BUS ROUTES -USER JOURNEY
The current experience
🗄
Closed Drawer Woes
By default the drawer is closed makes it difficult to view and can be missed.
🫠
Bus Routes Buried at the Bottom!
to find bus routes students have to swift through the exhaustive list of routes to reach the bottom one’s
🤷🏻♀
No ETA, Just Wheels on the Move
One can only see the bus move, there is no ETA mentioned on the route screen with stops.
WIREFRAMES
Increasing affordance
and accessibility
Research reveals that users tend to resort to searching or applying filters when confronted with lengthy lists.
"From"-"To" entry fields below to narrow down the route options.
Bus routes are shown in a horizontal scroll, minimizing the need for excessive scrolling.
02
01
WIREFRAMES
Improving the bus tracking
experience
Prompting the user to take action by setting a notification for when the bus arrives at their desired stop.
01
Fixed Information Hierarchy for better
tracking experience
02
Driving actionability by implementing
"notify me" feature.
SOLUTION
Solution
Making bus-finding an
easy job!
01
+ Efficiency
Quick Search
Enter your destination, discover the best bus routes
Toggle
Easy to switch from on-campus buses to Bloomington transit
02
03
+Accessible
+ Intuitive
Single tap
To enable bus routes quickly
SOLUTION
Solving for better
system Bus status?!
Pause. Breathe. K, onto the next one!
😌
KUALI TIME
Kuali Time
The challenge
KUALI TIME
Looking at what exists!
Text Heavy
Information about work permit hours is mostly ignored
Hidden Info
A student can have multiple assignments and they’re hidden in this drawer.
🤨
0.6+5.7=?? How
many hours did I work for?
Overwhelming
Crucial data in the form of text and numbers can be overwhelming.
USER RESEARCH
Playing the detective
I observed over 8 people while they clocked in and out of their various jobs
🤔
How might we make Kuali time
less intimidating and ensure a stress free experience?
WIREFRAMES
Simple visualisation
clearing the clutter
Familiar visualisations can make users feel at ease and navigate faster.
I referenced IOS timer to create the visualisation, allowing the users to view their progress and induce a sense of time ticking away as they work.
Job cards at the bottom help sift through multiple jobs easily.
USER FEEDBACK
Is this better though?
We user tested the wireframes to gain user feedback, I've highlighted some of their concerns below
SOLUTION
Solving the clocking
in and out Conundrum
Showing weekly hours as a progress bar for quicker consumption
Easy on the eye
After receiving feedback worked with the gestalt principles to fix proximity
Information Hierarchy
The clock acts like a timer to automatically clock you out
Automation
Visualizing the clock in & out information as a clock for quicker recognition
Familiarity
01
02
03
04
SOLUTION
Solving for the absent
minds of IU
Fin.
IMPACT
THOUGHTS
While redesigning the experience of these features, it was difficult for me to move away from being the user and think solely as a designer. Since I was a user myself I had some biases of how I used the application, setting them aside was important.
LEARNINGS
😌
Embracing the Inevitable
Certain factors lie beyond our control, and it's crucial to recognize and embrace them
💫
Balancing Future vision and practicality
I was struggling with finding a middle ground. I slowly learnt to combining big ideas with realistic actions, making sure I move ahead while also getting things done
👁️
Attention to
Detail
Every tiny detail matters. I've come to realize that each screen is a part of a larger story, and it's crucial for them all to be intricately woven together.
Thanks for making it till the end ^.^
Craving
More?
Feel free to induldge
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