Advocates for Equity Council Website
This is a website created by the Advocate for Equity Council on Smith college campus that helps Smith College students to keep track of all sources of funding that are available
OVERVIEW
Problem
Smith students have no centralized system for resources. There is a clear lack of organization within the Student Government Association (SGA) that exists to serve marginalized students. Currently, to find all the resources that are available to students, students have to go through the Smith College website and go to each organization's page to be able to find what is applicable to them. This is not efficient and leaves students feeling very frustrated and not supported at the college.
Goal
The aim is to keep everything centralized and keep the Smith community informed on all the work being done by the Advocates for Equity Council
Timeline
6 weeks
Team
Worked on a team with researchers
Role
Product Design, Visual Design, UI Design, Prototyping
UNDERSTANDING OUR USERS
Research
My team and I initially interviewed 10 students, all within Smith College ranging from first years to seniors. We asked questions mostly about their experience finding resources and their knowledge of the resources that are available to them and found that:
Most students do not know where to find resources
Most students always found out when it already too late for them to apply
Most students do not feel supported enough
Most students tend to keep to themselves when it comes to needing resources
“I just couldn't believe it when someone told me there is textbook funding available just a few weeks before the semester was about to end! I was very frustrated and felt alone.”
User Persona
I created a user persona The research helped inform me on a the user persona of this study. From our research we learnt that majority of students had difficulty finding resources on campus and so this user persona frames that perfectly.
User Journey Map
I created a user journey map in order to highlight the main areas that students that were struggling. The research helped inform us on how students struggled mostly when seeking resources, discovering the resources and when applying for the sources of funding
Pain Points
I was then able to identify 3 main pain points according to our research. Most students struggled with finding sources of funding, learning about requirements and finding community to help.
Finding sources of funding
Difficult to find sources of funding when there are all over the place
Learning about requirements and deadlines
Most students were not aware of requirements and deadlines
Finding community to help
Most students reported feeling alone with no community
IDEATION
Brainstorm
I lead a brainstorm session with the team where we tired to come up with ideas to tackle our problem based off of the research and pain points. From the brainstorm the main ideas that were brought up in order to tackle the main pain points were:
Having a way of organizing into monetary resources and non-monetary resources
Creating a connect section to help students connect with each other
Having a way of informing students of all the required information and documents needed before applying for any funding
Allowing students to search for sources of funding freely
Initial sketches
Based off of the user pain points and brainstorm, I sketched out possible ideas and picked the features that I liked form each idea and combined them into a low fidelity mockup. The features highlighted are the information about the Advocates for Equity Council, splitting up types of funding, Having and FAQs page and always having a search bar
Low Fidelity mockup
My initial solution included a:
Landing screen with information about the Advocate for Equity Council and direct links to resources,
FAQs screen for student’s to get help on frequently asked questions about funding
Resources screen with information on types of funding a news
Current projects screen where the AEC could keep students updated about the work that they are doing
A chat and contact screen where students can build community within themselves
Initial High Fidelity mockup
I produced high fidelity mockups of my initial solution and then used these for testing with students on campus. Below are some of the screens used during usability testing
Landing page
FAQ page
Connect page
Resources page
REVISITING THE PAIN POINTS
LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS
What I learned:
I learnt that feedback from teammates is very helpful
Always be ready to pivot when it comes to your designs
Impact:
We tested on the final prototype on 10 students
All students we tested on were very impressed by the centralization of the resources
“Wow, I didn't even know Smith had all these resources available. I am definitely going to be using this all year round!”- Lily
Future goals:
Working with a team to get it built
An automated system that lets students know which funding would be most appropriate for them