_role As a team leader, I first engaged the team forward in an open atmosphere. I made user research and design critique on the previous version of QSC Mobile to come up with ideas about the new version. As a team, we discovered and made the information structure, wireframes, interaction and later transformed them into usable app together.

  • _duration 11/ 2015 - 10/ 2016.
  • _client Qiushichao Team, Zhejiang University
  • _partners Bubu, Xinyu(Designer), Jingjing(Coder), Shiguan(PM)
  • _scope User and Market Research, Persona and Scenario, Wireframing, Prototyping, Sketch

_introducing

without Mobile before,
life in my school wasn't
easy and fun as you thought

cumbersome!

Students waste lots of time on checking plenty of information like courses, exams, homework, labs, school bus and exams from several places. It spends time, but students don't want to miss things.

boring!

There are more than 100 clubs in my university. Students are used to finding activities from posters, paper ads, outdoor banners or SMS/email. But those ways are inefficient for students, also expensive for clubs.

but we could change all of these
by saving students' time and energy
to organize all information they need

today -
designed for this moment

With one glance, you can know the ongoing event, and next events coming up today. The countdown circle shows the current event's progress.



calendar -
make the most of your time

WWith all events synced from the official website, your school calendar is ready at any time. It also supports shared to-dos for your assignments and activities from clubs. View your calendar in week glance to see your free time and share it with your teammates.

discover -
fill your calendar with joy

Posted by hundreds of clubs, you can check activities, book tickets online, and add to your calendar with one click.



tools -
useful helps

Check some popular tools and links - your physical training, GPA, the school bus, mail...

skip to see the final design >

_design critique

thanks to Ruolan,
we started from design critique
on the previous version
base on our user research

1: unnessary personalization

Only functions and information checked here are shown on the personalized some screen.
However... Data showed that more than 80% of users didn’t personalize their homescreen frequently because it didn’t matter.Personalization also caused the penetration rates of many functions falls.

2: confused gesture

The interface allow users to swipe between home screen, personalization page and setting page quickly.
However... Users expressed their confusion to swipe between two screens which are not parallel in terms of function. They also got even more frustrated when the gesture of swiping does not apply elsewhere in the application.

3: levels too deep

On home screen, several cards act as the container of information from different category.
However... Information could be displayed in cards is limited so that users always need to tap once to see the details. They commented in the interview that the steps were tedious and old-fashioned.

4: interface without enough information

Users view their weekly calendar in a table with cells filled by blue.
However... The penetration rate of weekly calendar was relatively low. It was not because users didn’t need a table view but that the information it tell was deficient. They’d rather check by manully tapping back and ahead on day view.

conclusion: re-structure needed

Although the previous design created an unique experience by cards view, the interface is still hard to learn even for young students. The card didn't work as we thought because the needed information is not shown enough while useless details showed a lot.

by interviews, we also noticed
the big differences of how user use it
depending on when and where

"I usually didn't go through all things at a time. I'd rather see only one or two things because that is what I am looking for."
"When I need to checked the classroom and homework I need to bring to class, I found they were on different cards so I had to click twice the cards. "
"At the beginning, I didn't remember the way to my class at all so I check my academic calendar frequently. But I am not a freshman anymore and I think finding interesting activities is the thing I do more often on Mobile."

_design thinking

after the research, our goal is to redefine
the "easy + joyful" experience on Mobile
"easy" is designing for situations and tasks to
let users focus on only one thing without noises
while "joyful" is something new for student's leisure life

The most important information for one situation should be specially designed to support users finish related tasks quickly.

For instance, when users want to check the timetable on the bed or before sleep, theys wish to a full calendar for a day. While an anxious boy standing near a building touching his phone, he wants to know only the classroom number where he should be in there in 30 sec.

we reorganize the information architecture
to make sure elements have the right priority,
so users can easily find them in app

We tried to connect the scenario and the IA to make sure users can find things they want in different situations.

Today is a dashboard with on-going and next things. With some shortcuts, you can even add an assignment linked to a course or rate an activity you are in now by one click.

Calendar has all your things while Discover is a place to fill calendar with fun activities.

Also we notice the 5 sec app loading time is unacceptable for the most urgent user so we also provide new ways to show the information - watch app and today widget.

wireframing...

finally we come up with new interaction guide to
compare with the previous version and offer as an in-app help

improved interaction
new functions

_closer look

from courses in the moring
to activities at the night,
Mobile will be with you in every moment

our interaction design
is made more quick and intuitive

add an assignment
when the class is finished

You can add a photo as an assignment when the class is about to finished by one click. Also you can share it to your friends later.



find activities on
the cool poster wall

While the traditional way to find fun activities is by posters, we provide a poster wall inside Mobile to simulate the experience where you can be emerged in beautiful posters.

add an activity
into your calendar

Out of acedemic events, your calendar now can track every fun things you are going to, like an activity you like. By one click.



search and add
school bus schedule

You can also add bus schedule into your calendar so you won't miss it again.

_result

till Oct. 2016, Mobile has more than
100,000 users and 18,000 daily active users

we feel very proud to help almost 61%
undergraduate student at Zhejiang Univeristy
to have an easy and joyful life

in CCCC

Luckily, my teammates and I got the Second Prize in China Collegiate Computing Contest Mobile Application Innovation Contest. 9/ 2016.

about page

I feel so proud that my name is on the about page in every Mobile.