UniNet

Project Overview

UniNet is a mobile application designed to help university students overcome networking challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. By facilitating professional connections through virtual events, live chats, and forums, UniNet bridges the gap left by the absence of in-person interactions. This case study explores the research-driven approach, iterative design process, and thoughtful solutions that shaped UniNet into a user-centric platform.

Role

UX Designer & Prototyping Lead

Location

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Project Type

Mobile App Design – University Project

Date

October 2021

Team

Four members

Tools Used

Figma (design),

Miro (brainstorming),

Google Forms (research), Zoom (testing),

Word (documentation)

Problem Statement

The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for university students, particularly in achieving career goals and building professional networks. Traditional opportunities like in-person events and career fairs were unavailable, leaving many students isolated and struggling to connect with peers and industry professionals.

Key Problem: How might we design a digital platform that enables students to network effectively, stay motivated, and grow professionally in a remote environment?

1. Overview

Platform Goals

Research

To understand the challenges faced by university students during the pandemic and design a solution tailored to their needs, a comprehensive research methodology was implemented. This process involved gathering quantitative and qualitative insights through surveys and interviews, analyzing competitors, and creating detailed personas. The findings from this research provided a solid foundation for developing a platform that bridges networking gaps effectively and intuitively.

2. Goals & Research

Step 1: Surveying Student Needs

In the first step, surveys were conducted to understand the challenges and preferences of university students regarding professional networking during the pandemic.

Objective:

Identify key networking challenges, pain points, and preferences for digital platforms to inform feature prioritization.

Survey Scope:

Conducted two rounds of surveys with 14 students across multiple faculties.

Key Findings:

Insight

Respondents

65%

80%

Highlighted difficulties in accessing relevant events

Preferred a mobile-first approach for simplicity and accessibility.

These findings highlighted the gap in existing platforms, emphasizing the need for an intuitive, mobile-first networking tool tailored to students.

After uncovering key challenges and preferences through surveys, we sought to dive deeper into the qualitative aspects of student needs. Conducting user interviews allowed us to capture detailed insights, including the emotional and functional gaps that existing platforms failed to address...

Step 2: Conducting User Interviews

After analyzing quantitative data from surveys, we conducted in-depth user interviews with students to uncover nuanced challenges and preferences, providing qualitative insights that complemented the survey findings.

Objective:

Uncover pain points and specific networking challenges faced by university students.
Identify emotional and practical barriers to using digital platforms for networking.

Survey Scope:

Conducted 6 one-on-one interviews with students from various faculties and years of study, including international and local students.
Sessions focused on understanding students' expectations, frustrations, and desired features for a networking platform.

Key Findings:

Networking Challenges

Students found it difficult to approach employers or peers during virtual events due to a lack of structured opportunities for engagement.

Personalization Concerns

A lack of tailored recommendations made students feel overwhelmed by irrelevant events or connections.

Feature Requests:

75% of students wanted ice-breaker features (e.g., discussion prompts or interest-based matching).

Students emphasized the need for privacy controls, expressing discomfort with their profiles being visible to everyone.

With these qualitative insights, we identified critical gaps in existing solutions and moved forward to evaluate how other platforms addressed these challenges...

Step 3: Analyzing Existing Solutions

To ensure UniNet addressed the key challenges students faced, we conducted a competitive analysis of similar platforms to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for differentiation.

Objective:

Understand how existing platforms address networking challenges.
Identify gaps in features and usability to inform the design of UniNet.

Survey Scope:

Analyzed three key platforms widely used for networking and virtual collaboration:

LinkedIn: Professional networking and career growth.
Slack: Team communication and collaboration.
Zoom: Virtual meetings and events.

The table below shows our application against competitors when considering features, thereby outlining the gaps in the market:

Key Insights:

Existing platforms are not student-centric, focusing instead on general professional networking.

Students need a platform that combines event discovery, real-time communication, and personalized connections.

Armed with insights from competitors and our research, we began crafting personas to represent the diverse needs of university students and ensure UniNet's design addressed these challenges holistically...

Step 4: Creating User Personas

To ensure our design addressed the diverse needs of university students, we developed personas based on the research findings.

Objective:

Represent key user groups, such as international students and final-year students.
Guide feature prioritization and user flow design.

Person: Aaron

Person: Lucy

To dive deeper into the users' experiences and emotions, empathy maps were created for each persona, offering valuable insights into their thoughts, feelings, and challenges

To further visualize the users' interactions with networking resources, journey maps were developed. These maps highlight key steps, pain points, and opportunities for improvement, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of their journey

Reflection and Insight

The creation of personas, empathy maps, and journey maps provided valuable insights into our users' needs and challenges, shaping the design of UniNet. Key takeaways include:

Simplification: Users sought a more intuitive, student-focused platform to replace overly complex tools.
Personalization: Personalized event recommendations and tailored connections were essential to address individual goals.
Accessibility: A mobile-friendly, easy-to-navigate design was critical, especially for non-tech-savvy users.
Addressing Pain Points: Journey maps highlighted frustrations like limited networking opportunities and unclear career pathways, driving solutions like advanced filters and tailored mentorship features.

Brainstorming Process

Crafting User Stories

Affinity Mapping

Ideation

Collaboration Tools: Used Miro for collaborative brainstorming with the team, generating over 50 ideas.

Feature Prioritization: Applied the MoSCoW method to prioritize features based on user needs and feasibility

User stories were written to encapsulate the primary goals and challenges of our personas.

Using Affinity Mapping, we organized user stories into thematic clusters, helping us focus on core areas of Networking, Event Discovery, and Communication

Process:
- Gathered all user stories and grouped them by relevance.
- Identified recurring themes such as Networking Opportunities, Personalized Recommendations, and Accessibility.

Outcome:
- The mapping process enabled us to prioritize user needs and streamline feature development.

Wireframes

With clear ideas and prioritized features from the ideation phase, we moved into wireframing. This phase allowed our team to bring UniNet’s features to life, serving as the foundation for testing layouts and user flows to ensure a seamless user experience.

3. Design Process

With a clear understanding of user needs, we began brainstorming ideas and prioritizing features to address the challenges students faced. Ideation was key to shaping UniNet’s core functionality.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

The low-fidelity wireframes for UniNet mapped out the structure and navigation for its primary features. These included:

1. Effortless Event Engagement

Enable users to seamlessly discover, join, and participate in networking events, both public and private
Provide live chat functionalities during events to foster real-time interactions.

2. Community Building

Facilitate ongoing discussions and collaborations through community forums and direct messaging.
Create opportunities for users to connect with like-minded peers and mentors.

3. Personalized Networking

Offer tools for users to create and host private events tailored to their interests.
Provide intuitive filters and recommendations to ensure events align with user preferences.

Purpose: These wireframes were created to focus solely on functionality, allowing us to test the overall structure and flow of the application without visual distractions. Feedback from team reviews highlighted areas requiring better navigation and clearer labels.

Usability testing played a critical role in refining UniNet’s features, ensuring the design addressed real user needs. This iterative approach involved two rounds: first with Lo-Fi prototypes and later with Hi-Fi prototypes, each revealing unique insights into user behavior and pain points.

4. Usability Testing

First Round: Lo-Fi Usability Testing

Objective:
To evaluate the basic structure and navigation of UniNet’s Lo-Fi prototypes and identify initial usability issues.

Participants:
12 university students from diverse faculties and networking experiences.

Methodology:

Key Metrics:

Task Completion Rate: 85%

Average Task Time: 1.2 minutes/task

Common Errors:

1. Difficulty navigating the “People” tab.

2. Confusion about “Upcoming Events” terminology.

3. Lack of clarity in differentiating between

local and global search bars.

Changes Implemented Post-Lo-Fi Testing:

Renamed “Upcoming Events” to “My Events” for better user clarity.

Simplified the navigation bar by splitting the "People" tab into distinct “Groups” and “Chats.”

Enhanced visibility of the global search bar by increasing its size and adding spacing.

Feedback from the Lo-Fi testing guided the development of the Hi-Fi prototype, incorporating branding and interactive features. The second round of testing validated these updates to ensure an intuitive user experience.

Second Round: Hi-Fi Usability Testing

Objective:

To evaluate the usability of the refined Hi-Fi prototypes, focusing on task intuitiveness and interaction flows.

Participants:
12 university students from diverse faculties and networking experiences.

Methodology:

The testing methodology for the Hi-Fi prototypes closely mirrored the Lo-Fi process, with participants completing similar core tasks to ensure comparability. The primary difference lay in the use of fully styled, interactive prototypes, incorporating branding, final layouts, and accessibility enhancements. Post-test surveys were tailored to gauge satisfaction with visual clarity and overall experience.

Key Metrics:

Task Completion Rate: 93%

Average Task Time: Reduced by 25% compared to Lo-Fi testing.

Critical Errors: Reduced from 15% in Lo-Fi to 5%.

User Feedback:

“ The navigation feels much clearer now. "

" Adding friends directly from events and groups is a great improvement. "

Key Findings:

1. Users appreciated the refined navigation but struggled with the lack of help icons for new features.

2. Introducing the “My Events” section significantly improved clarity and ease of use.

3. Participants valued the enhanced visibility of status indicators (e.g., microphone and camera toggles).

Changes Implemented Post-Hi-Fi Testing:

Added help icons across key sections for easier onboarding.

Improved the visibility of mic/camera icons using dashed lines and color differentiation.

Introduced shortcuts for frequently accessed features within events and groups.

The journey to the Final UI was guided by feedback from two rounds of usability testing. By prioritizing user insights and refining every detail, the final design delivers a seamless and intuitive experience tailored to the needs of university students. Let’s explore how these changes shaped the final product and brought UniNet’s vision to life.

Introduction

5. Final Design

The journey from Lo-Fi sketches to the polished Final Design was guided by a commitment to user-centered design. By leveraging feedback from our Hi-Fi usability testing phase, the final design integrates meaningful enhancements that simplify navigation, improve feature accessibility, and amplify engagement. While earlier Hi-Fi iterations are not displayed, the key improvements are highlighted below to demonstrate how the iterative process shaped the final product.

Key Changes and Features

"The table below highlights the most significant improvements made in the Final Design, showcasing how each update addressed user challenges and enhanced the overall experience."

Key Performance Insights

Post-Test Satisfaction:
- Over 90% of participants rated the final design 4/5 or 5/5 for overall usability.

Improved Task Efficiency:
- Average task completion time decreased by 25%, reflecting the streamlined workflows.

Error Reduction:
- Critical errors dropped from 15% in the Lo-Fi testing phase to just 5% in the final design.

Participant Feedback:
- “The new navigation feels much smoother and intuitive!”
- “I love how everything is now accessible without jumping between pages.”

Final Designs - Slideshow

Please press the left/right arrows to scroll between UniNet's Final UI screens

UniNet Homepage - Events

My Events Page

Event Details Page

UniNet Homepage - Events

1/12

Reflections

Designing UniNet was a truly fulfilling experience and one I’m proud to have contributed to. Collaborating with my team to create a platform that helped students navigate virtual events and build connections during a challenging time taught me so much about the power of empathy and teamwork in design. Seeing our work come to life and directly address real pain points was a highlight of my academic journey.

Next Steps

The Roadmap to Refinement

Real-World Testing: Launch UniNet with a pilot group of university students to gather live feedback and refine features based on real-world usage.

AI-Powered Recommendations: Integrate AI algorithms to offer smarter, personalized event suggestions and networking opportunities.

Scalability Features: Expand the platform to include tools for hybrid events, supporting both in-person and virtual interactions.

Post-Event Engagement: Introduce features like follow-ups and post-event surveys to sustain long-term connections between users.

Thank you for networking with me through UniNet—let’s build more connections and designs that bring people closer, no matter the distance!