Monash University briefed us with the challenge to completely recreate their student app.
We approached the project kick off with a Design Sprint (Google ventures model). I facilitated the first sprint and then played the role of designer in the second when we created the first prototype (right). We are currently in development of the first prototype.
The Monash Design Sprint allowed our team to foster a creative process which will ultimately reduce the inherent risks in successfully bringing a new product to market. We were able to orient a full stack team, and aim our efforts at hitting clearly defined goals.
The design sprint is a five-day collaborative workshop for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with real students.
Our aim was to: Understand > Create & Define > Prototype > Test & Learn.
Sprint Goal
Test ideas/concepts that create a personal assistant to students, to enable an easy, intuitive university experience.
Hypothesis
Enable the student to reach their full potential, by creating the swiss army knife of student life.
On day one we:
- Defined our sprint goal and hypothesis.
- Created a list of risk and assumptions.
- Conducted expert interviews (interviews with product owners and students)
- Created user personas from those interviews
- Created user flows (see below image)
The user interview findings allowed us to find 3 focus points of the sprint:
- Navigation “I struggle to find my way around campuses and buildings.“
- Understanding “I want to do better. I want to better understand what is part of my curriculum and what's expected.“
- Priority “There is a lot of information available but I don’t always know what is most important.“
On day two we:
- Created ‘How Might We’ post-its (see below images)
- Sketched (Notes > Ideas > Concepts)
- We then dot voted on those sketched and authors of the sketches gave ‘solution presentations‘
One day three we:
Looked at our 4 key product moments and created storyboards to take away and build prototypes. Those 4 key moments were:
- My dashboard: Priority - Overview - Assessment priority - time, date and time left.
- My Calendar: Find and understand - Day timeline with free space.
- Grade infographic: Understand - at a glance info.
- Priority infographic: Priority at a glance.
Below you can see the 4 key moments protyped for product testing.
On the fifth day we:
- Conducted interviews on 5 student users
- Used lookback to record gestural and facial interactions
From user testing we had a combination of valuable positive and negative feedback that we used to move to the next iteration and present to stakeholders.
The product is now in development.
Created at GrowthOps
Design Sprint Facilitator and UX/UI Designer - Sophia McDermott