Find Class
User Experience Research
Date Nov 24, 2019
Strategy Design Thinking
Role UX Research
Team Vignarajan (Me) & Jordan Koski
A Research study to help visitors to Algonquin College find their way around
Overview
This study was to examine the issues students and faculty have when trying to find classrooms and services in Algonquin College.
Our Purpose
To determine how students and faculty feel about finding classes and services at Algonquin College. Also to see how they are solving their way finding issues and what were the pain points when trying to find their way around Algonquin College. Interview is our Research Method and it is intended to help us get the most out of users.
Research Questions:
Are students and faculty having an issue finding classes and services at Algonquin College.
How are they currently solving the issue?
What solutions does Algonquin College currently offer?
What is working (if anything)?
Methodology
Our approach is to interview New, Returning and International students. Also, we will attempt to interview Faculty Members.
Criteria on selecting Participants
The objective of this study is to find the solution. The following is a list of several dozen options of ways to find participants for studies.
Ask students
Ask people in large areas who generally wish to participate in research
Ask participants you find to refer friends or colleagues
Methods on Conducting sessions
Introduction
Asking Consent to record them either through Video or Audio
Asking Warm-Up Questions
Shooting them with Main Questions
Altering Questions or asking new ones based on their previous answers
Thanking the Participant
Participants
All user interview participants were Female and Members of the Design Methods Class. There were 8 total interviews conducted. 6 Students and 2 Faculty.
User Persona
Sarah Miller
Position Student
Course Graphic Design Diploma
Experience 0-1 Yrs
Goals
Obtain good grades
Arrive to class on time
Gain industry knowledge
Make an impression
Maintain physical and mental health
Learn skills to get a job in UX industry
Be able to work while also attending school
Has to be able to find way from all entrances
Characteristics
Creative
Works in technology
Usually works in teams
Trust in technology
Student trying to gain industry knowledge
Needs to keep up with industry trends
“I want to use human-centred design skills to create intuitive and beautiful applications.”
User Scenario
Scenario #1
Sarah has arrived at Algonquin College to attend her first day. She has already attended her orientation class and knows where to park.
Context of Use
Sarah is trying to find her classes on her first day of college classes.
Frequency
Daily
Scenario Tasks
7. Check map
8. Attempt to locate classroom building
9. Navigate to building
10. Check map
11. Locate classroom
1. Park vehicle
2. Parking is located in lot 9
3. Enter college from building “S”
4. Check time table
5. Find class
6. Find room number
Scenario #2
Sarah had already studied at Algonquin College for a year. Having been in Algonquin for a year makes her assume she can find the new classroom easily.
Context of Use
Sarah is trying to find her classes on her first day of 2nd year a new class in a different building
Frequency
Daily
Scenario Tasks
6. Find way to the building
7. Navigates through the building
8. Locates the Landmark to find a way back
9. Reaches the building
10. Locate classroom
1. Reach College Bus Stop
2. Check time table
3. Check the Room number
4. Finds a different building which she has no clue if it existed
5. Checks Map
Recommendations
From our findings, users cannot easily find their way around the college. Maps are confusing, digital solutions are not intuitive, and most users are asking another person for help.
Our recommendations to resolve student, faculty, and even visitor way-finding is to provide a more intuitive map system. Users seem to consult the map as one of their first options to find their way around the college.
This could be a digital map located at different entrances of the college. This system would allow the user to enter their classroom or search for college services. Also, this digital map could have a companion application for mobile smart devices. This could take advantage of augmented reality technology and provide an exact guide via directions on the screen.
Findings and Insights
The general findings from our user interview is that there is an issue with the way finding at Algonquin College. Especially in the “B” building. Students and faculty have a hard time not only finding the number of the building, but when arriving at the correct building, the classroom numbers do not seem to be logical.
Most people we interviewed had asked for help when trying to find their way around the college. They had asked people running the kiosks, other students, other faculty, or even worked in groups. Most users tended to stay away from the maps as they are confusing to read and are actually mounted upside down.
Due to the buildings alphabetic system, most students had a hard time finding the different buildings from inside the college. So they had chosen to walk around outside to try and find the correct building.
Students and faculty used landmarks to help find their way. This could be cafes, offices, and other classrooms and hallways.
Reiterated Purpose
Students have been reporting that they are having a hard time finding classes for the first few days of school. Students have used various different ways of finding their way around like asking kiosk employees, looking at maps, or arriving early to wander the halls to find their class ahead of time. We had created a mobile application in attempts to make new student’s way-finding easier.
Test
We had created an interactive prototype of the application. The prototype was created using Adobe illustrator (to create the screens) and inVision app (for interactions).
The prototype consisted of :
Navigation screens (photos to demonstrate AR navigation)
Food selection screen
Lost? Poster that included QR code
Splash screen
Login screen
Dashboard
College entry point screen (map of college)
Map poster that included QR code
The goal of the testing was to see how users would search for two different waypoints in the college, Their upcoming class and Starbucks.
Scenarios for the Test
Scenario 1:
You are a first time student attending Algonquin College and you are enrolled in the Business Accounting program. You have parked your vehicle at lot 10 and you have entered the college from the “C” building. You have forgotten your class schedule. You currently only know what that you have a class starting in 15min.
Scenario 2:
You have finished your afternoon class and you would like to see some of somewhere to eat. We allowed users to freely navigate the home screen to see how users began their search. After they had reached the navigation screen, we had a few follow up questions:
What would you expect to find when tapping on icon X (testing to see what they would expect when choosing different options on the screen).
How easy or hard was it (scale 1-10)?
What do you like?
What would you change?
How did you start your search?
Where would you tap?
Why did you tap there?
Did you find what you were looking for?
Would have you been able to find your class?
Who Did We Test
We had tested a total of 4 students. Each student came from a different cultural backgrounds. 2 Females and 2 Males.
Key Findings
One thing that we found when testing is that all the users we tested went a completely different route when searching for the classroom.
Default location was slightly confusing
No context on why it was there
Users felt that the map screen had a lot of friction
Could be useful if there were less screens in between start and map screen
The map itself was confusing to look at
Users like the explore section of dashboard
Some users would like more prominent
All searched differently
All seemed to be able to search with nor issues
Only one looked at the QR code
QR code option would be a last resort for most users
Users wanted more details on class (more brightspace features)
2 users said they would like the logo to be changed
Looks like a link rather than a logo
Auto location was not received well
User Suggestions
The following is a list of recommendations for improvement:
More of the map needs to be visible
QR codes need more testing
The one user that has used the QR code said that it was a cultural thing and because of that they use QR codes more often.
Remove “default location” from home page
Give more context/improve text on “HELP” QR code poster
Remove auto location finding
Make explore section more visually important/noticeable
Move upcoming class
Make Logo look less like a link
Iterated Solutions
User is the main and sometimes the only factor to determine the success of a product. Satisfying their User-Experience is a real challenge. But not every time their recommendations can be implemented in a design.
Luckily most of our elements & features worked properly and satisfied our users. Analyzing the data here are some of the changes I believe could make the User Experience better.
1. Homescreen
Suggested Iteration
“ Remove default location ”
“ Make explore section more visually important/noticeable ”
Changes Made
Swapped the position of search bar with User Account DP as it was unnoticed during the process and due to which lots of feature behind the menu was forgotten.
Explore was moved to a top position as it was described more easy and user-friendly by users
Though Users suggested to remove Default Location as they didn’t understand its purpose. We just moved it down hoping it still serves its purpose and in future people might get it.
2. Map Screen
Suggested Iteration
“ More of the map needs to be visible ”
Changes Made
As the app featured more of the Navigation through AR mode people actually couldn’t figure out there was such an existing option to switch it to regular Map mode. Assuming the problem as not having a strong representation of the Icon, I have changed the option into image oriented option which is more similar to that of Google Map.
