Answering student questions by sharing authentic experiences through a virtual Q&A chat app.
I was challenged by Google to design a Q&A experience for students in the new incoming class at my university (UCLA) to help them adjust to campus life.
I crafted a real-time audio chat mobile app where new students can ask questions in chat rooms hosted by experienced upperclassmen. In these chat rooms, experienced students share personal stories and memories from life on campus in order to provide a real, honest look into life at UCLA.
7 days, Feb 2021
Sole UX/UI Designer, Researcher
Bruin Rooms was designed with no engineering, administrative, or business restrictions. I acknowledge that under industry standard circumstances, many of the features and logistics added to Bruin Rooms would not be possible.
Your school is gearing up to welcome a new incoming class and would like to help them adjust to campus life. Design an experience that allows new students to ask questions about the school life, and experienced students to share answers and advice. Consider the needs of a student who has questions, and the experience for a student who would like to give advice.
While UCLA plans to resume in-person courses this upcoming fall, strict COVID-19 restrictions will be in place, limiting in-person meetings between students and staff.
How will UCLA help prepare all of these students for life on campus in a way that respects social distance regulations?
In order to identify the different “walks of life” students are coming from and the kinds of users I need to address in my designs, I took a look at UCLA student profile data.
Experience
Entrance Status
Residency
While these general student statistics did not provide any information on user behaviors or circumstances, I now understand that I need to talk to users from backgrounds that fit within these segments.
For the purposes of this design challenge, I focused primarily on segmenting my users by experience and recruited students with diverse entrance and residency statuses as best as I could. If I had more time and resources, I would have interviewed students that fulfilled each combination of the user segments above to take into account all different circumstances.
I observed new student participants as they searched up their own questions in hopes of finding adequate answers through a contextual inquiry activity and follow-up interview.
Through semi-structured interviews, I asked experienced students common questions shared by incoming students. They also shared their opinions on current campus closures and the possibility of returning to an open campus in the fall.
I asked incoming and experienced students to consolidate cards containing campus-life topics discussed in user interviews into higher level groups.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of incoming UCLA students don’t know what to expect from college life while experienced students miss living on an open campus.
How might I connect incoming and experienced students in a virtual format so that they can benefit one another?
I decided to create a mobile app and virtual Q&A experience that connects new students with experienced students through meaningful conversations.
Based on research insights, I defined that a successful experience should complete the following goals:
I outlined the interactions both user segments needed to experience to successfully use the app. This helped identify features the product needed to include.
Ethan
Freshman
In-state student
Melinda
Third year
out-of-state student
Ethan has questions about dietary restriction options at UCLA.
Melinda misses eating at the dining halls on campus
Ethan uses the Q&A app to ask his question.
Melinda uses the app to tell others stories from her time on campus.
Both student connect as Melinda answers Ethan's questions about dining options.
Ethan is informed about dietary options.
Melinda feels fulfilled that she has helped an incoming student.
I brainstormed several different products that fit within the storyboard above and pitched them to a group of potential users.
Students ask and answer questions by writing on online Q&A forums
“I have to wait for an experienced student to notice my question before I can get an answer."
“I probably wouldn't answer questions that don't sound interesting."
Incoming and experienced students are paired and set up one-on-one or group video calls to ask and answer questions
“I probably would not turn on my camera."
“Talking over video call makes it seems like I'm taking class on Zoom."
Students chat in one-on-one or group chat rooms to ask and answer questions. No video necessary!
“I'd rather talk in groups so it doesn't feel like I'm just calling someone on the phone."
“There's less pressure - it feels like talking to friends!”
Based on this user feedback, I decided to create a real-time audio chat app (DESIGN 3) in which users enter chat rooms that are organized by topics related to campus life. Students can then ask and answer questions, share experiences and stories, and discuss campus-related topics in a synchronous and informal format.
To ensure I designed wireframes for as many edge cases and considerations as possible, I outlined a final user flow for the app.
To make the product accessible for students with visual impairments or color vision deficiencies, I ensured all elements met WCAG 2.0 Level AA color contrast guidelines.
50 students enrolled at UCLA are either deaf or hard of hearing. I designed a live transcript feature to account for these students.
Student profiles are highlighted when they are talking to clearly show who is speaking.
The live transcript feature provides an automatic voice-to-text conversion of what is being discussed in the room.
Bruin Rooms is an audio chat Q&A app that connects and benefits incoming and experienced UCLA students.
The app supports two different flows based on student experience level:
A quick and effective onboarding process allows students to start using the product right away while also personalizing their feeds.
Students sign in using their UCLA portal and agree to community guidelines to ensure the safety, integrity, and respect of students on the platform.
Experienced students interact with an identical flow, but with an added step to gauge their level of exposure to campus life
Users can turn on a live transcript, which provides an automatic voice-to-text conversion of what is being discussed in the room.
Experienced students who create chat rooms also serve as hosts. Hosts ensure clear, smooth discussions by monitoring which audience members are allowed to talk at a time.
Inside rooms, students who are not hosts can only unmute to ask/answer questions if their request to join the stage is accepted by the host.
Inside rooms, students who are not hosts can only unmute to ask/answer questions if their request to join the stage is accepted by the host.
In order to ensure that at least one qualified student is available to moderate and answer questions in every room, only experienced students can start new rooms.
Incoming students' requests to create new rooms are sent to experienced students with similar interests, who can then create the rooms themselves.
To increase incentives to use the app, experienced students are able to start new conversations and create rooms with topics that they can provide advice for.
Students can connect on an individual level with one another through one-on-one private rooms.
Incoming students can send requests to create private rooms with experienced students to ask follow-up questions and form deeper connections.
Experienced students are notified when an incoming students requests to start a private room.
I tested both prototype flows on incoming and experienced students individually and had them fill out surveys before and after interacting with Bruin Rooms.
If I had more time to ship this product to the UCLA community, I would concentrate on the following next steps:
There was something incredibly rewarding about pushing myself to tackle an ambitious project and building a product from the ground up in just one week. Under such a demanding time crunch, I learned to be unafraid to follow my gut and trust in my design intuitions to create rapid iterations. At the same time, I learned just how important it is to rely on users at each stage of the process to refine options and set the right restrictions.
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