User Research
In order to understand the needs and pain points of the FSC user base better, a variety of methods were employed by our team to gather user research.
The goal of research was geared towards understanding how users normally seek participation in their interdisciplinary projects, or how they help other members of the campus with their projects and needs.
In total 25+ hours were dedicated to reaching out, analyzing, and understanding user problems, goals and, needs.
Methods Overview
Key Data Activities & Takeaways
Interviews
A standard list of questions were developed by our team and interviews with members of the FSC community were set up. Two dental hygiene students who require participant cooperation to get teeth cleanings as part of their curriculum were interviewed in person in exchange for our team's participation in dental cleaning sessions. Additionally, a faculty advisor to students at the FSC Nexus Center was interviewed remotely via Google Meet. And a photography professor who has his students partake in interdisciplinary projects at the school was interviewed.
By cooperating with these members of the campus and helping them with their collaborative goals and needs, our team was able to discover some key aspects and pain points of our participants.
Interview Findings included:
Difficulty in reaching students for participation due to email fatigue by the campus mass email system.
Lack of student awareness of college hosted programs designed to help them with academic success.
Difficulty in gaining impromptu project participants due to busy student schedules.
Lack of event creation tools accessible by students that could help them garner project participation.
Scheduling conflicts causing participants to drop before a planned activity.
Students having a lot more fun and better learning opportunities when interdisciplinary collaboration allows them to hone better teamwork and problem solving skills.
Surveys
Surveys indicated that students usually found difficulty in navigating the existing college Nexus Center website. And that working with clients (i.e. participants) generally helped students build better skills in their desired career paths.
In an open ended question where participants where asked what they expected from volunteering their time for other people's projects, a large portion of responses indicated the good feeling of helping others with their needs and accomplishing their passions.
While a smaller, but still sizable portion of participants indicated the personal growth and career development potential for volunteering their time.
Usability Analysis
The flow and usability of the existing FSC Nexus Center site was analyzed to discover where there could be pain points to user navigation and room to improve the design or add functionality not yet on the platform.
