CSUN Network is a platform for, California State University Northridge (CSUN), students to network with each other through events.
With the pandemic, students have had difficulty connecting with other colleagues. CSUN Networks helps students browse, schedule, and attend upcoming CSUN events.
Oct. 2021 - Nov. 2021
Pablo Cuellar
UX Researcher
UI Designer
How might we connect CSUN students to network through a remote environment?
CSUN Students need a way to connect with other students at CSUN, because COVID-19 has made if hard for them to interact and network with other students.
Quantitative research was conducted in the form of survey questions. The survey was sent out to students of different educational disciplines. In the end, there was a total of 50 respondents, ranging from different ages, gender, and educational disciplines.
Results
72%
of students strongly agree that Covid-19 has made it harder for them to meet new student colleagues.
40%
of students agree that networking is important to them and 38% strongly agree that networking is important to them.
57%
of students strongly agree that they care about collaborating with students inside and outside of class.
Josh Lemus, 21
Computer Scientist
Josh is a senior at CSUN who lives off campus. He originally lived in a dorm in 2020 but due to COVID-19 he was forced to move back with his parents in Fresno, CA. His networking opportunities have really minimized since he is not able to be on campus and uses the resources.
Pain Points
Needs
Laura White, 24
Graphic Designer
Laura is a transfer student from Pierce College and transferred Fall 2020. She is a senior and hasn’t met many other communication designers to connect with. Laura states that she wishes there was a place either virtual or in person where she can network with out CSUN students.
Pain Points
Needs
1. Covid has made it difficult for students to connect
2. Students would like to have more networking opportunities
To cater the users' need the experience needed to have an events board, a way to schedule events, and a customizable profile.
These feature would entice students to network with one another during a global pandemic where most are staying home.
Allowing the user to input his major and select specific interests creates a catering experience to the user's personality, which will feed back the user recommended events depending on their interests.
After mocking up the layout of the interface, I began to ideate what typography and colors I will use. In this step of the design process I begin to think about the aesthetic and visual treatment of the interface.
05/06
Found the experience easy to navigate and felt the app would be useful in the real world.
04/06
Found the active the active state of the nav to be distracting with the white fill.
04/06
Thought the chips were clickable because of they were a color like a button instead of the chips being grey.
Before
After
Users stated they thought the chips were clickable because they were colored so I decided to make them grey. This change was made across the entire app.
Users also stated that the confirmation screen did not seem so engaging and that it lost them for a second. The solution to this problem was adding an icon signifying the user of a completion in the user journey.
Before
After
Working on CSUN Network taught me how the design process is not a linear process. Revisiting earlier phases in the design process is necessary numerous times to design an experience that actually focuses on users' problems.
Also, putting one's biases aside when desiging is critical. A designer might think a feature in the experience will make take a certain user journey but through user testing the designer finds outs the user never felt or thought of the expierence the way the designer invisioned it. Being a UX designer means putting what you know about the problem aside and starting the design process with no biases in mind.
What I would do different with CSUN Network is beginning user testing at the mid fidelity level. This would have helped me receive user feedback earlier.
I would have also liked to experiment creating CSUN Network in a web application platform. Considering that many students are constantly infront of a computer this experience would have been a good match for a web app. If would like to further push this experience my first task would be making it into a web app.
