About Ami App

Ami–a social platform for students to interact remotely with classmates and to connect with other learning groups in educational systems.

Because students experience stress, anxiety, and isolation, I explored how I could improve student life, academic focus, and mental health. This app intends to help users be optimistic and stay positive, especially despite the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overview

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

Anxiety in college is very common. According to the American College Health Association, a survey conducted in 2018 found 25.9 percent and 31.9 percent of college students reported anxiety and stress, respectively. 16.9 percent of students reported experiencing depression, and 63.2 percent felt very lonely.

Figure 1: Mental health in college student
By the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

After learning students’ issues, I created a research plan to gather information about students’ needs, frustrations, and challenges. I then conducted a screening survey to choose participants for interviews. There were 41 respondents.

Based on the interview notes, I developed empathy maps. The maps organized the pain and gain points, user thoughts, feelings, and behaviors [what they say, and how they do things].

Empathy Map 1 | Positive

Personas

I defined two types of personalities; one is optimistic and the other is more of a pessimist: Oscar Optimistic and Grace Gloomy

Oscar Optimistic – Positive character

Grace Gloomy - Denial Character

Design Exploration

“How might we” statement

“How might we create a social platform for students to remotely interact with classmates and campus resources for emotional support?”

Concept - Key Ideas

After creating user stories, I created a sitemap for the app. Based on the interviews with students, I learned that students spend a lot of time using mobile phones, so I decided to create a mobile app.

At this phase, I wanted to create a social platform for students to :

• Connect with other classmates

• Communicate with each other through the app, avoid distractions from using other apps

• Build networks and stay connected

• Access news and updates about campus

Ideation - Sketches

User Flows

I created user flows to dive deeper into important levels of the application. These are critical routes that play an important role in the application and that will be used the most.​

I mapped out how students attend virtual events and networking opportunities, connect and interact with classmates to form study groups, and support each other emotionally. 

This is one of the red routes of students who need to interact, study, and build networking:

Sketches

After I created sketches to show what the application should look like on a phone screen, I then conducted Guerrilla Usability tests of the main sketches to see what areas I needed to improve on. I tested the main functionalities of the app. My goal was to learn how smooth the students' interactions would be when using the app and how students behaved toward my solution. I asked my participants to think out-loud in each task they performed. I recruited five interviewees from San Jose State University.

Wireframing

Sequence 01
Students join an event on campus and stay connected

Sequence 02
Emotional support between students - chat with a favorite friend, join to watch a movie and share a story with other classmates

Visual Design

Moodboard

Style Guide

Logo

I named the app ami; it is a French word that means a buddy, a friend. I wanted to emphasize the app as a metaphor for a friend. I modified it from the Futura typeface; I like the geometric shapes of its typeface.

Prototyping and Usability Testing

Prototypes

Before usability testing

Usability Tests

I conducted two rounds of usability tests. There were five participants in each round, and I used remote moderation test methods. In-person tests were eliminated. All tests were conducted over video calls.

After the test, there were features that needed to be revised, such as navigation, signifier, and system status. For instance, I needed to provide a label for an icon that I assumed the user would know. Another important observation was that users needed confirmation when they performed a task.

• Added an “Attend Event” button

• Named icons and changed text, colors

• Created contrast for the interface

• Added additional screen, inform users about the app status

• Give users ability to customize the personal message

Final Design

One of the routes - Student Interaction

Link to Prototype

Click Here

Conclusion - Lessons Learned

The overall impression was positive, and students experienced a sense of community from the application. They enjoyed the fact that it gave them chances to interact and get to know each other in a way that didn't feel awkward. They also liked the entertainment aspect and having a friend to be there for them always. Most importantly, the application helped them stay connected to their educational community, and it allowed students to be less distracted by using other social media platforms to communicate. 

The entire process of designing the application taught me how important interviewing and testing are. It was essential to ask the right questions during those phases. Moreover, I appreciated the usability test process; it helped me learn what works and what doesn't. It was crucial because sometimes users didn’t say what they thought, and they didn’t know what they wanted.