UniJourney

Prototype link (Please submit a link to a playable prototype, not a link to your design file) https://www.figma.com/proto/g42qJqQtKdfEvCNnT8RauX/UniJourney-Rice-Designathon?page-id=48%3A822&type=design&node-id=221-3961&viewport=2479%2C383%2C0.25&t=YhHgXOkTyJoDE9Fs-1&scaling=scale-down&starting-point-node-id=221%3A3961&mode=design
Describe your project (max 150 words) As digital connections overshadow face-to-face interactions, college students often struggle to find their social footing. New students feel anxious about acclimating to new surroundings and struggle reaching out to others. Despite the countless opportunities for initiating social interactions and fostering community at college, it’s painstakingly difficult for students to actually make meaningful friendships.

So, how might we foster long-lasting connections among new college students to create social cohesion and support sudden changes in their environments?

UniJourney is a mobile application that helps students connect based on interests and embark on fun adventures to explore their campus with newfound friends. UniJourney values the process of forming authentic connections, through small but impactful activities that help build close friendships. By transforming the way students explore their campus and community through themed journeys, AI-driven conversation starters, interactive challenges, and digital scrapbooking, students can create genuine friendships while getting to know their university campus.

Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words) For our UXR, we employed a multifaceted approach, combining 1:1 Interviews, a comprehensive survey form, and secondary research to gain qualitative and quantitative insights on the experiences and emotions of university students. We particularly focused on the challenges faced by first-year students in forming meaningful friendships. Our goal was to uncover key pain points and understand the broader landscape of social interactions among college students.

We engaged in seven 1:1 interviews to delve into the personal experiences and emotions of individual first-year students. We asked students how they navigate different social situations like interacting 1:1 or in larger groups, and their experiences navigating campus life as a first year. Our findings revealed that while different individuals may have different communication styles, a majority struggle with issues like social anxiety, difficulty initiating conversations, and trouble finding spaces where they feel welcome.

To complement our qualitative findings, we designed and distributed a survey form to a diverse sample of students. This method allowed us to collect quantitative data, providing statistical support for the prevalent issues identified during the 1:1 interviews. The survey aimed to quantify the extent of loneliness and the perception of lacking close friendships among college students. The quantitative data played a crucial role in validating and strengthening our understanding of the user landscape. From our survey, we discovered that 63.7% of students who responded found it difficult to make friends at university as a first-year. In addition, the main barriers that prevented students from engaging in campus events/social activities were social anxiety, fear of belonging, hard to find people to connect, and time conflicts. Finally, 54.6% of students felt that they did not belong to a community or group as a first year.

Our research process also involved secondary research, with a specific focus on the experiences of first year university students. We drew upon findings from the Higher Education Policy Institute, which reported that 25% of college students experience persistent loneliness. Additionally, insights from a research paper by faculty members at Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School highlighted the prevalent belief among first-year students that their peers have more friends, contributing to a sense of social isolation. Further, a study of 1,099 freshmen in Vancouver underscored that nearly half assumed their peers had more close friends. This emphasizes the lack of genuine connections many students experience in the first year of university.

Our research revealed a significant perception among first-year college students that they have fewer close friends than their peers, contributing to feelings of social isolation and loneliness. This understanding guided the development of UniJourney's main features, which aim to address these challenges by fostering genuine connections, balancing digital and physical interactions, and incorporating gamification to make the socialization feel effortless.

Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words) Our user research findings indicate that one in four college students feels lonely most of the time, especially among first-year students. This emphasizes the importance of creating an app that not only facilitates social connections but also addresses the unfamiliar environment. UniJourney’s design decisions are based on the need to gamify the experience, balance physical and digital interactions, and allow users to create lasting memories to foster genuine connections.

Our decision to incorporate gamification elements, such as completing social challenges and unlocking parts of the journey, is based on our research that working in groups (clubs, project teams) towards a single goal positively impacts user engagement and motivation. Gamification provides a fun and engaging way to encourage users to actively participate not only with the app, but with their partner and the environment. By completing challenges, students not only connect with others but also experience a sense of achievement, boosting their confidence and motivation to continue on their journey. This design decision is reinforced by the fact that traditional social interactions might be challenging for some students, and gamification offers a low-pressure and enjoyable way to initiate connections.

Our research findings also highlight the potential disparity between students' perceptions of their own friendships and those of their peers. To address this, UniJourney aims to balance physical and digital interactions to create a holistic social experience. Themed journeys, guided by AI prompts based on shared interests, encourage users to explore their campus together. This not only facilitates digital connections but also prompts real-world interactions, promoting a well-rounded and genuine social experience. While exploring this design space, we considered things like the level of detail in the interactive map; one key tradeoff we made was limiting the realism of the map to prevent unnecessary distractions that would prevent users from bonding in-person. The goal is to bridge the gap between online and offline interactions, recognizing the importance of both in reducing feelings of loneliness.

Allowing users to leave a letter for each other is a crucial design decision. Given the reported loneliness and the perception of having fewer close friends, providing a means for users to leave a message while on their journey directly allows for more personal and meaningful connections. Users can share thoughts, experiences, and encouragement in a letter to their partner as a last touch to their journey. This allows genuine connections to be fostered beyond structured journeys.

In conclusion, these design decisions for UniJourney are driven by the user research findings, emphasizing the importance of addressing loneliness, fostering genuine connections, and creating a comprehensive social experience for college students.