PEER TALK
An online platform that lets students connect and collaborate within and across universities.
IU Grand Challenge: Health Timeline: September - October 2021 (8 weeks)
Team: Nisha Nair, Shikha Trivedi, Sydney Stippler (Shared Roles in UX Research and Design)
UX Methods: Affinity Diagramming, Empathy Mapping, Cognitive Walkthrough, Think-Aloud Protocol, User Observations and Interviews, Persona Generation
​
Tools Used: Figma, Miro
PROBLEM SPACE
Student Mental Health
Our project focused primarily on student mental health. Within this broad problem
space, we chose to explore stress & anxiety caused by academics further
in depth. Our goals were to recognize the challenges & struggles students
faced and identify areas where design could intervene positively.
OUR SOLUTION
An Online Collaborative Platform
The final design solution we proposed is an online platform, 'PeerTalk', through which
students can connect with peers across multiple universities and collaborate
with them on projects, assignments and other coursework.
Through this solution, we aim to create an inter-dependent support system among students and in turn alleviate the academic stress they face by encouraging collaboration.
We chose to target our project towards students above the age of 18 studying a variety of undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs in the US.
KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS
-
Students faced stress while completing coursework irrespective of whether they managed their time well by following schedules or they scrambled workload close to deadlines.
-
Working collaboratively with peers helped students tackle difficult coursework and they found comfort and validation in sharing struggles and pain points with each other.
-
Students lacked a convenient common medium to find and connect with peers across different programs and schools.
-
Most students had a strong emotional support system in the form of family or friends they could rely on. However there was an absence of a support system that could provide practical solutions during academic struggles.
-
Students were aware of recreational activities they were interested in, had access to them and they strived to accommodate them into their schedules.
-
Students who did not have good interpersonal skills or were introverted wanted a safe space to ask doubts and voice their opinions other than classrooms.
We abstracted these findings by conducting
primary & secondary research of our users and problem space.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
In order to thoroughly understand our problem space and define the scope of our project, we conducted a secondary research of factors that aggravated student mental health and existing systems in place to help students.
DEFINING OUR TARGET USERS
Through our secondary research we concluded that factors leading to stress vary for students before and after high school since they have different levels of maturity and are exposed to varied environments. Tackling mental health for each group of students would thus require divergent research approaches.
Consequently, we chose to focus our user study around students above 18
studying a variety of programs in the US.
INSIGHTS FROM SECONDARY RESEARCH
PRIMARY RESEARCH
We conducted our primary research with an open mind, mindfully abstracting data and posing specific questions whenever required to steer our research ahead.
OBSERVATIONS
We conducted covert observations of students in their natural environments inconspicuously. Our goal was to perceive their natural behavior, without interrupting them or affecting their behavior. In order to conduct these ethically and respect students' privacy, we chose public venues such as cafeterias, libraries, open university campus spaces and gardens.
Field Notes​​
Insights​
​
-
Students working or studying alone were easily distracted. Their body language showed signs of stress and anxiety - frowning, fidgeting, nail biting, yawning, slouching and fiddling with hair
-
Students working in groups were more motivated and focused on their work. They would giggle, smile, lean into the conversations and remain undisturbed by their surroundings.
-
Solitary students tried to multitask by combining work with meals whereas those in groups focused only on work or meals.
-
Peers would often discuss coursework and seek advice about classes and assignments from each other. They also seemed to enjoy sharing their struggles and pain points.
USER INTERVIEWS
By conducting user interviews we aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of students' mental health from their perspectives. Throughout our interviews we were mindful of our participants' emotional state and their comfort levels. We structured our interview protocol around some overarching questions we had and were sensitive to how our participants were reacting to them.
Some overarching questions we had for our interviews:
-
How were students doing mentally?
-
Did they face any hardships?
-
What were they?
-
How adverse were they?
-
Are they coping with them?
-
How are they coping with them?
-
What did they want help with?
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 7 candidates pursuing undergraduate, graduate and PhD studies in diverse fields.
Key Quotes from Interviewees
FRAMING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
We narrowed the scope of our problem space by iteratively referring to the data abstracted from user research.
Since more severe mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders required professional care and therapy, we chose to exclude these from our problem space and focus on stress and moderate levels of anxiety.
As a team we concluded that while most students had strong emotional support systems they lacked effective sources of help while dealing with academic struggles. Further, students were observed to be less stressed and more efficient while working on coursework collaboratively. These key findings paved the way to our problem statement.
![vecteezy_metaphor-bipolar-disorder-mind-mental-vector_ [Converted].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/22efbb_aa22b4bc4e4d487facd306f526798830~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_559,h_434,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/22efbb_aa22b4bc4e4d487facd306f526798830~mv2.png)
“How might we
support students to
alleviate academic
stress by increasing
collaboration?”
We framed our problem statement using
key insights abstracted from the data collected
during user research. In order to obtain these insights we analyzed our user research by performing mapping techniques.
AFFINITY DIAGRAMMING
We performed affinity mapping so as to organize our research insights
and form natural relationships between them.
EMPATHY MAPPING
We performed empathy mapping with the motive of putting ourselves in the users' shoes and closely understanding their wants & needs from their perspectives.
IDEATION
After framing our problem statement, we conceptualized ideas that could serve as potential design solutions. However, we first focused on understanding our users better before ideating suitable solutions for them. Doing so helped us consider their needs, wants and behavior while brainstorming and consequently eliminate solutions that wouldn't cater to them.
USER PERSONAS
We developed two user personas in order to thoroughly understand who our users were and consolidate their diverse characteristics.
BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS
We conducted individual, group and cross-group brainstorming sessions where we came up with 80+ ideas for our design solution. We prioritized "quantity" over "quality" and aimed to approach the problem space with fresh perspectives during each session. After our sessions our team shortlisted three solutions from all our ideas that we wanted to further explore.
STORYBOARDING
We generated storyboards for each of our shortlisted solutions using both our user personas. Our goal was to compare how effective our shortlisted solutions would be for our users and problem space.
FINAL DESIGN SOLUTION
The final design solution we proposed is an online platform, 'PeerTalk', through which students can connect with peers across multiple universities and collaborate with them on projects, assignments and other coursework. The platform
would validate its users as students so as to ensure safety, increase reliability and enhance its effectiveness.
Through this solution., we aim to encourage collaboration among students and in turn alleviate their
stress by creating an inter-dependent moral and academic support system among peers.
LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Study Groups
-
Form study groups and in turn collaborate on coursework or study common topics of interest with peers.
-
Access upcoming events, upload resources, create plans and post live study session updates.
-
Join existing study groups that are suggested based on your profile information or custom search groups.
Your Study Groups
Other Study Groups
Filter Study Groups Results
Group Chat
Create New Group
Study Group Inner Page
Peers
-
Find and connect with validated students across universities through chat.
-
Access your peers' public profiles including their school, department, program and interests.
-
Filter your peer list by customizing your search results that specify school, department, program etc.
Peer List
Peer Profile
Filter Peer List
Discussion Forum
-
Start a new discussion, add tags to increase visibility and post anonymously if required.
-
Browse through and contribute to discussions posts suggested based on your profile.
-
Customize discussion search results using filters.
Relevant Posts on Forum
.png)
Create a New Post
Key Features
-
Forming study groups to collaborate on coursework.
-
Finding and connecting with peers across multiple universities.
-
Browsing through discussions on a common forum and having an option to post on it anonymously.
EVALUATION
We conducted user and expert evaluations on the final design solution. The prototypes were tested by potential users using the think-aloud protocol and self-evaluations were done by performing cognitive walkthroughs.
KEY INSIGHTS FROM EVALUATIONS
Meaningful Data Flow
- Our evaluations suggested that the flow of data on the application was familiar and intuitive.
- Users were able to easily identify the primary functionalities of the application and navigate through key screens to perform specific tasks conveniently.
Positive Emotional Response
- They were vocal about how a common platform for collaboration was something they needed to improve their educational experience and reduce stress levels.
​
- Users expressed excitement about the design solution in both explicit and implicit manners. They wanted the solution to be implemented so that they could access it.
Inadequate Visual Language
- There is a huge scope of improvement in our visual language and design style.
- Revising the information hierarchy within key screens and redesigning key visual elements will promote familiarity and intuitiveness among users by letting them focus on important details and avoid confusion.
FUTURE SCOPE
Due to time constraints and limited resources, we could only design a minimal viable product.
These are some areas we would like to work if were given more time and resources:
​
Research Collaborative Learning Techniques
Since our solution primarily revolves around collaboration, we would like to look into collaborative learning techniques that can potentially improve learning and decrease stress levels. We would like to incorporate any such suitable techniques into the application.
​
Research User Behavior, Needs and Wants
We would like to gain a deeper understanding on specific attributes users are looking for in a study group. These insights will allow us to understand how we can set privacy standards, group capacity, and roles of hierarchy among a study group on our application.
Vertical Prototyping and Testing
Since our current prototypes mainly address the horizontal scope of our application we would like to prototype each feature in depth vertically. Further conducting more user tests and cognitive walkthroughs with other experts would be highly beneficial to refine our designs.
​
Explore Inter-Group Activities
We would like to explore how different study groups can interact with each other on our application and understand if cross group collaboration would be useful.