Capstone GDD Project - TCID 4700

The Project

figma.com/proto

For the final class in KSU's Interactive Design Degree we were given a whole semester to ideate, design, and build a prototype app of our own choice. Once complete, we would then present our app at a showcase event we helped organize. Our app was created in a group of five using the methodology Goal-Directed Design (GDD) which emphasizes meeting the needs of users.

Our Team

Step 1: Research

The first step of Goal-Directed Design is the Research Phase. This is where the design team researches the field they are work in, looks at competitors' apps to tke notes, and interviews potential users of the app.

We started the semester by pitching ideas for the what we would create. Our design group agreed to work on Marina's idea: Roomease. Her initial pitch was to create an app that would make matching with a good roommate easier.

In the first class session after our group formed we held the Kickoff Meeting. The Kickoff Meeting is where the design teems meets to plan out the project ahead of them. If the project is funded by backers, this is when those backers would meet with the design team. We talked about some of the features we wanted the app to have like a map for finding nearby roommates. Then we started work on the Literature Review.

The Literature Review is where the design team researches the field they've chosen. All five of us scoured the internet for any articles or studies we could find that related to finding a roommate. We found that communication was by far the biggest issue that plagued the roommate-finding process. If a roommate communicates well, every other issue is much easier to resolve.

At the same time, we also looked for apps similar to our own to se what they got right and what they got wrong. This is known as the Competitive Audit. We found that although many apps existed to connect someone with another roommate, they often lacked polish or locked major features behind a paywall. We planned to monetize our app, but not at the expense of basic functionality.

Usually, the Literature Review and Competitive Audit would fall on one or two of the team but we decided to split it evenly between us. The idea was to ensure that we all understood the field as best we could.

Next, we took what we learned from the Literature Review and conducted informed interviews with people who either had roommates or were searching for one. Some of the question included things such as:

• "Have you had roommates in the past? If so, how many?"

• "How did you resolve issues with roommates?"

• "If you were to redo the roommate-finding process, what would you do differently?"

We held a total of six interviews instead of our planned eight because such strong patterns started to emerge after we arranged our notes into groups (seen above). Reliable, respectful, and effective communication was key to finding a good roommate, not personal interests.

Step 2: Modeling

In fact, these patterns were so strong that we started to shift the focus of our app when we entered the second step of GDD: Modeling. Modeling is when the design team takes the information they learned from the Research Phase and uses it to build an archetype of the kinds of people they predict will be using their app. Our archetypes, also known as Personas, are named Stephen and Danielle. Stephen wants a roommate with good people skills and Danielle wants someone she can bond with.

We started observing as a team that users wanted a way to connect with their preexisting roommates as much as they wanted to find a new one.

Step 3: Requirements:

Luckily for us, we had the chance to pivot our app's direction in the Requirements Phase which is where the design team maps out the needs the app will need to meet for the user. Marina suggested we place more emphasis on users who already had a roommate and wanted to maintain that relationship. We all agreed, and we started mapping out features that would meet the needs that we observed in our interviews. This included things like a calculator for rent, a message board we called "The Fridge", and a free private messaging system.

Step 4: Framework

Next was the Frameworks Phase. The Frameworks Phase is where the layout of the app is created and the "paths" users will take through it are planned out. It was here that our previously-unified team split up to work on different parts of the app. I worked on the on-boarding pages, Jalen worked on the Bio Creation pages, Marina worked on the home and search pages, Sam was responsible for the Roommate Management pages, and Ryan created the profile template.

We had two weeks to create our first prototype of the app, often referred to as the wireframe. The wireframe has no interaction, no animation, and very unpolished visuals.

Step 5: Refinement

The Refinement Phase is the last phase we went through for our Capstone class. In the Refinement Phase we polished the visuals of our wireframe and held usability tests. These tests were run by Sam and Jalen as Ryan, Marina, and I were not available due to conflicting class schedules.

We found a few small things to fix, such as broken buttons or uncear text. We had these changed within the week and our app was completed by late April.

Conclusion

Overall, this project was a valuable experience in working with a team. I had only ever been on a project with Ryan before, so working with Marina, Sam, and Jalen was a completely new experience. We're proud of the work we did and proud of the presentation we have at the class' Capstone Showcase.

If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would probably put more focus on the features we had to cut. For example, we planned to run ads for revenue. We weren't able to implement this because of our class' time constraints. But I don't think that takes away from what we made.