Case Study | Mobile App Design
Connect
Immigrating to a new country can be a challenging and disorienting experience. Even for the most fortunate, it's often confusing and lonely. For the many others facing tremendously difficult circumstances, it's hard to even imagine what it entails.
Connect helps combat culture shock through providing a space for foreigners to connect, share similar experiences and grounding themselves with the familiarity of their own culture while trying to adjust to a whole new culture.
Date
Feb 2021 (5 weeks)
Tools
Figma
Role
Product Designer, UX Researcher
... make them feel more at home?
... make them feel more comfortable / at ease in a foreign location, especially during unprecedented times?
... take into account improving mental health?
How do we...
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User Demographics
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Challenges & Frustrations
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Any existing solutions or digital products that have helped
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Mood towards those existing solutions (if applicable)
To better understand what some of the biggest challenges are for those who have moved to a foreign country, specifically those of international students, I conducted a survey on the following:
Target users find it difficult to connect with locals of similar backgrounds and experiences, especially given the language barrier that is the most common challenge.
Connect helps combat culture shock through providing a space for foreigners to connect, share similar experiences and grounding themselves with the familiarity of their own culture while trying to adjust to a whole new culture.
Meet Annie
She is an 18-year-old student from Indonesia moving to another country for the first time, and is nervous about how she’ll find settling into Manhattan as a college student to be.
Annie Has
Annie Doesn't Have
A desire to meet other students upon arriving in her new home.
A growing interest to learn about other cultures.
Her bank account set up, or have all her adminstrative paper work sorted before classes begin.
Fluency in English; leading to difficulty adjusting to college life in New York due to language barrier.
The confidence to reach out to others for help.
Went through a couple of iterations to determine how I could build out a straightforward interface, something that was easy-to-use and approachable for an incoming international student.
Which ultimately led me to land on the third direction. I went with this direction because while a student is feeling overwhelmed with a new country, I doubt they’d want to see a whole bunch of names listed together.
User Journey
Upon arrival to NYC, Annie feels overwhelmed with having to complete a lot of paperwork and other important tasks before getting settled in. She’s new to the city, and doesn’t know anyone.
Step 1
Awareness
Short onboarding process to allow them users to request assistance sooner.
Helping students discover near communities and be grounded within their culture and interests upon arrival.
Connect with locals of similar backgrounds, and reach out for help on adjusting to your new home without the worry of a language barrier.
Filters friends and communities by language automatically, with the option to narrow down results by interests, etc.
A central hub to help international students connect and build genuine connections through shared interests.
Continue exploring new communities, while grounding yourself in your own culture through staying connected with locals of similar backgrounds / experiences.
And carry those connections built on the platform offline into meetups, face-to-face interactions, and engaging with your local community and society.
Next Steps
Integrate the app with international student onboarding at universities.
Incorporate an automatic pairing system for prospective students to be paired with an upper-year student.
Step 2
Connect on the platform
Step 3