UniAmigo
This was a group project as a part of a university course in User Experience design at the University of Medellín, Colombia. The aim of the project was to create an app where Colombian university students can find solutions to everyday problems.
Goal
For this project, the target audience is university students between the ages of 16 and 36. The project aims to create a platform where students can buy and sell second-hand items such as books, stationery, bags, etc. Additionally, the platform will allow students to post ads for apartments, rooms, and furniture for sale. The project also includes a carpooling feature, which will enable students to find rides to the university by paying a small fee to the car owner.
Approach
For this UX design project, we went through several phases to create an optimized and user-friendly platform.
During the Define and Discover phase, we conducted a benchmark analysis to identify industry best practices and established a baseline for our design efforts. We created personas and empathy maps to better understand the needs, behaviors, and motivations of our target audience. Additionally, we mapped out the customer journey to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.
In the Ideate phase, we revisited the customer journey to brainstorm and generate ideas for solutions to the identified pain points. We then created an information architecture to organize the site’s content and ensure a seamless user experience.
During the Design phase, we finalized the visual design elements of the site, including the color scheme, typography, and iconography. We then created low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes to test and iterate the design.
In the final Ideate phase, we refined the user interface by creating mock-ups and testing them with our target audience.
Results
The end result is a platform that provides university students with a seamless, user-friendly experience when buying and selling second-hand items, finding rides to campus, and looking for housing options.
Tools & Competencies
UI Design – UX Research – Figma – Adobe XD – Design Documentation – Adobe Illustrator
Emphathizing
We used user personas and empathy maps to better understand the needs and motivations of our target audience. Through the creation of these fictional characters, we were able to develop a more comprehensive understanding of our users’ behaviors, goals, and pain points.
User journeys
To ensure our UX design project met industry best practices and exceeded user expectations, we benchmarked our product against existing apps by creating user journey maps. These maps enabled us to identify and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of similar products in the market, helping us determine how to differentiate ourselves from competitors. By mapping out the user experience of other apps, we were able to gain a better understanding of what worked well and what could be improved upon. This allowed us to create a platform that addressed the pain points and gaps in the user experience of other apps, ultimately resulting in a product that exceeded user expectations.
User Journey & Information Archiecture
In addition to benchmarking our product against existing apps, we also created a user journey map for our own platform to ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience. This involved mapping out the different stages of the user journey and identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement. By analyzing the user journey in this way, we were able to create an information architecture that logically organized our platform’s content and ensured a seamless user experience. This included mapping out the different sections of the platform, how users could navigate between them, and how information was presented to them. By taking a user-centered approach to our information architecture, we were able to create a platform that was easy to use and navigate, resulting in high user engagement and satisfaction.
Early stage prototypes
We create low-fidelity wireframes to plan the layout and overall structure of the app. Creating these sketches early in the design process allowed us to get feedback on the overall direction of the project and make changes efficiently.
Before doing the hi-fi prototypes, we decided to test different uses of the color palette among the people in our target group. We used the A/B testing method and the result was a clear win for the second version.
Final Product
