CampusConnect

App Design & Product Strategy

Role: UX Researcher & UI Designer

Timeline: 3 Months

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Tools: Figma Design, Google Forms, Google Slides

Synopsis: CampusConnect is a student-focused app that helps Rutgers students discover campus clubs, stay updated on events, and find organizations that match their interests and majors.

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Context

CampusConnect is an app designed to simplify and enhance the college experience for Rutgers students by making it easier to discover clubs, apply for memberships, and stay informed about campus events.

‍Target Audience: Rutgers students seeking extracurricular involvement.

‍Why: Students reported difficulty finding clubs aligned with their interests and navigating scattered event information.

‍Problem

Students rely heavily on Instagram, involvement fairs, and word-of-mouth to find clubs, which is inefficient and fragmented. Applications can take anywhere from 4 minutes to 3 hours, and there’s no centralized platform for event updates.

Visual: (Include survey chart showing 88.9% use Instagram and 100% want a better app.)

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Breakdown of Solution

CampusConnect centralizes club discovery, applications, and event updates in one intuitive platform.

Core features include:

- Personalized club recommendations

- Interactive campus event map

- Quick apply system

- Notifications for updates

‍Research

Research methods included survey responses, Competitive Analysis (Instagram, Handshake, getInvolved) and Informal Interviews

Key Findings:

‍- 88.9% use Instagram for clubs.

- 100% agree an app would help.

- Students prefer academic (33.3%), social/fun (22.2%), and cultural/religious (22.2%) clubs.

- Application times vary widely.

Analysis of Research/Insights

Heavy reliance on social media and lack of centralized info with long application times and scattered event details. Students want personalization and speed.

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Objectives and Key Results

Short-Term Goals: Enhance Efficiency in Joining and Finding Clubs

KR1: Reduce the average time students spend finding and joining clubs by noticeable margins each month.

KR2: Increase the number of successful club applications via CampusConnect each quarter.

KR3: Conduct monthly analyses of student preferences for club types and make regular updates to the recommendation algorithm

Business Maintenance - Optimize Current Operations and User Experience

KR1: Ensure near-constant system uptime and quick resolution of bugs, aiming for resolutions within two days of detection.

KR2: Streamline the club application process, aiming to noticeably decrease completion time by the next semester.

KR3: Implement regular user feedback surveys to gather insights on app functionality and interface, with a goal to consistently improve user satisfaction.

Long-Term Goals - Boost Student Participation and Engagement Campus-Wide

KR1: Substantially increase student participation in clubs each academic year through CampusConnect.

KR2: Significantly boost student attendance at campus events promoted on CampusConnect over the next academic year.

KR3: Form partnerships with a majority of campus clubs for event promotion and participation tracking within the next year

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How Might We

How might we make club discovery easier and more personalized?

How might we reduce application time?

How might we centralize event information?

Ideating/Solutions

For the ideating and solutions phase, We developed concepts such as a personalized dashboard, an event map with filters, a one-click application process, and notifications for upcoming events. These ideas were focused on improving usability and helping users stay informed and engaged.

Product Roadmap Summary

CampusConnect’s roadmap focuses on building engagement and convenience for students by creating a centralized platform for clubs and events.

- Vision: Help students connect with peers and find their community through easy access to clubs and campus activities.

- Strategy: Implement verification for colleges, clubs, and users, and provide real-time notifications for events and club updates.

- Initiatives: Foster community based on shared interests and improve the overall college experience.

- Tactics: Partner with Rutgers first, then expand to other colleges; advertise to clubs and incoming freshmen to drive adoption.

- Status Markers: Track growth through metrics like number of users, clubs, event locations, and applications submitted.

‍How Might We

How might we make club discovery easier and more personalized?

How might we reduce application time?

How might we centralize event information?

Ideating/Solutions

During the ideation phase, our team brainstormed features such as a personalized dashboard, an event map with filters, a one-click application process, and notifications for upcoming events. We prioritized ideas that enhanced ease of use and user engagement.

Iterations

Reflections

Through this project, I learned the importance of user research in validating assumptions, how to balance personalization with simplicity, and how iterative design improves overall usability.

‍Challenges

Some key challenges I encountered included having a limited survey sample size and facing time constraints during the prototyping phase.

If I had more time I would...

Conduct usability testing with a larger group and integrate analytics for real-time feedback.

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