University Group Project:
Designing a Social App for neighbors to encourage Interdependent Living.
High-Fidelity Prototype
User Research
Usability Testing
March 2024
This project is all about trying out as many interaction methods as possible. In the process of this me and my teammates created the get2know application where neighbors can interact with one another. It helps them to get in contact and following feel less lonely and more connected to the people living around them.
The project focuses on enhancing the sense of community and socialization within student apartment buildings. The aim is to create a collaborative living environment where neighbors feel connected and confident to reach out to each other, fostering mutual support and interaction. Through this project we should get to know a lot of different methods to create good user experiences.
The challenge is all about interdependent living. A user group with a problem should be identified that needs a tool to assist in everyday life.
The goal is to develop a solution that solves the missing aspect of interdependant living and help the users in everyday life.
Student neighbors in apartment buildings
In the first step three types of user research were conducted to figure out what the problem of this user group is.
The literature review was chosen as a research method to gain insights to the user group and get ideas of problems and struggles that might exist. With that information it is easier to frame a problem.
First we defined what neighbors are:
Ego and Alter are residential neighbors if and only if:
- The Anatomy of Neighbor Relations
Further findings were that people living in socially connected neighborhoods report a better physical and mental health and lowered levels of loneliness. Another finding was that sharing services can build friendships between neighbors.
The reason to do a netnography was because everybody shares their opinions on public forums. Therefore it is possible to gain information about interactions between users.
On the platform reddit it was possible to see that there is a platform called NextDoor but it is not liked by the users. Furthermore people have struggles with getting in contact with their landlords and addressing complaints about neighbors.
As we wanted to gain deeper insights on the users' thoughts and dig deeper into their problems as well as find their pain points, we conducted semi-structured interviews.
We conducted 10 short interviews with students who live in apartment buildings. The data was collected through audio recordings and notes. Below you can see the interview questions. The most interesting quotes of users are as follows:
"Yeah I think the connecting with people is definitely one of the biggest problems..."
"Someone should be responsible to organize the socializations."
"...help each other out. That would even help to like, get in touch..."
"...to share information would be nice."
The following problem was analysed through the research before combined with making personas and using the How Might We method.
Neighbors in student buildings need to feel like they belong to a collaborative community within their living space because they don't feel confident in reaching out to strangers.
After getting a better overview over the problems and struggles of the user group, we created the personas below.
In the process of this project we also used the How Might We method to narrow down the problem. THis method helps to frame challenges in a way that emphasises creativity, collaboration and solution-oriented thinking. THe final statements were as follows:
How might we help people connect with each other?
How might we make students feel more excited?
How might we hmake social events happen in student apatment buildings?
How might we encourage people to enjoy loneliness?
How might we get people to connect without leaving their apartment?
How might we make an apartment building like one big home?
How might we respect each neighbor's privacy and at the same time create social occasions?
The final chosen statment is: How might we make an apartment building like one big home?
The next step of the process was to get started with ideation and get further to the solution.
As the first method of the ideation phase we chose to use brainstorming as it is possible to gather a broad scope of ideas from diverse perspectives. Furthermore it is possible to generate ideas rapidly and it encourages to be creative and collect any ideas that come to mind. Below you can see the outcome of the brainstorming with the ideas already sorted.
THe next step in the process was to use the Worst Possible Ideas method. It was used to have an overview of ideas and get a shift in perspective yet again. The creativity is increased and it is funny and gives a possibility to think outside the box.
After everyone writing down their worst possible ideas individually in 5 minutes, we took a few minutes to do the same within the group. After going through all the worst possible ideas we came up with, we took 10 minutes to decide on the worst possible idea. Following the process we listed the attributes that makes the ideas actually bad. In the end we took 10 minutes again to think about how we could turn those bad ideas into good ideas and turn them into the opposite. The four worst possible ideas we turned around were:
Speed friending events (ONLY friends)
WPI: Speed Dating
Having a platform/feature where it is possible to settle disputes in a constructive/friendly way
WPI: Settling disputes with the whole building
A communication platform where people can message or send a friendly poke to neighbors
WPI: Kissing Booth
Space for swapping/borrowing things between neighbors
WPI: Swapping apartments program
After getting some more ideas for solutions of the problem we decided to use Sketching as a method to decide what the final solution should be. It helps with the vizualization of ideas and the communication of the ideas to fellow teammates. Therefore it enhances the understanding of the idea between the team. In this case I will show the sketches that were drawn by me and also helped finding the final solution.
In the last step of the Double Diamond we decided to go with an application that helps connect neighbors with each other. In this application you can create and join events with neighbors. All sorts of event like jogging, parties or grocery shopping trips can be created and attended. Access to the application within your appartment building will be granted through a QR-Code that would be given by the landlord, as not everyone should be able to access the application but only the people actually living in the building.
Sociel Event App for Neighbors - get2know
To get a step closer to the final prototype and test if the idea we chose is liked by the users we made a paper prototype. This method was chosen becauseits possible to generate the idea and its iterations rapidly. Through some elements like post-its it can be made to engage with and it helps to imagine the final idea.
In the prototype belowyou can see the floww of get2know. When you enter the app you can decide if you want to create an event or go to all events. When going to all events you can choose an event to join. When creating a new event you can choose the type of event, the location in the building, number of people attending, a shopping list and who to invite (if you already want to add the people beforehand). When creating an event or joining one you will be redirected to a group chat of all the people attending the event.
To structure the spp without focussing on the design too much we decided to make a wireframe.
In this wireframe we still kept an open mind and experimented a bit. At first you can create tags or search for tags of event types. In the next screen you can see the activities that were already posted. When clicking on the plus you can create your own event. In the last screen you see the detailed information about your event and you can share it for people to join.
In the last step we created a high-fidelity prototype and then ran another round of user interviews to get some feedback and improve on it. Here I will only show the already iterated version of the prototype.
In the final Version of the App the users can Login as a member of the apartment building. Then they can create their profile and if preferred it can be set private. The main functionality of the application is about the events. The user can create an event and then fill out a form with all the information needed. If the event is a collaboration with other neighbors you can even assign tasks on the list to a specific person (e.g Simon has to bring plastic cups). Other things like type of event, number of people attending, location and so on can also be entered. WHen the event was created a group chat will appear and people who join the event will automatically be added to the chat. If the user only wants to join the event, they can look at the event details and then join the event. When the event was joined they find themsekves in the group chat. If the user is only interested in an event but for example is not sure if they can attend, the event can be saved and will be shown in the list of saved events. When you get on with a neighbor and want to be in contact with them you can send them a connection request. If they accept it they will accept that the other person can see the privat information they put on their profile. Furthermore you can look at the neighbor's profiles and then see who they are connected with, what events they created and what events they attended.
The get2know project taught us the value of user-centered design, using research and creative methods like brainstorming to address student neighbors' needs for community connection. By following the *Double Diamond* process and rapidly prototyping with tools like *Figma*, we developed an app that encourages social events and collaboration, demonstrating how thoughtful design can foster stronger community bonds.
