Jackalope helps international students in Canada settling in by connecting them with events and communities that align with their interests, while minimizing the impact of cultural shock.
This is an academic project of IAT 334 - Interface Design, that I completed with 2 colleagues: Jay Ho and Dominika Styk.
Project type:
UX design & research
Duration:
3 months
Tool used:
Figma & ProtoPie
My role in this project
My role in this project involves 1) designing the homepage, where users will spend the most time on, and 2) planning, recruiting, and conducting the first usability testing after the first prototype.
The problem at hand
Challenges
Many newcomers face difficulty finding events or communities that align with their interests due to the lack of centralized platforms designed specifically for their needs.
Information is often scattered across multiple platforms or shared through word of mouth, making it overwhelming to navigate. Additionally, there is a lack of detailed, personalized guidance for adjusting to cultural shock in Canada, which can lead to feelings of social isolation.
Common goals
I aim to minimize the time it takes for newcomers to adjust to the cultural shock when arriving in Canada. Motivated by the desire to help them build a sense of belonging, I focus on creating solutions that connect individuals with friends and communities who share similar interests, easing their transition into their new environment.
Being an international student can be lonely - navigating a new country & culture setting can make it difficult to connect with friends, or discover activities that help one feels at home!
How Might We...
...help international students find communities, events, and connect with interest-based groups while minimizing the initial cultural shock?
Jackalope‘s solutions
Solution 1
Interests-based matching.
Users can select different areas of interests upon creating their profile.
These interests are shown publicly on a user’s profile page. This would allow users to see and connect with others if they have similar interests.
Solution 2
Events discovery.
Discover events & communities, view events‘ details, contact organizers, and RSVP or save events of interest.
Solution 3
AI assistance.
Jackalope provides tips to help international students navigate cultural differences.
Users can dislike a tip to contact organizers, ask the community, or provide feedback to improve future assistance.
Solution 4
Community messaging.
In-app messaging for direct communication between users and communities, or event organizers.
Initial sketches
Sketches for the profile creation process.
Sketches for the process of discovering and accessing new events.
The AI feature was designed to help reduce cultural shock for students, by providing contextual explanations for unfamiliar words or phrases.
Initially, the idea was that users could select a word or phrase they didn‘t understand, and the AI would explain it in the appropriate context.
However, this approach had the following issues:
Limited proactivity
The AI‘s support was passive, requiring users to activate it manually.
* This reduced its ability to assist users effectively.
Unintuitive interaction
Highlighting text to request an explanation felt unnatural.
* Making it difficult for users to recognize this as a viable interaction option.
Low-fidelity UX drafts
Option 1
Option 2
Early-stage design decisions
Prioritizing communities discovery.
While option 1’s user flow diagrams had access to event discovery, the final user flow and wireframes had more of a focus on finding communities.
The group chat function of the first 2 user flow options is hidden behind lots of interactions or only accessible through its event.
In the last user flow, users can access communities freely without having to rely on events.
Because the main goal of our interactive system is to connect people and help them find a new community, we found that this was the best user flow.
Encouraging new friendships.
Compared to option 1, where 1-on-1 chat is limited to between user and event organizers, and users can only chat with other users in a group settings, the last user flow allows users to:
Easily reach out to other attendees or other people in the same community.
Simplify keeping in touch by easy access to their status (Can see the communities that they join, friends that go to the same events).
Option 2‘s user flow diagram is more accessible and purposeful...
...While option 1 has more intuitive UI and diverse interactions.
Wide range of interactions that prompt key actions.
Option 1’s UI offers a more diverse range of interaction, where more information can be revealed as user performs certain actions, (such as swiping, pinching, rather than simply tapping)
Whereas option 2’s UI does not have a similar range of interactions - all information is displayed by default with no interactions which leads to visual clutter and cognitive overload.
High-level information upon landing, then details-on-demand.
Reduce visual clutter by having clear information structures. Display high-level information first, then display details upon interacting.
Prompts users to keep interacting to uncover information, keeping the attention.
First prototype & user testing
First prototype of Jackalope.
Key UX improvements
After considerations, we made these 2 key UX improvements to Jackalope.
See prototype on ProtoPieUX improvement 1
Make sure to enable different routes for users and make cancel options always available.
Make sure interaction design (buttons, texts, etc.) are all consistent throughout the app.
Make sure labels are clear (remove all abstract labels such as “See more”).
UX improvement 2
Iterate the UI so that the AI’s post malfunction interface offers to collect users’ input to help future assistance.
Having more support options available for users when they show dissatisfaction after the first suggestions.
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Designed and coded by me using Tailwind CSS and Next.js
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