Packpoint
an imagined community-building app connecting university students to their campus.
UI Design & UX Research
24 hours
@ Dubhacks
TOP 3 FINALIST - COMMUNITY TRACK
ℹ️ About
PackPoint is a community building app where students can discover and share new campus points with one another to find spots that meet their preferences, and in turn support one another’s productivity and mental wellness.
✍🏼 Context
My team and I participated in Dubhacks, the largest collegiate hackathon in the Pacific Northwest, and competed in the Connectivity track. We had 24 hours to develop an idea that would encourage users to connect and collaborate with one another, and ultimately rekindle and foster connections that were once seamless prior to the pandemic.
💡 The Idea
After brainstorming, our team decided that we wanted to create something related to the community that we are all directly part of: the collegiate student community. We refined our ideas and came up with the fact that:
Location plays a big role in college students' wellbeing and productivity.
📈 Research
Desk Research
Due to time constraints, I resorted to conducting White Paper Research to get a better idea of how we can develop our product.
Trevino et al. (2022)
Outdoor interactions were positively correlated to better self-reported mental health scores in students, especially after the pandemic that entailed prolonged periods of isolation.
Ohrn et al. (2021)
Lack of privacy, increased noise disturbance, and discomfort with work posture generally resulted in decreased productivity. Interactive tasks seem more appropriate in activity-based flex offices while individual tasks demanding concentration require more isolated work areas.
Survey
I then created a survey for UW students to answer, regarding their familiarity with spots on campus and their satisfaction.
57.9% of surveyees only knew the popular spots on campus when they were first-year students.
60% of surveyees learn about campus spots from their friends.
70% of surveyees said the spots they visit are often too crowded for their liking.
⚠️ Problem
A majority of students only hear about campus points from their close group of friends, resulting in an ECHO CHAMBER where the same popular campus points are continuously passed around =
Students are not maximizing their campus amenities, are unsatisfied, and are unable to maximize their productivity levels.
❓Questions We Asked Ourselves
How might we
Bring exposure to the hidden gems on campus
Help first-year students grow acclaimed to their surroundings
Empower one another by sharing and improving each other’s wellbeing and productivity?
☑️ Our Solution: PackPoint
a community building app where users can
Find new campus points
Share their favorite points anonymously
Check the status of the points they're interested in visiting via Pack Chat (an anonymous chat)
🛠 Features
1. Your Location and Nearby PackPoints
Discover Packpoints within your location
Read about their key features and conditions(e.g. crowd and noise level, and amenities)
This can help students identify spots where they resonate with the most and enables them to be more comfortable and productive.
2. Pack Chat
Participate in the Pack Chat for your desired PackPoint to check the live status of the area and communicate anonymously.
3. Your Profile
Keep track of
the Packpoints you’ve visited,
the Packpoints you intend on visiting.
Get encouragement to gain a higher number of Packpoints and improve your familiarity with your campus throughout your time at UW.
4. Share Your Favorite Points
We know that students prefer to do things according to recommendations from their own friends or other students
(They prefer learning via word of mouth as opposed through university websites.)
Share your favorite PackPoints with the rest of the Husky community
Learn about new PackPoints from your peers
📖 Reflection & Takeaways
1. Do not overcommit
It's like second-nature for a UX Designer to want to solve every single problem they can put their hands on. However, I learned that having too many goals and ideas you want to implement can easily make you lose track of what your original intent is. Moreover, because this was my first time collaborating with coders and developers, taking into account feasibility and our means was that much more important.
The quote "Quality over quantity." speaks true.
2. Communication is KEY
This sounds like a very natural and no brainer skill that everyone expects out of one another but working in a team requires a certain level of transparency and trust that I didn't originally anticipate. I was previously used to creating Figma prototypes without having to report back to anyone about the changes I make but in this case, every minor tweak or change on the Figma file had to be communicated in order for the developers to be prepared and make changes.
Constant communication was crucial to the success of our project.
3. A positive outlook does wonders!
This is moreso a life skill as opposed to a technical skill but being stuck to your chair and working under pressure for nearly 24 hours straight can inevitably make someone lose their spirit. It was important to stay positive, continue working together, and ultimately try our best no matter the outcome.