Deloitte 2023 Innovation Challenge
Deloitte, a management consultancy firm, held an innovation challenge on the Georgia Tech campus in the Spring of 2023. Students were asked to find and solve a problem on campus through app design.
about my project
Georgia Tech Club Connect provides students with an event search service to keep them up to date with club activities on campus, providing clubs with a centralized space to market and promote their organizations.
ui/ux award recipient
I won the UI/UX award out of 14 teams for my prototype and the delivery & implementation of my user research.
my role
user researcher
ui/ux designer
responsibilities
ui & ux design
primary & secondary research
user survey
prototyping
mobile app design
proposal presentation
deliverables
persona mapping
design concepts
prototyping
final concept presentation
tools
Figma
Notion
opportunity / problem
Georgia Tech has more than 300 student clubs and organizations, but students still struggle to find events and feel connected on campus. How can Georgia Tech increase student engagement and improve social connections on campus?
process
I created an interface that simplifies the process of finding campus events tailored to students' interests, thus boosting club engagement. This platform empowers campus organizations to expand their reach and effortlessly generate and promote events.
discovery research
first, i interviewed my peers about clubs on campus
I used a methodical approach for my design process, creating a questionnaire using Google Forms to gather insights from my target audience. This helped me make user-focused decisions.
qualitative surveys and interviews
I asked a group of about 20 students to answer a few simple, open-ended questions about their experiences.
“any barriers to finding clubs?”
“how do you keep up with clubs?”
how are students keeping up with clubs?
Every club has its own social events and uses different ways to communicate. Currently, students have to find all these club accounts and connect with them themselves. This takes up a lot of time, especially when students get busy with school. Connecting with the campus should be an easy process.
survey results
After going through participant testimonials, I looked at the statistics for dropdown and selection-based questions to pinpoint the trends in student opinions.
it’s hard to keep track of events
It’s hard to balance school and maintain a social presence. As clubs use so many different platforms to communicate, it becomes impossible for students to keep track of information as it is released. This overload can reduce attendance.
it’s hard to commit to clubs
Students find it difficult to commit to clubs, and this can lead to reduced participation in club events, even those open to non-members.
user persona
Georgia Tech strives for its students to maintain a healthy work-life balance through extracurricular activities while doing well in their classes. The university has a diverse range of undergraduate, master’s, and transfer students. All of these students want to improve their involvement on campus.
The graphic shown is a primary persona for a transfer student who is interested in getting involved on campus.
pivoting to an event-focused service
After interviewing, I realized that most students need an experience that centers around events, not necessarily the clubs themselves. Students and clubs don’t need an alternative social media, they just need a dedicated space to view campus events.
design solution
let’s engage with the engage page
While Georgia Tech has a platform that showcases clubs on campus, the service is not well-known or used by my peers. During my review of Engage’s UI, I found some inconsistencies in the user experience that left something to be desired.
the current interface is barebones
At first glance, GT Engage appears to be a simple list-view of GT clubs. The intent of this site is primarily to show registered clubs, so that students can find contact information for those clubs.
tldr: in-depth problem-solving ahead
problem: it’s difficult to digest the club profiles
The design of the current Engage page is very text-driven and difficult to read. The interface offers no way for clubs to input information in a visually friendly way such as icons and easily digestible sections.
this profile provides little info about club logistics
this profile is too wordy
thousands of clubs are listed in alphabetical order, so most clubs aren’t reachable in this list format
solution: break up club profile information
My revised design splits up club profiles into easy-to-find page views to split up information and also provides users with recommendations for similar clubs.
problem: can’t find what i’m looking for
The filter options are very limited, and users can’t even search for simple things such as free events.
edge case observations
cluttered search and filter
solution 1: expanding search features
I designed a map view layout to view the locations of live events, and also introduced an alternative filtering option to help students find events that are within their budget, or within certain activity categories.
events can be viewed in a map or list formats, and they can be filtered as well!
solution 2: adding event-focused views
I introduced an alternative filtering option to help students find events that are within their budget, or within certain activity categories.
users can easily keep track of events through an intuitive calendar view
problem: engage isn’t engaging…
There is no reason for students to want to return to the site because clubs don’t use the platform for engagement. Competitors such as Slack, Discord, and GroupMe provide easy interfaces to foster a community of students with common interests.
Discord, a popular chat app used by clubs, uses a complex but engaging chat interface
solution: adding a simple communication and notification system
There is no reason for students to want to return to the site because clubs don’t use the platform for engagement. Competitors such as Slack, Discord, and GroupMe provide easy interfaces to foster a community of students with common interests.
users receive passive notifications to stay up-to-date and receive invitations to events!
extra features: a simple onboarding system and school selection
An app like Club Connect can be integrated into many universities, so I designed the UI with that expandability in mind. We created a simple onboarding experience, and direct students to sign in through their university into the app. After logging in, they have access to their school’s events!
our simple onboarding process
school search and login
winding down
final deliverables
I presented my final app proposal for GT Club Connect to a panel of three Deloitte representatives and members of the Georgia Tech administration.
ui/ux award recipient
I won the UI/UX Award for my presentation of Club Connect! My reviewers commended the quality of my prototypes given the limited time participants were allotted before our presentations.
me(center) and a few friends from the competition!
lessons learned
approach problems from a business standpoint
Throughout this process, my mentor advised me to think about these problems from a business perspective. Looking back, I should have conducted more research on how a solution such as Club Connect could be more easily integrated into Georgia Tech’s network and expanded to other schools.
iteration is important, even when you don’t have time
As I conducted this case study within 10 days, I had little time to debrief and iterate on my research. I prioritized the design of the app to present at a competition. Looking back, I should have cut the fidelity of my mockups and done more wireframing, and laid out a stronger information hierarchy.
next steps for club connect
interaction for admins and student orgs
I had only created prototypes from a student view for this case study. Expanding this project will require also creating and testing prototypes for other account types, such as school admins and student organizations that have different needs.
create a plan of implementation and development
In order to develop Club Connect in tandem with the design team, there needs to be a development timeline. In addition, budgeting needs to be agreed upon between Deloitte and Georgia Tech, as well as clear communication channels.