ACADEMIC SUCCESS VS COLLEGE BURNOUT

University life offers countless opportunities for personal and intellectual growth, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. From general knowledge and personal experience, it is no doubt that academic success comes with the price of a student’s quality of life––also famously known as college burnout.

UNIVERSITIES LACK OF MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES LEAD TO BURNOUT.

Currently, only 20% of canadian students have been able to receive mental health services from their university. A PESTLE analysis helped us to discover a product opportunity with social, economic, and technology assumptions.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ISOLATION AND COMMUNITY

After seeing the psychology within this space, we wanted to hear first-hand our target audience’s experiences by conducting primary research to intuitively cater the final product to their needs. We decided to conduct interviews and surveys in order to scope out user interest. The main that the top three reasons for college burnout include but are not exclusive to: isolation, fitting in, and internal and/or external pressure.

PERSONA & FINDINGS

Statistic #1: Students are 3x more likely to discover clubs and/or events through social media (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn).

Statistic #2: 80% of students do not use mental health resources provided on campus, expressed that they “don’t work” or are “a waste of time”.

USERFLOW

We mapped out a user flow to make sure that we design for every touch point for the overall experience.

FEATURE 01: MAKING CLUBS ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL STUDENTS

The "compass" is the main function of the app to allow users to browse all of the clubs listed at their school. With a straightforward UI, we expect an easy start to the user's journey.

FEATURE 02: UPCOMING EVENTS & NOTIFICATIONS 

After students are able to choose a club they're interested in, a description and the upcoming events are listed together. Users can follow clubs and get notified about updates regarding them.

FEATURE 03: INITIAL SURVEY & PERSONALIZATION

We decided that students should have a narrowed scope of clubs that interest them to avoid resistance from finding something they really like. The For You page condenses them together.

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY IS THE BACKBONE OF COMPASS.

This project gave each of us a look behind the scenes of how business models are produced and made with a start-up idea. With more time, I would like to further iterate on our prototype's user experience. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience and I appreciated the chance to be in a small developing team. Personally, I've gained insight on how all roles of product development work and the significance behind them.