Project: Identify U
Overview
Identify U was the project I completed with three other students for my Senior year at Indiana University Bloomington. It is the culmination of the entire Informatics Program at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering. It was designed as a platform to help students who are a part of underrepresented groups connect with peers on campus. It allowed users to make posts and comments, as well as making and finding events on campus.
Part 1: Design
01
Concept and Pitch
Our first step was to come up with the concept of the project and then create a slide deck to pitch our idea. Our professors and other classmates held the role of “stakeholders” and our task was to convince them of our concept.
02
User Stories
To make our idea more concrete, we conceptualized the kinds of tasks that a hypothetical user would want on our site. This includes features like commenting on posts, seeing event locations on a map and other such tasks.
03
Prototypes/Wireframes
Up until now, there was just the idea of a website. To begin the process of development, in this stage we created wireframes in Figma that conveyed the look and feel of our site. It outlined all of the basic user interactions.
04
UX Research
Myself and my team wanted to ensure that our product would be useful to the userbase we were targeting. Therefore, we conducted rigorous user testing to see if what we had created was an enjoyable and intuitive experience for users. This is research we continued throughout both design and development.
05
Database Design
A database was necessary to store user information and dynamic data on our site, such as posts and event locations. To ensure that our database structure was efficient and logical, we created flow charts and visual representations (an ERD). This process was vital for information retrieval on our site.
06
Ethics
For any project, considering ethical ramifications is essential. This was especially true of our site. Due to the nature of our site, we had to anticipate harassment. In order to keep our site ethically sound, we put measures in place to ensure that users on the site could be reported to the University directly.
07
Design Document
The culmination of our efforts was a 120 page design document. The idea of this document was to create documentation so thorough that any developer with sufficient skill could create our project. This document took our project from an idea (“wouldn’t it be nice if…”) into a solid project plan, with actionable steps and realistic milestones. This would be our primary reference for developing the entire project.
Initial Design
Here are some examples of how our site originally was conceptualized!
Part 2: Development
Our project was developed using sprints. Each sprint was two weeks long, and involved each team member working primarily on one feature. We did do collaborative work however.
Features:
01
Profile System
Users on the site can use the IU Secure Sign On system to create a profile to access our site. Using this system has several benefits. For one, it limits our userbase to only people with an IU account so there is certainty that any bad actors can be reported directly to the university. The IU login also ensures that user passwords and information are kept safe and secure.
02
Posts
Any user with an account can create a post. This post can include text and images. Posts are used to communicate about events and topics concerning group matters.
03
Comments
Users on the platform can leave comments on other peoples’ posts. This allows for group discussion on topics to be held, as well as people to ask any questions they have about upcoming events.
04
Events
Anyone can create events at specific locations on campus. Google maps integration allows the site to put all upcoming events on a map of campus. This allows people to more easily find these events.
05
Calendar
Events on our site automatically populate a calendar. Users can use this calendar to see when events take place and allows them to make plans around events.
Final Product
You can check out a demonstration of our page on the IU Capstone Fair site!