PolimiLife
An app created to address the tricky topic of psychological stress in university, aiming to bring awareness to students and teachers. It was designed with a strong emphasis on relationships and on self-analysis of one’s emotions and difficulties during university life.
Design duration: 1 month
Main project team: 4 UX/UI Designer (Ludovica Bonaldo, Giulia Gobetti, Francesca Macolino, Luca Meneguzzo)
Skills used: Wireframes, UX design, UI design, UX research, Prototyping
Tools: Figma, Miro, Maze, Illustrator, Protopie
Employer: Politecnico di Milano
Meaningful relations
Tangity, which led the research for the official redesign during the previous project, proposed five briefs from which to choose one or more to create an app that would bring design-driven innovation. Among them, we chose the following as the main one to draw inspiration from:
A wicked problem
So we went deeper, researching the major issues within Politecnico. We came across a very relevant issue that, however, is not much addressed, since it is often underestimated: lack of psychological wellbeing, a phenomenon that has exponentially increased during the pandemic period. This condition presents itself as a wicked problem arising from multiple reasons, including:
- Lack of tools to cope with moments of stress
- Excessive workload
- Strong individualism
- Community not supported by the institution
What if...
Looking for more evidence to support the existence of this phenomenon, in addition to our own experiences and those of our peers, we came across a series of stories collected from the Instagram profile “polimi_memes”, with the experiences of dozens of students who have faced the same problem. More than ever, we felt the need to at least improve the situation and bring it to the attention of the university with our project.
Project roadmap
For this project we managed a very tight schedule, always trying to get feedback from the students we had contacted, to design an effective solution to the problem, despite it being very complex to tackle. Also in this case we organized at least one usability test every 1-2 weeks, in order to identify any problems as soon as possible.
UX research activities
In the first phase, which lasted about a week, we explored the topic and possible causes by organizing a focus group with six students. We also contacted a professor, the coordinator of our course of study, to get the perspective from the teachers’ side. In addition, taking advantage of the visibility gained by contacting the polimi_memes profile, we sent out a survey to get an idea of how broad the phenomenon was.
Subsequently during the realization of the interface, dominated by numerous iterations, we conducted various usability testing, contacting a total of 34 students. To further refine the app, we contacted again the study course coordinator and a psychologist to get more feedback and see if we were on the right track.
Information architecture
For this app, we identified a tabbed view structure as the best one for the sections we designed. Being a delicate and wicked topic, it is difficult to be able to solve it in a unidirectional way, instead bringing multiple solutions to alleviate the psychological discomfort.
Palette & text styles
The palette selected is very recalling of the one used for the redesign of the app previously told, so that there would be a visual continuity and recall the coordinated image of the Polytechnic, while taking a different tone of voice from the official and institutional one. Also in this case the variant for the dark mode was built.
UI elements & composition
The UI elements used were taken from the previous app and repurposed to make the app acquire a lighter, less institutional and rigid tone of voice, giving a lot of personality to the look with brighter colors. The elements then were arranged in an 8x8 px grid, with a minimum distance between them of 16 px to give more air to the screen and create a hierarchy of information.
Community events
The first section designed is events, to recreate a polytechnic community that is currently lacking. These are events proposed by students for students: divided into three categories, they can be created in the app to share experiences, study and support each other, without forgetting the opportunities for fun and leisure.
Personal diary
The second section is dedicated to the personal diary, where students can write down what they faced during the day, aiming to bring greater sensitivity to their emotions, both positive and negative. It is possible to retrace one’s memories through the archive of pages and the summary.
Communication with professors
The last section is dedicated to communication with professors. Although it may not seem very inherent to the objective, we have found that not having a good cooperative relationship with professors affects very negatively with the mental health status of students, who become increasingly frustrated.
Additional material
You can check out the entire design process in more detail and explore the full prototype of the app. If you need more information, you can always contact me.
Strenght points
For students:
The values provided by PolimiLife are multiple and double-sided. For students, the parallel work of all the sections would provide a more relaxed experience and a greater motivation. Indirectly they would be able to make the most of the opportunities that the university offers. They would grow their network of relationship for their life and for their future job. And they would acquire the awareness necessary to deal with stressful situations.
For the institution:
On the other hand, providing this service, Politecnico di Milano would show to the international university network the importance of taking side in social responsibility enlighting his reputation. At the same time, with a grater communication between students and professors it would simultaneusly improve educational efficiency.
