This project was a part of the course Designing Interactive Systems, held by University of Helsinki in spring 2019. StudySpaceFinder emerged from a user-centered design process introduced on the course. Following the given theme, student welfare at Kumpula Campus, the members of our group found common interest in study spaces in the campus library.
We conducted different types of needfinding activities to discover potential topics and motivations for the project. Observation in the campus library revealed that it is mostly used for studying and that students preferred to have privacy. Social data analysis confirmed that the library nowadays has more purposes than merely providing its usual service of lending books.
During the ideation student workflows and the campus library were at focus. We were exploring different ways of making student life easier. With the help of ideation methods we came up with multiple feasible ideas. Eventually we shaped our research question as: “Could an online service help students find study places suiting their needs?”.
To answer our research question we developed the StudySpaceFinder app that lists all study areas known to us in the Physicum and Exactum buildings. Almost 70 study places were collected, photographed and described. To find the optimal space, it is possible to filter the spaces with different criteria. The app was then evaluated with ten individuals from Kumpula campus in supervised conditions. For the implementation we chose to create a web app. Because of time restrictions, we replaced the backend by a simple mockup which serves data from a json file. For the frontend we used the Vue.js framework and Vue Material to provide the design elements which were used. The app can be used also in mobile devices.
During the evaluation the participants were asked to fill a questionnaire, where they would describe their views of ideal study spaces in different situations. The participants also tested the app independently and recorded their findings. The results of the evaluation and the feedback from the participants were then collected and calculated. In general the feedback was very positive, however it shows that the usability of the app can still be improved. Since this was only a first prototype for a feasibility study this was expected. The results of our evaluation cannot show that this kind of app would not be useful or used. That means that if the app would be further developed and brought to use it would have the possibility to become a tool for students in Kumpula campus.
Please visit: https://github.com/BikkuMyy/SSF
Screenshot of desktop version
Screenshot of desktop version
Screenshot using mobile device
Screenshot of a card
Screenshot of a card
