During the Spring 2016 semester, I worked as the lead front end developer on a team of 2 front end developers and 4 back end developers to create a mobile app (compatible on iOS, Android, or Windows). Our project, named Grüpr, created an easier way for college students to find, join, and create study sessions with their classmates.
Our Process
In order to come up with the idea for Grüpr, we spent the first half of our semester employing a Human Centered Design approach to discover a need within the overall space of "college education." Our team conducted a series of in-person interviews with various people around campus (professors, students, tutors) to get a broad view of where some improvements could be made. After reflecting on our experiences from the first round of interviews, we decided to conduct a second round of observation-based interviews focusing on how students study and manage their academic work loads. Our team then took all the information we collected from our two rounds of interviews and spent some time synthesizing the data to see what patterns and commonalities we could find among all the people we interviewed.
From our data, we came away with the insight that the majority of students are more productive in learning new material and finishing their work when they work or study in a group. This led our team to ask "How might we make it easier for students to form study groups with their classmates?", a question that we strived to answer with the creation of Grüpr.
By giving students a tool to browse, join, and create study sessions with their peers, we hoped to encourage students to work and study in groups by simplifying the group formation process.
From our data, we came away with the insight that the majority of students are more productive in learning new material and finishing their work when they work or study in a group. This led our team to ask "How might we make it easier for students to form study groups with their classmates?", a question that we strived to answer with the creation of Grüpr.
By giving students a tool to browse, join, and create study sessions with their peers, we hoped to encourage students to work and study in groups by simplifying the group formation process.
The App
Login and RegistrationOn opening the app, students can either log in to their existing account by using their school email, or register for a new account if they are a first time user. The registration process takes the student through the steps to enter in their basic profile data as well as encourages them to select which classes they are enrolled in that semester.
|
Browse Existing Study SessionsOne of the main features of Grüpr is that it lets students browse a newsfeed of study sessions that are going on around campus, which is organized chronologically with the most recent study sessions on top.
A student can filter what they see on their newsfeed at any time, allowing them to only see study sessions related to the classes they are enrolled in, or to filter results to study sessions for one specific class. |
Create a New SessionStudents can create a new study session at any time by touching the "+New" button in the top right corner of the Browse screen. The creation pages walk the student through creating a new study session and prompt them to include information such as the group name, the class they are studying for, the professor's name, date, time and location of the study session, and any additional notes/description they want to add.
|
View and Join Study SessionsAll Grüpr study sessions are open to any student at the school to encourage students to study with classmates that they might not normally think to reach out to.
After touching on a study session listed in the newsfeed, the student will see an information page that lists all the information for that session, as well as a list of who is attending. After joining a study session, the student will see the session appear in their personal list of study sessions that they are attending. |
User ProfileEach student's user profile contains the list of what classes they are enrolled in for that semester. The student can edit their list of enrolled classes by swiping left on one of the existing classes in their list, which allows them to either edit or delete that class from their list. Students can add an additional class to their list at any time by touching the "+New Class" button in the top right of their profile screen.
|