The Cube

My senior year of college I had a UX Research internship at The Cube at MSU, a communications firm. I started this internship at the end of October 2022, and I am worked on a project with my managers to do research about applications for university students. The goal of these apps is to make the lives of university students, specifically Michigan State University students, easier.

Step 1: Application Ideas

To begin the project, we started with three app ideas: an Interactive Class List Application, a Scheduling Application, and an Alumni Tracking Application. 

App 1: Interactive Class List 

This app would allow you to 

  • Interact easily with other students in your class

  • See photo, names, pronunciations, pronouns

  • See year, major, minor

  • Link your LinkedIn, other social medias, email

App 2: My Progress

This app would allow you to 

  • Track your progress as a student with more depth and detail 

  • View which classes and credits you need to take in order to graduate 

  • View times and locations of classes to make scheduling easier

App 3: Alumni Tracking 

This app would allow you to 

  • View a digital map that shows you where alumni are 

  • Creates an easier way for students to connect with alumni

Step 2: Lanscape Analysis of Current MSU App

The next step was to do an analysis and content inventory of the current MSU App. The features I analyzed for each page were content hierarchy, navigation, and accessibility features.

Step 3: Send Survey to Students

Gathering user input on ideas is an essential part of the research process. To collect data, I sent a survey to students throughout multiple colleges at Michigan State University.

Survey Questions:

  1. Would you use an app that has an interactive class list?

  2. Why would you use an interactive class list app? OR Why wouldn't you use this app?

  3. Would you use an app to track your academic process?

  4. Why would you use an app to track your academic progress? OR Why wouldn't you?

  5. Would you use an app to track alumni? 

  6. Why would you use an alumni tracking app? OR why would you not use an alumni tracking app?

  7. Would you rather use these on separate apps or combined on one?

  8. When do you see yourself using these apps the most?

  9. Are there any other features you would like to see on these apps?

  10.  Is there an idea for a student app that you have thought of that is not mentioned here?

  11.  Do you know about the current MSU app?

  12.  Do you use the current MSU app?

  13.  Would you be willing to participate in an interview about creating new apps for students?

Step 4: Analyze Survey Data

I was able to analyze the survey data using a few different methods. For questions where respondents had multiple choice options, responses were collected and data was provided via a circle graph. For questions where respondents were prompted to write their answers, I used affinity mapping and data grouping to analyze the written responses.

Circle Chart Data:

Affinity Mapping Data:

Data Summary:

App 1: Interactive Class List 

  • 68.97% of responses were in favor or had positive things to say about the app 

  • The majority of responses surrounding the app highlighted being able to connect with peers personally 

  • Respondents expressed excitement about being able to contact their peers easily 

  • Some respondents did not see how the app would be useful or did not see themselves using it 

  • Some respondents expressed concerns over privacy 

App 2: Tracking Academic Progress 

  • 76.92% of respondents expressed interest and had positive things to say about the app 

  • A majority of respondents feel that current tracking systems, as well as MSU itself, lack clarity and transparency when it comes to their academic progress 

  • A majority of respondents expressed difficulties when trying to use the current MSU systems to find progress, grades, classes, etc. and would like their academic progress to be easier to access on a more accessible/user friendly system 

  • Some respondents went into detail about the need for an in depth tracking system that allows students to see what classes they need to graduate, as well as make mock schedules for future semesters 

  • A few respondents were happy with the current academic progress system that MSU already has in place 

App 3: Alumni Tracking

  • 54.17% of responses indicated that students would not find an alumni tracking app necessary, useful, or expressed uncertainty regarding the app. 

  • Respondents that expressed interest in the app would use it for networking and career purposes after college 

Next Steps…

The next steps of this project are to:

  1. Present data from survey to managers

  2. Evaluate what we want to find from user interviews

  3. Conduct user interviews

  4. Analyze interview data