New In Town? Feeling Disconnected? SettleIn is Your Companion to Not Just Surviving but THRIVING in a New City

By: Shreya Sathyanarayanan, Bhavya Linga, Phuong Cao, Ray Chen

TEAM MEMBERS:

The team, Wellness Root, consists of 4 members Phuong Cao, Shreya Sathyanarayanan, Bhavya Linga, and Ray Chen. Every member in the team actively participated on every step of the project to bring our vision to life. We started with a meticulous design research plan that laid the groundwork for the exploration. Then, we delved into understanding our user needs through diligent user research, followed by a detailed Task Analysis to focus on some key functionalities of our design. Next, from the insights learned in the user research, the team created an initial design through sketches and storyboards. Then, paper prototyping provided a hands-on testing ground, allowing us to evaluate usability through user feedback. We then revised the initial paper prototype, refining the design. The next step was to develop the digital prototypes to further refine and validate the user experience. Finally, we showcased our results through a compelling poster and presentation, highlighting the project’s evolution.

PROBLEM OVERVIEW:

Moving to a new area often causes people to feel overwhelmed, and disconnected, and sometimes leads to extreme stress, especially when building new social networks. In our user research, many people indicated that the struggle lies in the uncertainty of where to begin in establishing new, reliable, and genuine friendships. Then, among other worries in daily life, a lack of nearby community support contributes the most to a sense of isolation and mental health concerns. The disruption of established social ties intensifies the difficulty of making meaningful connections, highlighting the need for strategies and tools to support people in navigating and successfully adapting to their new home.

SOLUTION:

Our solution, the ‘SettleIn’ mobile app, aims to alleviate the challenges faced by young adults relocating to new areas. This app serves as a comprehensive platform where users can connect with others who have recently moved to the same city, fostering a sense of community and belonging. It provides features for discovering and joining local interest groups and facilitating engagement in shared activities and hobbies. Additionally, ‘SettleIn’ offers a unique mentorship program, connecting users with local mentors who provide insights and guidance about life in the new area. The app is designed to be user-friendly, focusing on creating genuine, long-lasting relationships and supporting users’ well-being, ultimately making the transition to a new place a more positive and enriching experience.

PAPER PROTOTYPE & USABILITY TESTS:

Initial Paper Prototype:

To help solve the problem, we created the first version of the paper prototype. This initial version featured hand-drawn representations of the app’s key pages like the “Me” profile page, “Forums” for community interactions, “Discover” for finding new connections, and “Messages” for communication. The goal of the design was to focus on solving 2 primary tasks:

• Task 1: Connecting with Communities via Forums The features supporting this task would allow users to connect with various communities via the “Forums” page with the privacy option enabled. This is where users can ask questions, make a post, reply to people, contribute to discussions, and update their profile and interests as desired.

• Task 2: Discover New Connections and Mentors The features supporting this task would empower users to discover new connections with like-minded peers, local mentors, and relatable interested communities. The design also included robust private messaging and scheduling tools to help users track and facilitate effective communication. The goal for these tools was to best provide for users with the ability to tailor their networking experience to ensure a secure, personalized, and seamless experience.

Usability Test and Resulting Paper Prototype Revisions:

After completing the initial paper prototype, we conducted a few usability tests to get some critical feedback. The first test was the heuristic evaluation in class, and other tests were conducted with three other participants. The participants included a college student new to a city, a professional in a new job, and an international student, to simulate the user experience. Our usability test feedback led to crucial refinements in the app’s design. Based on our usability testing, we revised our paper prototype with three main goals.

1. Revise our paper prototype to utilize a more simplistic and use visual design principles to emphasize internal consistency throughout the app: After gathering insights from our usability tests, it became evident that a more streamlined and uniform design across the app would significantly enhance user experience.
2. Revise our paper prototypes to be more intuitive for searching and filtering functionalities: Based on our user feedback on the usability tests, revisions have been implemented in the ‘Discover’ and ‘Forum’ tabs of the app, focusing on enhanced searching and filtering capabilities.
3. Revise our paper prototype to include new features that continue to help support users in discovering new connections and mentors: This revision is designed to encourage active participation and continuous engagement among group members, creating a more dynamic and interactive community-sharing/building experience within the Settlein app.

Based on our heuristic evaluation from usability tests, our revisions focused on the Nielsen heuristics of Recognition rather than Recall, Match Between System and the Real World, and Aesthetics and Minimal Design.

Final Paper Prototype:

Task 1: Connecting with Communities via Forums

Task 2: Discover New Connections and Mentors

DIGITAL MOCKUP:

Link to the final interactive digital mockup (Note: this is an interactive design. Some screens might seem duplicated there, but they are needed for interactive features)

Our Figma-based digital mockup centers around an interactive user experience, featuring a navigation bar housing four primary tabs: Me, Discover, Messages, and Forums, complemented by subpages for Interest Groups. Our design caters to the first task of facilitating community connections through the Forums page, enabling users to participate in or initiate discussions across various threads. The “My Activities” section offers personalized insights into users’ engagements, while the “Me” dashboard serves as a centralized area to manage connections and receive notifications efficiently.

Addressing the second task of discovering new connections, mentors, scheduling meetups, and engaging in interest group activities, our digital mockup boasts Explore Friends, mentors, and interest group scheduling features. Through the Explore Friends section, users can browse profiles and connect seamlessly within the app. The mentors feature encourages dialogue and guidance-sharing, while the interest group page fosters ongoing engagement within specific communities, supplemented by scheduling functionalities. In our final prototype, we introduced interactions, thereby demonstrating real-world platform use of our app. Each button now leads to its designated landing page, and additional screens were incorporated to enrich the user journey. To enhance user experience, we implemented error recovery options like cancel and back arrows. Moreover, based on feedback regarding color visibility issues, we adjusted the color scheme, ensuring higher contrast between background and text elements for improved readability and user accessibility.

SUMMARY: Our survey showed that more than 68% of respondents felt anxious and isolated after the move to a new city. More than 80% found it difficult to make new friends in their community and 62% said it was hard to build a long-term social circle. Our interviewers also claimed that isolation from the world and not knowing where to go for help was a daunting experience for them. With Settle In, we designed its features to cover all of those issues. With interest groups to find good connections with similar interests, mentors to use as guides without feeling judged, and an opportunity to ask questions anonymously about the city on forums, Settle In ensures that its users don’t feel alone. Our app will show users that others are experiencing the same as them and will give them a sense of community. Additionally, it will give them a safe environment where they can feel like they can express their emotions about the move and ask any questions without fear of judgment.