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Rutgers' TaskU

Enhancing Persuasive Design

Ethical design methods used to improve university students' well-being by encouraging accountability, boosting productivity, and enhancing connectivity.

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Overview

It all began with a challenge posed by Rutgers University—to address the growing need for students to feel connected, balanced, and supported in their transition from remote learning back to campus life. The university envisioned a platform that would not only enhance students’ mental and physical well-being but also empower them to balance academics with their personal lives. 

My Role

Timeline

Tools

The Team

I was responsible for the user research, sketches, wireframing, prototyping, and testing.

Fall semester, 2022

Figma, Miro

Sakshi Malaviya, Alexandra Katzenberger, Anannya Bhagat, Oyindamola Apata, & Sumi Shin.

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The TaskU team called the Pixel Chicks

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Design Team's Goal

To instill a sense of community within Rutgers students and ease their sense of well-being by exploring and addressing the potential causes of stress.

1

Interviews

Let's Go

2

Personas

Let's Go

3

Design Process

Let's Go

4

User Testing

Let's Go

User Interview Phase: Student's Voices

My team and I brainstormed to draft a script of questions to gain insights about university students, particularly on what they need the most to thrive in college. We conducted user interviews with students across campus. My psychology background played a key role in these conversations, allowing me to empathize deeply and uncover nuances in their responses.

The Questions

  1. What causes you stress with school and life?

  2. What do you do to maintain your mental and physical well-being?

  3. How has the pandemic changed your mental and physical well-being?

Reasoning Behind the Questions

  1. Question #1 aimed to explore the nuances of stress related to students' academic and personal lives.

  2. Question #2 analyzed how students managed stress and maintained their health

  3. Question #3 assessed the pandemic's impact on student health, allowing for a comparison of pre- and post-pandemic responses.

Interview Insights

We discovered something quite surprising. Despite the pandemic, it was not the sudden shift to remote learning that was causing the most stress. Familiar struggles such as missing deadlines, feeling overwhelmed with assignments, being unable to connect with friends and family seemed to be the common trend. Yet, it seemed that the students had a good understanding of their stressors and potential self-care solutions. However, the missing pieces were the accessible tools and accountability in putting their plans into action.

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User Insights from the Interview

Solutions

Through the user interviews, my team was able to derive three core objectives to address in our product, TaskU

Personas

Personas & User Journey

To keep these goals front and center, we created user personas based on the themes we uncovered. One persona, Brianna, stood out—a relatable undergraduate student struggling to manage deadlines, overwhelmed by assignments, and feeling disconnected from loved ones. We mapped Brianna’s daily journey to visualize her pain points: rushed mornings, unfocused afternoons, and anxiety-filled evenings. Her story became the heart of our design process, ensuring we stayed aligned with the users' needs.

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Brianna's Persona

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Brianna's Journey Map

Design Process

Sketches

We began the the design process via a rapid generation of ideas of what we thought could be potentially added as a feature to the app. 

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In our ideation process, the sketches helped us brainstorm various possibilities that could enhance our product. We recognized an opportunity to apply persuasive design techniques to enhance engagement and motivate behavior change.

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Using Figma, low-fidelity wireframes were designed. 

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Low-fidelity Wireframes

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Low-fidelity Sketches

Applying Persuasive Design Principles

  1. Personalization - Homepage & Events Screen: A personalized dashboard that prioritized tasks, events, and goals based on user preferences. Personalization creates a stronger emotional connection to the app, increasing its likelihood of becoming an essential tool.

  2. ​Principle of Aspiration - Calendar screen: The calendar feature helps students plan schedules and includes reminders for accountability. We suggested adding an accountability partner option, allowing users to share goals with friends for support. This approach uses the principle of aspiration—people are motivated to set goals and work towards them.

  3. Social Proof Principle- Friends & Discover Page:By incorporating a "Friends & Discover" page, we allowed users to see what their peers were doing—whether they were attending events, achieving goals, or checking off tasks. This feature was inspired by the social proof principle, where people are more likely to adopt behaviors they see others engaging in.

  4. Gamification - Points & Rewards Screen: We designed a Rewards Page to boost productivity, allowing students to earn points for task completion and exchange them for prizes. Gamification enhances motivation by transforming routine tasks into engaging experiences.

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1. Personalization - Homepage & Events Screen

2. Principle of Aspiration - Calendar screen

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3. Social Proof Principle- Friends & Discover Page

4. Gamification - Points & Rewards Screen:

UI Design Decisions

Our team aimed to design an app that reflects our motto: "accountability, productivity, & connectivity." Key features include a campus events, a calendar for time management, a peer connection tool, and a gamification feature for tasks.

 

We chose red as the primary color to align with Rutgers's branding, complemented by gray and white for a visually appealing interface. Inspired by popular apps, we incorporated familiar navigation elements, such as Google Calendar for the calendar feature and social media designs for the peer connectivity page.

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User Testing

General Feedback

Testers understood the objective behind creating the app and, they all agreed that it will serve the purpose of helping students stay on track with their academic goals while still remaining connected.

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The feedback from the User Testing

Heuristic Evaluations

Some of the Heuristic tests that our app did not pass:

  1. Heuristic #3: "user control & freedom" as there was no 'close' button to exit out of any of the pop-up notifications or when the camera screen opens. 

  2. Heuristic #10: "help and documentation" because the users did not immediately understand the goal of the app upon clicking it open. 

  3. Heuristic #7: "flexibility & efficiency of use" as there was no 'filter' button to filter out certain events, nor a button to add or remove friends on the social media page. 

Mitigations

Some of the potential solutions after going through the Heuristic evaluations :

  1. Heuristic #3 "user control & freedom": users should be given an emergency 'exit' button to click out of anything they clicked on. 

  2. Heuristic #10 "help and documentation": add a description on the homepage that indicates the app's goal. An example is "welcome to Task U where you earn points for completing a task." 

  3. Heuristic #7 "flexibility & efficiency of use": add a filtering option. 

Contact

I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.

sakshimalaviya@gmail.com

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