My Role
UX researcher
Observations, interviews, and sensory workshops.
User Experience Designer
Led user research and journey mapping to co-create SavExplore.
Goal
To design an innovative platform that connects SCAD students with local recreational activities, enhancing their off-campus experience through a centralized, user-friendly solution.
Impact of the Project
To enhance student well-being and community engagement by making local events more accessible, personalized, and integrated into SCAD students’ daily lives.
Duration
10 weeks
Tools
Solution
SavExplore is a student-focused app designed to simplify the discovery of recreational activities around Savannah. It offers a centralized platform featuring event listings, local discounts, and community engagement tools tailored specifically for SCAD students. By streamlining access to curated experiences, SavExplore enhances off-campus life and fosters stronger connections within the student community.
Final Deliverable
Mobile Application iOS
Problem Statement
SCAD students struggle to find and engage with local recreational activities due to the lack of a centralized, student-focused platform, resulting in missed opportunities for exploration, connection, and community engagement.
Opportunity
Bridge the gap between student life and Savannah’s cultural and recreational ecosystem
The Need
SCAD students are always on the lookout for fun recreational activities beyond campus.
Currently, there's no centralized platform catering to their needs.
Need a platform that bridges the gap between fun and education outside college.
Target Audience
Undergraduate and graduate
Explore the cultural, artistic, and entertainment, food, night life and local offerings of the city beyond the campus environment.
Other college students in Savannah, local residents, and tourists (Phase 2)
SCAD STUDENTS
Change Agents
SCAD Students
Local Business
ISSO
International student service organization
SCAD
Social Media
SCAD
Communication Department
ERAF Map
The ERAF map was essential for identifying key stakeholders and understanding the ecosystem influencing student engagement with local activities.
It helped us visualize relationships between entities like SCAD departments, local businesses, and transportation services, revealing opportunities for collaboration and diffusion.
This clarity guided our communication strategy and ensured our solution aligned with both user needs and institutional goals.
Research Approach
Findings
Key Questions
What activities do students engage in?
How do they discover them?
What are their pain points?
Key Insights
Event discovery is currently fragmented across emails, social media, and word-of-mouth.
Students want:
One-stop platform for events
01
02
03
Access to local deals and discounts
Activities tailored to their interests and budget
As-Is Journey: Manual, spread across 8–10 platforms (emails, WhatsApp, social media, etc.)
Pain Points:
Missed events
No personalization
Overwhelming and inconsistent communication
Designed Journey: Centralized, intuitive, and community-driven via SavExplore app
User Journey Mapping
Introducing to you…
Your Personal Tourist Guide to Savannah
Key Features
"Wireframing played a crucial role in the development of the SavExplore app, helping us streamline design and ensure a user-friendly experience."
Clear Navigation
Wireframes mapped out the user journey, ensuring smooth navigation and intuitive app flow.
Early Feedback
It enabled us quick feedback from
stakeholders, helping refine features and design early on.
The first step was to create low-fidelity wireframes, which provided a basic layout of the app’s main screens and functions. These wireframes focused on the structure, showing where elements like event lists, buttons, and the photo dropbox would be placed. They were kept simple to allow for quick iterations and feedback.
Improved Collaboration
Wireframes served as a visual tool for team alignment, ensuring clear communication of ideas and requirements.
Video walk-through of the App
Elevating Your Exploration Experience
Innovation Diffusion Map
The Innovation Diffusion Map helped us understand how awareness and adoption of SavExplore would spread among SCAD students, starting from early adopters like graduate students and opinion leaders. It allowed us to identify key influencers and design targeted strategies to accelerate engagement across the student community.
Reflection & Learnings
Personal Takeaways:
Importance of co-creation and framing to drive adoption
Learned to balance functionality, usability, and desirability
Discovered the power of strategic UX in fostering community engagement
Turning Obstacles into Opportunities:
Unclear User Needs: Defining what students truly wanted from a recreational platform was initially a challenge. This was addressed through in-depth interviews and surveys with over 25 students, resulting in actionable insights that informed key app features.
Fragmented Event Discovery: The existing event discovery process was disjointed and complex. A detailed user journey map was created to highlight pain points and guided the development of a streamlined, centralized experience.
Stakeholder Alignment: Feedback from SCAD departments was limited and inconsistent. Targeted communication strategies and direct engagement were used to align the platform with institutional objectives and stakeholder expectations.