Our process
Find out how Jackalope came to life!
Domain research
Primary users
International students in Vancouver in their 20s.
Recently arrived in Canada for university or college.
Seeking opportunities to connect with peers, explore local culture, and engage with their interests.
Diverse cultural backgrounds with different levels of English proficiencies.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Common challenges
Difficulty finding events or communities that match their interests.
Lack of centralized platforms catering specifically to their needs.
Overwhelming information scattered across multiple platforms or word of mouth.
Lack of detailed and personalized guidance to adjusting to the cultural shock in Canada, leading to social isolation.
96% of international students from the age of 16-40 experience a sense of loneliness.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Common goals
Want to minimize the time they take to adjust to the cultural shock when arriving to Canada
Motivated to build a sense of belonging in their new environment.
Find friends and communities with the same interests.
Our goals
1
Foster a sense of community for international students by providing a platform that allows a user to search for different events and engage in communities based on their interests.
2
Assists users in getting used to the Canadian cultures/ norms, minimizes cultural shock with useful tips generated by AI for each event.
Problem statement
How can we help international students build community, find events, and connect with interest-based groups while minimizing the initial cultural shock?
Process overview
#1
Initial interaction design
Supported platform
Mobile App Interface - Users primarily interact through mobile app on iOS and Android platforms.
Input methods
Tap interactions
Profile Creation: Tapping to select interests, languages, and preference.
Community Joining: Tapping buttons to join communities.
Event RSVP: Tapping "Attend" or "Interested" for upcoming events.
Type interactions
Search Function: Typing to find specific communities or events
Messaging: Messaging other users or groups
Profile Customization: Typing personal bio and additional details
Main interactions
Profile creation
Users input personal information, interests, and preferences through a step-by-step process
Events & communities
discovery
AI assistance
Users can search, filter, and browse communities based on personal interest or AI recommendations.
AI can generate different useful tips based on each event, that will prepare international student for any potential cultural shock
Community messaging
In-app messaging for direct communication between users and communities, or event organizers.
Describe one of your services
Describe one of your services
Describe one of your services
Initial sketches
#2
Sketches for profile creation process
Sketches for event discovery screen & individual event screen
Accessing the AI feature
The AI feature was designed to help reduce cultural shock for students by providing contextual explanations for unfamiliar words or phrases. Initially, the idea was that users could select a word or phrase they didn't understand, and the AI would explain it in the appropriate context.
However, this approach had the following issues:
1. Limited proactivity: The AI's support was passive, requiring users to activate it manually. This reduced its ability to assist users effectively.
2. Unintuitive actions: Highlighting text to request an explanation felt unnatural, making it difficult for users to recognize this as a viable interaction option.
Sketches for organizing & managing events
#3
Low-fidelity wireframes
Option 1
Option 2
We decided to choose the user flow for option 2 and implementing the UI of option 1 because:
Option 1's UI
Option 2’s UI has inconsistent design elements (button, text sizes, etc.)
Option 1’s UI offers a more diverse range of interaction, where more information can be revealed as user performs certain actions
Whereas option 2’s UI does not have a similar range of interactions - all information is displayed by default with no interactions which leads to visual clutter and cognitive overload.
Option 2's user's flow diagram
Prioritizing Community and Discovery:
While option 1’s user flow diagrams had access to event discovery, the final user flow and wireframes had more of a focus on finding communities.
The group chat function of the first 2 user flow options is hidden behind lots of interactions/ or only accessible through its event.
In the last user flow, users can access communities freely without having to rely on events.
Because the main goal of our interactive system is to connect people and help them find a new community, we found that this was the best user flow.
Encouraging new friendships
Compared to option 1, where 1-on-1 chat is limited to between user and event organizers, and users can only chat with other users in a group settings, the last user flow allows users to:
Easily reach out to other attendees or other people in the same community.
Simplify keeping in touch by easy access to their status (Can see the communities that they join, friends that go to the same events)
Encourages the making of new friendships.
.
#4
First complete prototype
User study
#5
We conducted our research with 3 interviews: 2 in-person interviews and 1 online interview.
Study goal: Through this user testing, we aim to observe:
How users navigate the app and evaluate how easily they can achieve their goal of discovering and engaging with events and communities.
Additionally, we want to understand their reactions to the app's AI features and the support it provides in enhancing their experience.
Recruiting:
We selectively recruited 3 new international students at SFU as participants for this user testing to ensure our insights reflect the app's primary target audience.
Being new to the university, these participants are more likely to actively seek events and communities, making their feedback particularly relevant in assessing the app’s usability and effectiveness in addressing their needs.
Design issues:
Difficulty navigating through the site or app, stuck in areas like the "Join Group" or messages.
Frequency: frequent
Severity: high
Users fail to notice additional cards in the AI suggestion carousel due to lack of indicators.
Frequency: frequent
Severity: moderate
When AI malfunctions, its new response doesn’t provide additional information despite dissatisfaction with previous inputs.
Frequency: periodically
Severity: low to moderate
Outcome:
User frustration: When the user is having difficulties navigating the app’s pages, their frustration might make them lose interest in exploring the rest of the app
Not using full potential of app: If some features, like the AI, are not clearly available to the user, they may not realize that the feature is part of the app or they could be confused on where the feature could be. This leads to the user not using the app to its full potential that could leave them feeling frustrated and confused.
#6
Refined interface
Issue:
Difficulty navigating through the site or app, stuck in areas like the "Join Group" or messages. And, users fail to notice additional cards in the carousel due to lack of indicators.
Solution plans:
Make sure interaction design (buttons, texts, etc.) are consistent throughout the app. Which will improve learnability and consistency.
Make sure labels are clear (no abstract labels such as “See more”.
Make sure to enable different routes for users and make cancel options
always available.
Issue:
After users display dissatisfaction with AI’s malfunction, the alternate solutions don’t provide additional information to assist the user.
Solution plans:
Having more support options available for users when they show dissatisfaction after the first suggestions.
Change the interface so that the AI’s post malfunction interface offers to collect users’ input to help future assistance.