An app that promotes collective advocacy surrounding Fordham University's dining services.
With Fordham University's Dining Services being something that many students rely on, my team and I decided to create an app that sheds light on Fordham's negative dining experiences, in hopes of making it improve and more worthwhile.
The app we made is Fordham Universitea.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM.
Fordham University's annual tuition rate is well over $80,000. With tuition this high, no student should have negative dining experiences. While figuring out one's next meal seems to be an easy task on a college campus, not all students can say the same if their university's dining services are not up to par.
This app specifically focuses on Fordham’s negative dining. Thereby, creating a safe space for students to voice their concerns/experiences with the hopes of garnering the administration's attention to make real change.
THE GOAL.
The goal of our team is to promote awareness of the negative dining services and experiences at Fordham University. To do this in a fun yet informative way, we have decided to create Fordham Universitea, an app and associated newsletter which displays the real-life experiences of students, regarding the university’s food services.
On the app, students can post anonymous messages that other students can interact with. Such messages can be upvoted or downvoted, and whichever three posts get the most votes, are ranked and displayed on a weekly newsletter. Interactive GIFs, a photo gallery, a memories dashboard, and a statistics page can all be found within the app for students to use and enjoy.
THE DESIGN PROCESS.
User Research.
Preliminary Interviews
The team and I conducted interviews with several Fordham University students before creating the initial wireframe. We did this to gauge what changes students wanted to see at Fordham and determine how they felt about contacting the administration about their concerns. Based on our interviews, we discovered that many students felt either intimidated by the administration or that their voices would not be heard if they spoke out. Thus, many thought that contacting administrators felt like a lost cause or a dead end.
Quotes and Feedback
“I feel like big institutions, like universities, usually don't take students' suggestions about budgeting like that. I mean, it would probably take a lot of people to get that sort of change, but I feel like I've heard things in the past of students protesting and them not listening." (Fordham Junior, FCLC ‘24)
"I think I tend to feel like I'm intimidated, especially by authority figures, I mean, the school is private and I don't know, I just don't feel like I have the voice." (Fordham Sophomore, FCLC ‘25)
Brainstorming and Ideation.
Affinity Mapping
After conducting the preliminary interviews, the team started our ideation process. We did this by synthesizing the information we obtained from the user interviews.
We discussed problems regarding Fordham University’s housing, the differentiations between Fordham’s Rose Hill and Lincoln Center Campuses, Administration problems, and the lack of camaraderie and community amongst Fordham students. However, the majority of students were mostly concerned with administration problems, dining, and the lack of community…
Journey Mapping
This is why we made Fordham Universitea. We wanted to create an app that would bring awareness (especially to the Administration) of the poor dining services at Fordham University, while at the same time fostering a sense of community; an app that allows students to feel as though they are not alone in fighting for change.
Here is a journey map with the basic tasks that a user would experience while going through the app: our newsletter, commenting, upvoting, and accessing the app/website.
LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAME.
HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAME: FIRST ITERATION
The overall design is inspired by the social platforms of YikYak and Twitter. This is because we wanted our app to have a familiar interface for users.
There is a central menu located towards the bottom of the frame for easy access and navigation.
To stay true to the colors and Fordham University, the app's two main colors are maroon and grey.
USER TESTING.
Usability Findings.
Make sure the upvote and downvote arrows are more indicative and easy to understand. One interviewee notes that she has not used apps like YikYak or Reddit, both of which have upvote/downvote features. Therefore, the usage of the arrows on the Homepage confused her.
Changing the help center icon so that it is easy to recognize and identify. One of the users found that there was little connectivity between the help icon and what it symbolized. More specifically, the user also noted the little connectivity between most of the icons on the menu; they were confusing and a little distracting.
Making it easier and clearer how to post a picture. While pictures are a required and central part of the app, there was no option to add a photo whilst creating a post.
Adding filters to the home feed (top, latest, trending, hashtags, etc.) to navigate the posts and discover posts in different ways. Since the app would likely be overflowing with complaints about Fordham dining, having a section for trending or different tags to search for exactly what you are looking for, would make the app much easier.
Concept Findings.
The app could be used to garner attention regarding Fordham’s dining. With enough traction, the app could convince faculty members to take students' concerns more seriously. Student complaints paired with photographic evidence of their experiences make it hard for faculty to ignore the ongoing problem.
The app is more useful to first-year students and students with meal plans. While the app is not as useful to commuters or students who do not have a meal plan, there is still a great number of students who are currently experiencing or have experienced Fordham dining. Therefore, these people would be able to share their experiences through our app, relate to other students, and create awareness.
DIGITAL PROTOTYPE.
Launch Page - A catchy slogan appears while opening the app. The main colors of the app were changed to green due to aesthetic reasons and to create a more individual identity for the app, itself.
The Home Feed - This portion of the feed shows trending posts and hashtags. The navigation menu (with three destinations) is located at the bottom and is clear and concise.
The Home Feed (Cont.) - Shows new posts and hashtags. The user can easily switch to see trending posts or new posts.
User Profile - Users are not allowed to upload a photo of themselves for their profile to maintain anonymity throughout the app. On their profiles, users can access their memories, statistics, the current newsletter, the About page, and the help center.
Memories - Memories feature showcases all of the user's past posts. Users are conveniently able to scroll through each month and look back on all the posts they have made.
Memories - Example Dates
Tea Tracker
Weekly Posts Breakdown Statistics
Notifications
Trending Hashtags
About Us
Help Center
Newsletter
Newsletter (Cont.)
IMPROVEMENTS.
Include closed captions on my videos: This allows my design to target more users and be more accessible, especially to those users who can't hear and depend on closed captions to learn and absorb information.
Extend the food search to all five NYC boroughs: Due to personal time constraints, it was most convenient for me to keep my food search limited to Manhattan only. However, after making such a decision, I immediately put a limit on the amount of users that could potentially use my product. Not all New Yorkers live/go out in Manhattan. Moving forward, this is something I would change in my design. I want to make the most out of the product and target as many users as possible.
Add more grocery store food options: Only a handful of my food reviews cover food that could be found at the grocery store. To cater more to users like Louis (one of my user personas), I would add more reviews about items users can buy at the market. In doing so, I would broaden the types of users that Let's Talk Food focuses on.
*Instead of targeting very specific New Yorkers, I will focus more on New Yorkers who are looking for affordable foods on the streets of the city, and those looking for affordable foods at the grocery store.*
