Context
Back in December 2020, Robi Axiata Ltd. hosted a mobile app design competition for students of IBA, University of Dhaka.
At the outset of COVID, IBA had tried third-party apps to coordinate academic activities. However, all of them turned out to have extremely bad user experience, including cramped user interface and complex user journeys.
Our task was to build an academic app that would make the administrative experience more enjoyable for all stakeholders, including students, teachers and admins.
Contributors
- Sibbir Riyan, Jr. Growth Product Manager at MyAlice.
- Ahmed Hasan, Lead Product Designer at Zelf
- Abdullah Azwad Rafeed, Business Analyst Intern at Selise Digital Platforms.
- Arka Rahman, Product Specialist at Intelligent Machines
User Research
Firstly, we conducted 12 one-on-one user interviews and collected 71 survey responses to analyze our target market needs. Out of these efforts emerged two user groups.
Persona 1: The Regular IBAite
Who
Shadaf Ahmed is an undergraduate at IBA. He is 22 years old, living in Dhaka with his family. He is an android user and a tech savvy person. He is active on social media and messaging apps. His usual pasttimes include hangouts with friends, sports and online gaming. Overall, he is liberal and open to new experiences.
User Pain Points
- Communication Clutter: Currently, academic updates are posted on multiple channels, including Facebook groups, Messenger chat, WhatsApp group and whatnot. So, Shadaf has to stay online on these channels only to keep track of all updates.
- Apps Not Compatible on Smartphones: The previous apps that IBA tried were not compatible on smartphones and crashed frequently, although 98% of the students, including Shadaf, track academic updates on their mobile phones.
User Needs
- Core Need: Convenience
- Core Tension: Multichannel commuication noise
- Potential Solution: A one-stop platform for academic updates.
Persona 2: The Professor
Who
Nazifa Sarwar is an Associate Professor at IBA. She is 35 years old, living in Dhaka with her family.
She is comfortable with new technology and considers herself a tech savvy person. She also tries to adapt with the new generation.
Overall, she identifies as a young soul and is also open to new experiences.
User Pain Points
- Mail Clutter: All of her students from different batches, colleagues, and university employees reach out to her via edumail. Sometimes, she feels overwhelmed and struggles to keep track of all her mails despite trying out labels and tags.
- Lack of a Central Platform: IBA lacks a central coordination platform where teachers and admins can get a bird’s eye view of the entire schedule so that it’s easy to reschedule classes, and book certain facilities, such as exam halls, auditoriums, IT department, etc. Therefore, faculties often waste significant time trying to reaching out to relevant admins. Add in hassle due to the lack of a central directory.
User Needs
- Core Need: Productivity and Time Management
- Core Tension: Information Clutter
- Potential Solution: A central platform for receiving and regulating academic updates.
