Rutgers' TaskU
Enhancing Persuasive Design
Ethical design methods used to improve university students' well-being by encouraging accountability, boosting productivity, and enhancing connectivity.
Overview
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Proposal: Address the growing need for students to feel connected, balanced, and supported in their transition from remote learning back to campus life.
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Timeline: Fall 2022 | Responsibilities: User Research, Sketches, Wireframing, Prototyping, and Testing | Teammates: Alexandra Katzenberger, Anannya Bhagat, Oyindamola Apata, & Sumi Shinnal
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Goals:
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Empower Rutgers students to balance academics with personal life during the transition from remote to on-campus learning.
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Address the root causes of student stress and foster a sense of community through digital support tools.
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Outcome (KPIs):
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Holistic Support: Developed a multi-feature app addressing mental, physical, and academic well-being in one unified dashboard.
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Persuasive Engagement: Successfully integrated four core persuasive design principles to motivate consistent student self-care.
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The TaskU team called the Pixel Chicks
Research Phase & Decisions
Methods Used: User Interviews, Journey Mapping, and Sentiment Analysis.
Why: With a background in psychology, I chose in-depth interviewing to uncover the nuances of student stress that surface-level surveys might miss.
Key Insights:
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Transition Stress: Students struggled with the rapid shift back to campus, feeling overwhelmed by deadlines and disconnected from social circles.
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Awareness vs. Action: While students understood their stressors, they lacked the structure to implement self-care solutions consistently.
User Insights from the Interview
Through the user interviews, my team was able to derive three core objectives to address in our product, TaskU
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Accountability
Enhancing student's time management skills by elevating their accountability.
Productivity
Helping students achieve their goals by increasing their productivity.
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Connectivity
Instilling a sense of community among students by fostering connectivity.
Personas & User Journey
Created personas based on research insights. Brianna, an undergraduate overwhelmed by deadlines and disconnection, became our primary persona. Her daily journey highlighted key pain points: rushed mornings, unfocused afternoons, and anxious evenings.
Brianna's Persona
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.
Low-fidelity Wireframes
Low-fidelity Sketches
Applying Persuasive Design Principles
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Personalization - Homepage & Events Screen: Personalized dashboard that prioritizes tasks, events, and goals based on user preferences, increasing engagement and emotional connection.
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​Principle of Aspiration - Calendar screen: Calendar with reminders and an accountability partner feature, enabling students to share goals with friends and stay motivated through goal-setting.
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Social Proof Principle- Friends & Discover Page: Friends & Discover page showcasing peers’ activities, goals, and events, encouraging participation through social proof.
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Gamification - Points & Rewards Screen: Rewards system where users earn points for completing tasks and redeem them for prizes, increasing motivation and productivity.
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.
The feedback from the User Testing
Heuristic Evaluations
Some of the Heuristic tests that our app did not pass:
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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.
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Heuristic #10: "help and documentation" because the users did not immediately understand the goal of the app upon clicking it open.
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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 :
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Heuristic #3 "user control & freedom": users should be given an emergency 'exit' button to click out of anything they clicked on.
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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."
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Heuristic #7 "flexibility & efficiency of use": add a filtering option.
Next Steps
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Pilot Program Launch: Propose a small-scale pilot within a specific Rutgers residential hall to track how "TaskU" impacts student GPA and reported stress levels over one semester.
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Mental Health Resource Integration: Partner with Rutgers Counseling Services (CAPS) to provide direct, in-app scheduling for professional support sessions.
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Refined Gamification: Explore a "University-Wide Leaderboard" where students can compete in "Well-being Challenges" for actual on-campus rewards (e.g., meal swipes or bookstore credits).
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.