Reconceptualizing a New Welcome Gift for

PRIME DIGITAL ACADEMY

Prime Digital Academy is an institution that is respected by the Twin Cities Tech Community and beloved by its students. Prime ensures that all students feel a sense of welcome and belonging by demonstrating a commitment to its Vision & Values – Include Everyone, Practice Empathy, Foster Community, Collaborate Frequently and Assume Positivity. Prime demonstrates these values in many ways, including presenting a welcome gift to its Full-stack students on the first day of class. For this project, I was tasked with conceptualizing a new welcome gift that would be both meaningful and usable.

Client: Prime Digital Academy

Role: UX Research, Design & Testing

Methods: Heuristic Analysis, Participant Observations (AEIOU framework), Design Concepts, Physical Design Prototyping, Usability Testing, Flexible Modeling, Client Pitch Presentation

Question 1:

What already exists?

I began by conducting a Heuristic Analysis on the existing welcome gift – a waterbottle – to determine what qualities made it undesirable. It soon became clear that this waterbottle violated many of Jakob Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics. What’s more, Prime Students themselves shared that this gift simply wasn’t meaningful to them.

So I went back to the drawing board.

Question 2:

What do they need?

I had the opportunity to observe the Full-Stack students in their classrooms and during unstructured time in the campus commons area. During these observations I was able to wear two hats – one as a current Prime Student, and another as a former educator with 10 years of experience leading communities of learners.

Throughout these observations I considered the ways in which Prime’s Vision & Values intersected with the daily lives of students. It became clear that Prime could demonstrate its care for students by gifting them a means of caring for themselves.

Question 3:

What might it look like?

I created 3 design concepts to this end:

1) A coffee tumbler with encouraging statements marking the sides

2) A coupon book with a variety of gifts to alleviate points of stress

3) A computer stand caddy for students to have ready access to necessities when working away from their desks. 

During my observations, I noticed was how frequently students moved around the room throughout the day. Full-Stack students spend about 50% of their time away from their desks, sometimes up to 3-4 hours per day, sitting through a lecture. Many of them use computer stands for their laptops, but have to leave other important items behind. I considered how I would feel as a student if I wasn’t able to quickly access my personal items or learning tools. Thinking as a former educator, I also considered how much distraction this would pose whenever a student had to get up in the middle of a lecture to retrieve something.

With input from teammates, I determined that the computer stand caddy would have the highest impact on meeting student needs. I then created a working prototype using canvas, velcro, elastic and hot glue.

Question 4:

Does this meet the needs of Full-Stack students?

I developed an evaluation plan to test my prototype with current Full-Stack students. For this evaluation, I had three primary goals:

1) To better understand the working & learning conditions of Full-Stack students while on campus

2) To gain insights around the convenience that this product would provide to Full-Stack students

3) To identify opportunities and pain points of product functionality and desirability

During the evaluations, I used the method of Flexible Modeling to see what the preferred layout of pockets might be. When interacting with the prototype, I received mixed feedback from participants. Though some were excited about the concept and the convenience it would provide, there were also concerns about possible weight and balance issues when combined with the computer stands.

Presentation to Stakeholders

I created a 5 minute presentation persuading stakeholders to use this concept for their new welcome gift.

After incorporating feedback from Full-Stack students, I am confident that this gift of a computer stand caddy will allow students to see Prime living out its values. Instead of simply telling students to take care of themselves, this gift will actually give students a means of doing so.