In my first professional role I practiced communicating ideas with collaborative teams, gained an appreciation for design systems, and had my first experience working in a professional environment.
Overview
I spent 12 weeks as an intern at CBORD, a software company that works in K-12, higher education, and healthcare, and devoted most of my time to designing the mobile housing portion of this app. I worked with the product owner, developers, and market owners to design the housing portion of CBORD Student mobile app, a platform that allows college students to engage with their school's services.
Although most of the product teams used an Agile product development method, I operated independently and was responsible for communicating with my team. I engaged in weekly critiques and meetings with both the design team and my product team; however, most of the design decisions were left to my discretion.
Where We Started
When I came on at CBORD in May of 2019, the housing product needed some love. Students and housing administrators were stuck using an outdated product that was confined to desktops. With clients like Princeton & Cornell, we needed to make some changes to better serve the needs of our users; both students and administrators.
The goal of the redesign was to modernize the app by designing a better experience that met people where they spent most of their time: their phones.
Design Challenges
There are a number of steps to get a student in a dorm in their first semester of college. Our goal was to make all of these steps accessible through the CBORD Student mobile app. I made sure the experience of applying for housing, searching for a unit, and finalizing a contract was easy and fast.
Forms & Applications
We needed to create forms that could be used by housing administrators to create housing applications, leasing documents, and anything else a university housing team might need
1. Page Scroll
Scroll between different pages of information with the page controls. There are situations where students need to enter information before proceeding in the form further. In pages, rather than infinite scrolling, allow the form to hide certain fields until certain information has been entered, like a student ID.
2. Document Status
Students can see the status of an application from the housing menu of their app rather than waiting for an email that may be missed.
Room Selection
The original process to find housing was done through a rudimentary text selection menu. We wanted to redesign our new experience to be more familiar to our users, taking inspiration from apps like Zillow, Airbnb, & Opendoor. These design models were already familiar to many users and there was no sense in redesigning the wheel.
1. Tabs
We wanted to give users the ability to search by building or unit. Some students are looking for a building near the cafeteria and others are looking for any four bedroom that can fit themselves and their friends.
2. Dropdown Details
Some of the information users look for quickest about buildings is listed here. Alternatively, users can click the in the card (not on the dropdown) to immediately open the building page.
Checkout
We needed to create forms that could be used by housing administrators to create housing applications, leasing documents, and anything else a university housing team might need
1. Invite Roomates
Many students do the dorm browsing for their group of friends. This feature allows one student to easily invite other students to join their unit.
2. Select your Bed
Students can quickly see which beds are still available and select their bed in the checkout process.
Takeaways
Making Big Decisions
The ability to gain experience working on a real product was invaluable to my growth as a UX Designer. I encountered real design problems and gained experience overcoming them with other designers, developers, and product managers.
I learned to trust the UX process, research the market, and iterate furiously.