The Michigan App

How do we help people around campus?

When a freshman reaches the University of Michigan campus, they download the “University of Michigan app”, otherwise known as “The Michigan app”. However, this app will soon be idle on their phone as they discover other resources or apps with better functionality.

Our team of 5 UXers were given a project to explore and come up with suggestions for this app. We were not given a project scope so we conducted many research methodologies to identify how exactly we can help strengthen the app’s reputation.

As a result, we not only offered recommendations to the team but also spurred executive support to enhance the app's strategic importance.

Problem:

Users often drop out of the app after finding other resources.

Goal:

Improve the app’s purpose to centralize a user’s need.

Links:

Figma prototype

Final presentation

Tools:

Figma, Google Suite, Qualtrics

Defining our project

Previous Research

To start, we had a discussion with our project sponsor to gather any pre-researched data. We were told that the top 3 features are class schedules, bus, and dining. The majority user are students although many staff and faculty uses the app as well. Common peak periods would be during the start of a semester.

According to the Looker Studio analytics, there are currently 26,264 total users (50k+ total downloads on the Play Store) that primarily uses an iOS compared to an Android.

The Michigan app analytics

Scope 1: The Everything app

At first, we wanted the Michigan app to be an “everything” app for everyone in the university. The university has a multitude of individual apps and we thought that the best way was to create a hub to link or include everything from those individual scattered apps.

This quickly proved to be a huge development overhaul and way too big for our project scope.

Scope 2: Fix what’s already there

So, we quickly pivot to improve existing features. To do that, we need to figure out what should be the highest priority to work on.

User Surveys

I created a user survey on Qualtrics and sent out to fellow interns, students, and staff on Slack and email. We received 30 responses (13 students, 15 staff, 2 other).

Just as mentioned, most users open the app 1-2 times a semester or once a month.

Bar chart for how often our users open the app

Insight 1: different user roles = different user needs

Solution: introduce a personalization feature

Out of 13 students :

1. Bus (54%)

2. Dining (54%)

3. Class (46%)

Top 3 features in importance:

Out of 15 staff :

1. Parking (53%)

2. Bus (40%)

3. Featured events (40%)

Insight 2: the app navigation is scattered across different screens

Solution: consolidate onto a single screen

“I have no idea how the bus system works”

“Tapping on the stops doesn’t show arrival times but rather requires a separate screen”

Insight 3: the app has many hidden features

Solution: Resurface these useful features

“The Michigan app has too many layers and is hard to access the service I want to use”

“I didn't know the Michigan app could do what the listed applications could do”

Information Architecture (IA)

Before continuing, I built out an IA diagram so the team can quickly reference each screen and are able to look at the app as a whole.

Michigan app information architecture

Heuristic Evaluation and Effort-Impact Graph

All 5 of us individually conducted a heuristic evaluation and performance analysis on the app and cross-referenced each other’s responses.

Individual heuristic evaluation

Our cross-referenced list

We then created a effort-impact graph to prioritize which issue to address within our summer. For the high impact low effort section, we drafted a slide deck on proposed “quick fixes” to the developers.

Our problem prioritization graph

That’s us working!

Competitor Analysis

We looked at multiple competitors such as the M-Bus app, Penn State University’s, and Michigan State University’s app to understand how they presented their information. We also looked at some common apps such as Safari and Google maps for inspiration.

Some features we took note from other apps

Contextual Inquiry

We worked closely with our project sponsor and app developers to understand their workflow. We also conducted contextual interviews with all 3 developers to understand their work load and standard practices. We wanted to ensure that the developers feel appreciated in their work and gathered their suggestions for the app as well.

Zoom call with our project sponsor

Scope 3: Combine and Centralize

As we were working on the features, we realize that many individual features could be combined into a single category. For example, the bus, dining, parking, class locations, computing sites, etc can be considered one category as “places”.

Hence, we started to focus on combining these features into a single page or functionality.

Using this approach will create a standardized information retrieval

Object-Oriented UX (OOUX)

My team followed the OOUX principle to organize the different features our app provides. The idea is to first list out the main objects in an app, then the relationships between them, break it down by attributes, and list the call-to-actions.

For example, this is a big overview of what is available in the home page. This helps us organize and arrange these features accurately.

OOUX for the home page

The top blue sticky notes are the main objects in the home page while the bottom ones are nested objects. Yellow notes are the content while the reds are metadata.

Our suggestions

Modularity

We introduced that each feature turn into a “module” and the home page will be a collection of these modules. Each module will be the same size and structure, and can be hidden, collapsed, and rearranged.

Some modules will consist of multiple objects.

Remember the OOUX? Each object is a module.

Some modules are a combination of objects

This benefits both users and developers.

Users are able to customize their home page according to their needs.

For developers, each feature will be a lot more standardized and component-driven, where editing a specific module will not affect the other modules.

Dark mode

Light mode

Customization

Onboarding experience

We created an seamless onboarding process to easily integrate you into the app while helping us keep track of your user role.

Michigan app onboarding experience

What if you want to use the app without needing to log in? No problem!

A user can choose between the different user roles or opt as a guest. The arrangement of modules will be according the chosen user role.

Places - map page

We also proposed to create a new map page that consolidates all the locations that a student may want to navigate to.

This will navigate like a map page where a user will only need to stay on the map page and choose the category they want in the bottom sheet. This provides a consistent design and showases all the features into a single page.

Michigan app map page

Because the app gets charged a fee for the amount of map views, this would also reduce costs because a user will not need to reload the map page multiple times. It also suggests room for future expansion.

Executive support

Perhaps the biggest issue we saw but was not able to help was the fact that the Michigan app have not been updated for 7 years despite the numerous suggestions provided over the years.

As my team was working on the project, we were told to not keep our hopes up that our suggestions would be implemented. It seemed like the internal team does not have the Michigan app as their priority - a situation that can be common found anywhere.

Despite that, we did our best to help.

One day, a teammate was talking to the Assistant Vice President of the department that handled the Michigan app and brought up the subject. We requested a meeting to talk about our proposal and things spiraled upwards. News inevitably spread to multiple leadership positions and we found ourselves having a meeting with them on our last week of the internship.

As interns, we weren’t able to see this project through. We could only pass along our findings and vision, hoping for the best. The good news is that we heard updates about our push and catalyzed something internally.

As we end the internship, we leave with a better understanding of how a project lifeline could be and with hopes that we made a difference.

Interact with our Figma prototype.

Check out our final presentation!

My Favorite part:

Honestly, my team made my summer. I was not expecting to find a team of self driven individuals that cared for me in and out of the project.

5 random people came together in hopes of learning something but left with stories and valuable relationships. We’ve had improvised presentations, 6pm brainstorms, and was soaked in the rain together.

Takeaways

Don’t lose track of the focus. Because our project scope was vague, we took a long time to figure out what to focus on. As explained in this case study, we pivoted many times and conducted many research methodologies to accurately diagnose what the app needed. Sometimes, that might feel like you’re running in circles.
Communication is key. In our first meeting, we talked about working and communication styles to understand each other. It was very important because that was the base of knowing how our team dynamic might work. During our meetings, we often try multiple brainstorm approaches and iterate on what suited us best.

Final Thoughts

This was probably the most impactful project I felt I contributed in. I am grateful for how welcoming and willing to listen everyone is, especially the team leads that set aside time to listen to a group of interns.

Working within a supportive team dynamic made the entire project enjoyable and fulfilling. It was incredible to learn the different work styles and thought processes my teammates had. It truly reinforces the significance of diversity within a team for me.