UX/UI DESIGN
Connecting students to local discounts and sales
TEAM
ROLE
UX Designer
duration
2 months
Context
On a warm spring day, I was relaxing on my college campus and scrolling through YikYak, an anonymous social media platform. I suddenly came across a post saying, "Free Jimmy John's subs in the Diag [the center of campus]." I quickly headed to the Diag, and it was true—if you signed up for a free DoorDash pass, you got a Jimmy John's sub! If I hadn't seen this YikYak post, I would have had no idea this deal was occurring. This experience inspired me to create an app that would help college students like myself to explore and track similar deals in the area.
How might we…
help college students explore free and cheap offers in their area in order to save money?
Preliminary Research
I sent out a short survey to a group of anonymous participants, and based on seven responses, college students are not fully satisfied with how campus and/or local deals are advertised to them. The large majority of respondents want to attend more campus/local events with deals, but they often have trouble knowing events are happening.
86%
of respondents want to attend more campus AND local events offering deals
What students are saying…
Sometimes the details are difficult to find without having already heard about the event.
I wish these specific deals were easier to find, or stuck out more.
Notifications can get lost easily
Initial Designs & Feedback
My first iteration of designs were black and white so I could focus on the structure and functionality of the app. After creating this first iteration, I submitted these frames to my instructors, and I used their feedback—mainly about aesthetics and assignment requirements—to improve my designs.
Final Designs
Reflection
Dealio emerged from a single moment in my personal experience, and it blossomed into one of my favorite projects. I had, and still have, a genuine interest in expanding visibility of cost-effective deals around college campuses—everyone knows students are not the wealthiest. From brainstorming, researching, designing, and prototyping, I truly enjoyed bringing Dealio to life. Through this experience, I learned that I build stronger connections with projects when I understand the users and stories behind the topic at hand. Once I collected some data from college students to understood their needs, the project became much more meaningful and necessary. While I don't have the capacity to develop Dealio into a real application, I hope a similar platform becomes available to students in the future.