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Kanban for the
university student
An app to help structure group assignment
Timeline
3 weeks
Tools
Pen, Paper, Illustrator, Figma,
Team size
4 people
My role
Workshop Facilitation, Research, Visual design
Methods
Contextual design, affinity diagram
Goals
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Involve the stakeholders throughout the project
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Create a concept that makes work easy and accessible among students
This project focused on the use of Participatory design (Co-design), which is an approach that attempts to involve all the stakeholders in the process to meet their needs and expectations. Our participants were university students from different schools in Stockholm. This project was part of a course at Stockholm University.
The final product was an app called Kanban. It was inspired by the Japanese lean method with the same name. The app helps users organize different tasks or group assignments. It allows the user to create checklists together as a team and communicate through a shared group chat. Kanban displays progress in three different lists called To-do, Doing, and Done.
Project background
Figure 3: Storyboards
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Course Information & Material was chosen as the most important problem to reflect on in the next step, which was the Future workshop technique. We started by asking the participants to reflect and criticize the situation as it is today. Then we continued to fantasize about the most optimal solution for the problem. In the final step, we checked if the generated ideas were feasible. This workshop allowed us to pick and choose among many concepts.
Together with the participants, we created a design that was visually represented in a storyboard. The storyboard allowed us to better understand the situation in which the app would be used.
Figure 2: Affinity diagram
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The next step was to organize the data we generated. Affinity diagrams helped us sort through the material we had. We wrote everything down on post-its and categorized them onto the table. The findings became three categories: Study Method, Communication, and Course Information & Material. These categories had different statements and problems concerning these subjects.
Figure 1: Observation of the participants
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The process began with the use of contextual research to find potential design problems that could exist in an educational environment. This approach allowed us to use different methods to collect and interpret the data. We conducted multiple interviews and performed an ethnographic study in which we observed the participant's behaviors. This user-centered design process allowed us to gather a large amount of data, that was used for concept development.
Process
Figure 4: Course Information & Material
One example is shown below, it is the findings from the Course Information & Material category. This is the affinity diagram we created together with our participants. Here is criticism about the existing forums such as Canvas, and other concerns about course material and information. These findings were applied and processed in a Future workshop before the final design was developed.
Findings
Figure 6: Color palette and icons
This was our final design solution, which is Kanban. Kanban is a tool that helps university students organizing their group assignments or tasks. It has three different lists called To-do, Doing, and Done. The final branding became this fun, colorful, and energetic design. This to match the target audience.
Colors were picked to distinguish different lists and their importance (To-do, Doing, and Done). Icons were made to provide the user with alternatives such as More options and Settings, Saved lists, Calendar, Discarded lists. Saved lists are lists the users might save for later.
Figure 5: Kanban app
The solution was first wireframed and then made into a prototype. The first iteration was tested for usability. Participants were assigned different tasks while being observed. We included the method Thinking Aloud, which allowed us to get more insights. The prototype app was then improved to its final state which is shown down below.
Solution
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