Virtual Events Connected
Promoting Unity, Productivity, and Connectivity for College Students and Leaders
Brief
A university portal add-on to improve the discovery and outreach for virtual campus events
Duration
2 weeks
Apr - May 2020
Role
UX/UI, Interaction Design, Visual Design
The Problem
College students face inconveniences and uncertainty due to COVID-19
Student leaders and organizations are experiencing issues with accountability, outreach, and resources for virtual events.
The Solution
A vaccine for disorganization and social isolation
An accessible platform for all university students within a particular school to find, create, and organize virtual campus events.
Targeted Users: Student Leaders
Student Engagement in a Virtual Learning Environment
How has“campus life” been impacted by COVID-19?
In-person events → online events
On-campus locations → video conferencing
Decreased student engagement
User Research & User Personas
Different Types of Organizations Offer Events Geared Towards Diverse Audiences
Social
Goal: Promote events for non-members, meeting new people
Professional
Goal: Expand event outreach, maintain member accountability
Service
Goal: Meeting event goals based on previous years’ metrics
Insights & Goals
Student Leaders Want to Restructure Their Events in a Digital World as Opposed to Cancelling Them
Goal 01: Accountability
Promote unity, productivity, and connectivity for students attending virtual events
Goal 02: Outreach
Increasing outreach for virtual events, reaching all interested students within a university network
Goal 03: Resources
Make the discovery of virtual campus events easier through an accessible platform
Competitor Evaluation
OnCampus
A web platform that helps students effortlessly find clubs and student groups to join at UCLA
Students can search their interests, view a curated list of all related UCLA clubs, and look up more information about each club they’re interested in
Lacks personalized event recommendations
SOLE
The SOLE Office advises over 1200 campus organizations
Services include: registration of new and continuing organizations, programming assistance, organization & leadership development, fundraising approval and guidelines, funding proposal consultation, and advisement on rules and regulations
SOLE also approves time, place, and manner for the campus activities of registered organizations
Lacks updated information and is required to go through a webmaster
A public event organization platform that allows you to respond to gatherings in the real world with people on Facebook
Users can create and edit an event, post photos and videos to the event, invite people to their event, and control who sees or joins the event
This platform is used widely by UCLA organizations
Unless the user is following a club or organization, they do not have access to event information within their social feed
Product Definition & Features
Event Calendar
An archive of events that the user is interested in or planning on attending to increase event engagement for both the student and organization.
Personalized Event Feed
A way to customize virtual events by date and categorical tags and interact with the event posting (RSVP, favorite, learn more about the organization).
Simplified Event Form
An efficient and secure form submission for organization signatories to create and submit virtual events that are accessible to the entire student body.
Platform
Clubs and Organizations Utilize Platforms That Are Limited to Current Members
If you were not a part of an organization, you do not have access to a club’s resources.
Increasing Accessibility for Events in a Newfound Virtual Environment
myUCLA - a portal to UCLA where students can do everything from enrolling in classes to keeping up with campus news and events.
Design
Reflection
My Very First Design Competition
- This was my first experience competing in a virtual product hackathon within a team
- I am thankful for the opportunity to design a product to address a real-world solution in the midst of a pandemic
Streamlining Organization Resources for Long-Term Connections
- Our goal was to streamline organization resources with an impact extending past the current virtual environment
- While V.E. Connected focuses on events, it would be great to incorporate an interactive feature for students to communicate with current organization members
- This would be especially useful for students with less experience in an in-person college environment and incoming college students for Fall 2020
Regulating Virtual Event Management
- More research with administrative staff, a university’s IT department, and student leaders is needed to verify the usability and the regulation of various events
- We also acknowledge that our prototype is exclusively for UCLA’s online platform and would have to be adapted based on each university’s student portals