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CIVITAZ

Help people cope with isolation due to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Client
Indiana University
Timeline
Mar-May 2020
Role
UX Research, Ideation, Visuals, Prototyping
Tools
Adobe XD, Illustrator

PROBLEM

Help people cope with isolation due to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

SOLUTION

CIVITAZ, a cross platform application that enables people to have shared experiences such as online gaming or co-watching non-intrusively.

DESIGN PROCESS

01.
PERCEIVE

Initial Question

How social distancing has impacted the community?

Digital Observations

The research team performed digital observations of a variety of online communities such as Discord, Reddit, etc. utilizing a fly on the wall approach.

Interviews

Each researcher conducted two interviews and the participants were recruited out of convenience.

Surveys

Surveys were distributed to ten people of which 8 replied. These surveys were identical to the interview questions.

Findings

  • The lockdown has made people anxious about socializing feeling they might cause annoyance and feel un-invited.
  • People feel the multimedia platforms should enable users to have shared experiences.

Refined Question

How can we help people socialize in a non-intrusive way?

02.
ANALYZE

Problem Synthesis

What are people's expectations?

Affinity Diagramming

We performed Affinity Diagramming to organize data collected by each researcher and identify user expectations.

Key Requirements

As a <user> I want <to know if my connections are available> so that <I can be social without feeling intrusive>

As a <user> I want <to have shared experiences digitally> so that <I can be social while adhering to distancing guidelines>

Who are the users?

03.
DESIGN

Wireframe

We created a low fidelity interactive prototype implementing the features identified.

04.
EVALUATE

What are some problems in the design?

To evaluate the wireframes I performed an expert evaluation and a cognitive walkthrough.

Expert Evaluation

  • When user is trying to decide how long to schedule an event and they don’t know how long it is going to be, or want it to last all day, they may find it difficult to interact with.

Cognitive Walkthrough

  • Lack of sign in and sign up button on login screen.
  • The light colors on the scheduling screen make it hard to see what needs to be filled out and it could be easy for an eager user to skip over a step or two.

05.
MATERIALIZE

Design System

I created a design system to maintain uniformity throughout the design.

Hi-Fi Design
Interactive Prototype

Thanks for reading!

I hope that you enjoyed reading the case study as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

PERCEIVE
ANALYZE
DESIGN
EVALUATE
MATERIALIZE

Let's Connect!

This doesn't have to end.
Email me at dpatni@iu.edu and lets talk about anything!