Santa Monica College Mobile App Redesign
My role: UI/UX Designer
In my work/study at Santa Monica College, we participated in a 90-days Modo design competition to redesign and increase usage on existing Santa Monica College mobile app. We won "First place for Best Design"; "Second place for Commencement Module."
Challenge
Modo 90 days design challenge.
Problem
SMC GO app is not as involved as it should be in student’s academic journey at Santa Monica College.
Focus
SMCGO App improvements and developments in order to have a better usability on the app.
Solution
We brought a whole new way to navigate and explore. This engaging new interface takes away the assumptions of college and lets students uniquely discover their own interests, as well as endless resources, to help enrich their everyday as they journey towards their goals.
DESIGN RESEARCH
Based on our survey, we were able to get really helpful insights.
1. Majority (80%) rarely use the SMC GO app.
2. 8.5% students say that it is Very Easy to navigate. 27.1% students say that it is Easy, which means more than 60% of students either are Neutral or find it Difficult.
3. Only 28.8% think It's Nice. 70% don’t claim to love it.
User Research
I’m surprised by the interview results. They complained that the app constantly links to the Website, and the interface is hard to navigate. These extreme complains really got me thinking how to bring the app to the next level.
User Interviews
“I used the SMC GO app because I thought that was easier, but it was not!”
— John Wesley Nason
(a 2 years SMC student)
“I honestly never think to use the SMC GO app.”
— Abigail Brand
(a 5 years SMC student)
“The SMC GO APP needs its own features to keep people using it.”
— Brain Smith
(a 1 year SMC student)
We also surveyed top of our competitive Analysis about the rating of a few colleges/universities’ school apps.
1st: Regency college
2nd: University of Central Florida
3rd: Cypress College
4th: California State University, Northridge
5th: Santa Monica College
Through our competitive analysis we wanted to create something that has a great visual like Regency College. The Icons from UCF inspired us to our further designs.
Competitive Analysis
Sketches
These sketches opened the door to our creativity. It gave us so many options or inspirations. UCF's icons inspired us in our app to make things clean. We also wanted to make it as simple and clean as possible due to the student complaints we received through our survey.
Card Sort
Card sort helped us to have better different levels of navigation. We wanted to make everything as more valuable and easy to navigate as we could. We were able to take out many listed things in the app but had never been used. We rearranged all the categories and made them more organized and accessible for users.
Branding
UI design helped us finalize the visual direction we were heading. We built a separate style guide on top of the original SMC brand style guide. We combined 3 SMC primary colors and created this gradient layer on top to keep everything consistent; at the same time, it fixed the too much blue problem. We made a lot of gradient patterns to avoid the old and outdated vibes that our old app was given. We used many images that are being used on the website. We wanted to keep everything as consistent as possible, either for the mobile or the website.
Prototype
Based on our UI style guide, we started putting things together. The gradient color makes everything consistent as a brand. The icons make the app look so clean.
FINAL PRODUCT
To keep SMC GO useful in the on-campus and off-campus in mind, we created this new version of the app entirely. It’s not just the look; it also provides valuable concepts in the app. Better visuals and accessibilities brought SMC GO to the next level of school apps. Download the app from the links below to check out the final product.
FINAL REFLECTION
This experience pushed me on my communication skills and collaborating skills as a designer. The collaboration with Modo taught me how to update my work to stakeholders weekly and how to communicate with the project manager on tasks. We won two awards for our SMC GO app. First place for Best Design; Second place for Commencement Module. I’m so proud of our work.
Esau Tovar, Ph.D.
Dean of Enrollment Services
Santa Monica College