Ostropolis
Ostropolis is a mobile application designed to help university students stay productive by gamifying their to-do lists into a fun and engaging experience. As part of a collaborative group, I led the development process and focused on user experience and functionality. The app includes gamification elements such as rewards, levels, progression tracking, and character customization to encourage users to engage with their tasks. Our goal was to create a tool that allows students to have a balanced academic and personal responsibility.
Research
My primary role in the project centered around the research and development of the application, with a focus on understanding the needs of our target audience: university students who often struggle with managing assignments and academic responsibilities.
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To gain meaningful insights, I made a concerted effort to engage with as many students as possible during the research phase. This included conducting one-on-one interviews, organizing focus groups, and distributing surveys across campus. In total, over 80 students participated, providing valuable feedback about their day-to-day challenges.
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I then synthesized the collected data to identify recurring pain points and patterns in behavior. This process helped clarify our target audience and informed the direction of the application’s design and features, ensuring that the final product addressed real user needs.
Persona/Journey Maps
After consolidating our research findings, we moved into the synthesis phase, where I developed a user persona and journey map to guide our design decisions. The persona, Luke Garcia, represents a typical university student navigating the challenges of academic life. I defined Luke’s key pain points, motivations, and goals to better understand his needs and expectations.
To visualize his interaction with the product, I created a detailed journey map that outlines Luke’s experience, from the moment he discovers the application to his ongoing use of its features. This map highlighted opportunities for improvement, touchpoints for user engagement, and areas where the app could provide the most value, helping inform both the final product's design and user flow.
Wireframes
My role in the wireframing process focused on aligning the design team and establishing clear objectives for each screen. I worked closely with the other two designers to ensure consistent communication and clarity around user goals. Early on, I defined functional requirements for each page, ensuring every interaction had a purpose.
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My core design principle for the UI was simplicity and efficiency, ensuring users could reach their desired destination in as few clicks as possible. One key discussion within the team centered around navigation design. One designer advocated for a collapsible side menu, while another preferred fixed navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen. Rather than choose one direction prematurely, we decided to prototype both solutions and let user testing determine which approach best supported usability and engagement.
Testing
I was responsible for planning and conducting the user testing phase. I organized three testing sessions to gather meaningful insights, each designed to observe user behavior and validate our design decisions.
One of the key findings was that users overwhelmingly preferred the bottom navigation menu, while the collapsible menu saw minimal use. During test sessions, I also observed that some users experienced confusion when trying to navigate certain parts of the app. These usability issues highlighted areas where the interface needed improvement.
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I communicated these insights clearly to the design team, and we used each round of testing to iterate on the design. This continuous feedback loop helped refine the user experience and ensured the final product was both intuitive and user-friendly.
High-Fidelity Mockups
Once we had gathered all the necessary research and testing insights, we developed the app’s high-fidelity mockups. At this stage, my primary responsibilities included setting clear deadlines to keep the team on track and ensuring the overall user interface was intuitive, visually consistent, and easy to navigate.
Testing
For the next testing phase, I conducted one-on-one sessions with students to evaluate the latest version of the app. I organized six tests to gather targeted feedback and validate improvements made after the previous round.
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The results were encouraging—users no longer experienced the navigation issues that had surfaced earlier, indicating that our design adjustments were successful. I carefully documented the feedback and used it to guide the final refinements to the application, ensuring a smoother, more intuitive user experience before moving toward completion.
What did I learn?
This project marked one of my first experiences managing a team through the development of a mobile application. My responsibilities focused heavily on coordinating user research, scheduling meetings, and interpreting data to inform design decisions.
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Throughout the process, I identified some communication challenges within the team, particularly around aligning ideas and priorities. To address this, I implemented regular weekly meetings to ensure everyone stayed on the same page and clearly understood project goals.
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By the end of the project, we had a strong foundation and a well-developed prototype. With further refinement, there’s real potential to bring the app to full production.