Michigan Navs

Michigan Navs is a mobile application that allows users to identify more accessible routes on a college campus based on their physical limits.

Michigan Navs was created and designed as part of an Interaction Design Class at the University of Michigan - School of Information.

Problem Statement

The first step in building this product was picking a specific problem to tackle. My problem statement became:

For the purpose of this project, I will focus on a navigation system that can primarily be used for navigating college campuses. Often times “best” route to take is not the most accessible route for everyone. The “fastest” or more “efficient” route is primarily for physically abled users which do not always apply to all community members. I believe a design solution should integrate current navigation/map functionality and identify ADA accessible landmarks that can be used to find the best route for community members across college campuses.

The inspiration for the project stems from no navigation feature on the University of Michigan’s campus app which makes finding accessible routes for campus members are nearly impossible. Some inspiration was also pulled from my previous university’s campus app which includes campus navigation but does not highlight accessible paths.

Storymapping: Interaction Flow + Personas

After identifying a problem, steps were created for users to accomplish the task of getting to a destination on campus. Identified an interaction flow that would include a series of activities (blue stickie notes) that would be used by “pro” personas.

Getting Ready
Preparing for the Day
Leaving for Class
Getting to Class

My personas’, specific task flows are identified by their respective stickie note colors:

Persona 1 - Thomas Johnson (orange stickie notes)

Persona 2 - Krystal Bryant: (green stickie notes)

Persona 3 - Emma Fulton: (pink stickie notes)

Personas are pictured below.

Interaction Flow

Getting Ready:

The story map begins with all three personas waking up and preparing to get ready for the day. Other tasks involve deciding where to go, getting out of bed, and getting dressed

Preparing for the Day:

The story map continues with personas preparing for venturing out for the day in order to get to class that day. Tasks involve grabbing their phones to perform additional tasks such as checking out a campus map, checking the weather for the day, checking the distance from their first class, and identifying accessible routes to take. Personas 1 and 2 are students who live on-campus while Persona 3, a teacher, must also identify the best parking lot for their car.

Leaving for Class:

As the narrative continues tasks include all three personas grabbing their things for class, departing for class, and deciding on which route to take to get to class. Persona 3 must also grab their car keys, turn their car on before leaving for class.

Getting to Class:

The story map continues and eventually comes to an end as each persona makes their way to class. Each personas’ tasks are to find the most accessible entrance for them, enter the building, and arriving at class. Persona 3 must first drive to campus, park their car, before continuing their journey as they make their way to class.

Storyboarding

Proceeded to sketch out potential solutions. Eight different solutions were sketched out in a storyboard format, each taking on different ideas.

Competitive Analysis

I conducted competitive analysis among existing products within the mapping space aimed at tackling route deficiencies. I primarily focused on key features that I considered important to consider while designing for accessible navigations. From here I was able to identify where current mapping systems fell short while also acknowledging their strengths which influenced my approach to my design solution.

Prototyping

Paper Prototype

Upon receiving feedback from peers and potential users, the next step was to create a low fidelity paper prototype of a potential solution combining some of the ideas from the storyboard and sketches.

Prototype

Digital Prototype

After iteratively improving the paper prototype while receiving feedback from peers and potential users a medium-fidelity digital prototype using Sketch which was hosted on InVision was put together.