2019: Starfish Kiosk/Waiting Room Redesign & Field Research
Background
In 2019—2021, I was the Senior UX Designer at Hobsons (acquired by EAB), for the Starfish product line. Starfish strives to bridge students, instructors, and advisors in their shared goal of student retention by providing tools and resources that are strategic and proven to help students finish their academic journey.
The Starfish Kiosk is an electronic check-in and waiting room for in-person campus services. The Kiosk is customizable and can be set up by various services at an Institution (i.e. Tutoring Center, Health Center). Students can check in for an existing appointment or for an unscheduled visit. In the summer of 2019, I redesigned the experience for students checking in and for service coordinators monitoring their digital and physical waiting rooms.
Research and Discovery
I collaborated with two product managers to facilitate 20 research interviews with college and university services who were using an older version of the kiosk or had expressed interest in using it. I led one-hour remote sessions on Zoom. The purpose of the sessions were to discover users' current processes and tools for keeping track of students checking in, and what improvements they needed.
Design & Testing
Designing for the kiosk was like solving a riddle because there were many possible scenarios that a student could encounter when “checking in” to a service center. Scenarios such as: does the student already have an appointment or are they showing up unexpectedly? Does the kiosk represent more than one service? Are students accepted without an appointment at this particular service?
I also wanted to keep in mind where improvements could be made in the students’ experience. I spoke with students about their experience visiting service centers on campus. Then, I made a list of common use cases that a student encounters when checking in. From there, I dove into designs (using Sketch) and prototyping (using Invision), and tested the prototype during several feedback sessions with clients and students.
Following the design, several internal user sessions were completed to test usability before release in the product.
Field Research
After the release of the redesigned Kiosk, I had the opportunity to visit the University of Georgia and conducted field research. I facilitated 1-hour interviews with coordinators who worked at campus services and managed the check-in process. I also spent time observing activity in waiting room areas to identify additional needs. The research confirmed that students needed a quick, simple, and friendly way to check in to appointments and office hours, and were usually doing so on older computers or iPads that service centers used for the check-in process.
Results
Redesigning the digital kiosk improved the check-in experience for students by making it quicker, easier, and more streamlined than the outdated pen-and-paper clipboard process. The new and improved Kiosk helped staff gain a greater understanding of student engagement at their services, and overtime increased visits and time with students.
