U of T Clubhouse

Finding the right student club at Canada's largest educational institution is a course of its own. With U of T Clubhouse, students can find their match with a click of a button.

Problem - Why clubs?

There are over 1,000 clubs and student run organizations across U of T’s three campuses. With so many options to search through, students find it difficult to search for useful information about clubs. As a result, clubs do not end up meeting expectations, and students lose the opportunity to develop professional skills.

Solution - What is U of T Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a mobile platform designed for UofT students to find clubs that not only matches their interests but helps them gain practical skills. Students can easily discover clubs to grow their network and help them be future-ready!

Outcome

A medium fidelity prototype was developed to demonstrate the main features.

View Clickable Prototype

Role

User Researcher
Research Synthesis Lead
Visual Design
Conducted Usability Test
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Project Duration

Sept - Dec 2022

Team Members

Emerging UX Designers:
Kendra Dizon
Kshitij Anand
Julia Rose Horn
Yunzhuo (Sabrina) Ma)

Tools Used

Miro
Figma

Discover Define Develop Deliver Final Next Steps Personal Takeaway Back to Top

Phase 1: Discover

Secondary Research - What do we know about student clubs?

There are over 1,000 clubs and student run organizations across U of T's three campuses.
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The goal of our secondary research was to understand the role of clubs in student life. We found that students join clubs to connect to students with similar interests, develop professional skills outside of the classroom, and de-stress from the demands of school.

We found that opportunities for professional development through a co-op or internship program are limited in number and is highly dependent on a students’ program. So students rely on club experience to develop transferrable skills for career readiness.

Primary Research - What are students saying about club involvement?

We wanted to find out more about club experiences at U of T. So, we reached out to students through a questionnaire and conducted semi-structured interviews. Here's what we found...

Out of 36 questionnaire respondents,

11%

are satisfied with their club involvement

50%

have left clubs because it did not match their interests

67%

join clubs with the intention to develop professional skills

We conducted 5 semi-structured interviews with current students that are currently in or have joined clubs in the past. Here's what they have to say about their experience.

“It looks good on applications, whether you're applying for funding, an academic position, or an on-campus job.”

“The barriers were like if you didn't interact with these clubs in the beginning during the registration period you can't join during the year”

We uncovered 5 major themes from our interviews:

Students find information about clubs primarily through word of mouth and clubs fair

Students feel overwhelmed by the number of clubs to search through online

The information that students find online is often outdated and don’t give them a good sense of club expectations

Students join clubs to build connections and develop practical skills for their future

Students stop attending clubs because they lost interest

Phase 2: Define

Meet Hannah - The emerging tech professional

We created our persona Hannah to embody the needs, desires, goals, and obstacles students faced when looking for a student club. She is a 3^rd year humanities student that is looking for opportunities to develop her professional skills outside the classroom.

To better understand Hannah's pain points, we created a journey map of her current situation.

Based on this, we understand that Hannah needs a way to:

Find info about clubs easily, so she can ensure that a club aligns with her interests and expectations.

Remain connected with members after a term ends, so she can have longstanding connections with people who share the same interests.

Gain practical experience so that she can be prepared for post grad life.

Problem

How might we help Hannah find campus clubs so that she can develop professional skills for her future?

Phase 3: Develop

Prioritizing our ideas

Our team brainstormed many ideas that could help improve Hannah’s situation. We voted on each idea’s impact and feasibility and narrowed down our ideas using a prioritization grid.

Based on this, the ideas we decided to focus on and develop into features are:

Matching users to clubs that align with their interests through a club matcher

Allowing users to see club ratings and project boards through a club’s profile to get a sense of club expectations

The information that students find online is often outdated and don’t give them a good sense of club expectations

Connecting with current members through direct messages to ask questions

Tracking skills gained in a club through a task journal

With these ideas, Hannah's journey will now look like this:

Phase 4: Deliver

Low-Fidelity Prototypes

We began our prototyping process with low fidelity sketches of three key task flows:

1

Match with clubs to create a list of clubs that align with interests

2

Browse through club profiles to message a current member and apply for a position

3

Track skills learned and experience gained from club involvement

Lean Evaluation

Before developing medium fidelity screens, we conducted lean evaluations on our low fidelity prototype to identify opportunities for improvement.

Our team recruited 4 students from the University of Toronto who serve as representative users of our product. Each participant was asked to do the following:

Observe the sketches for each storyboard for 5 seconds and discuss key features based on memory
Explain their thought process while performing the three key tasks

Here's what we found:

Positive Feedback

Being able to match with clubs is fun and engaging
Club reviews provided insight on club expectations
Messaging club members without having to leave the app is convenient

Negative Feedback

Club profile screen was hard to remember as there was too much information
Unclear how to apply for an open position
Pop-up screen after matching with club frustrated participants

Updating the screens

We used the feedback from the lean evaluation to make changes to our medium fidelity prototypes. Some major changes can be seen below.

Before

Club profile page had too much information. Participants were unsure where to click.

After

Reduced the number of buttons on the top half of the screen by spreading it out throughout.

Before

It was unclear how to join a club. Participants were confused by "Apply to Join" and "Open Positions" buttons.

After

Removed the "Apply to Join" button on top and replaced it with "Apply" buttons for different roles.

Before

Participants was frustrated by the pop-up screen

After

Removed the pop-up so users can continue matching.

Medium Fidelity Prototype

Below are the medium fidelity storyboards for the three key task flows.

Usability Test - What features could we improve on?

With the clickable medium fidelity prototype, we conducted usability tests to discover user pain points and opportunities to improve on the features of our design. Some guiding questions include:

Are participants able to gather enough information about clubs through the clubs profile to decide whether to join?
Are participants able to use the matching system to find clubs that interest them?
Are participants able to add tasks to the clubs they joined?
What are user attitudes and opinions about using an app like this?

Here's what we found from our 4 usability tests:

Positive Feedback

Home page is clear and easy to understand, easy to find the matcher
Club matcher made searching for clubs fun, engaging and intuitive
The "My Clubs” page made it easy for users to view all their past and current club projects, matches and events all in one place

Negative Feedback

There is no call to action to the task journal from the home page.
There was no way to view match history if user was interested in seeing their recently liked and disliked clubs
It was unclear which section of “My Clubs” included the task journal

Final Design

High Fidelity Prototype

The high fidelity prototypes below capture the key features of our final design.

Club Matcher

Students can match with clubs that align with their interests in a click of a button.

Club Profile

Students can browse through club profiles to view open roles, activities, reviews, and message current members to evaluate club expectations.

Task Journal

Students can keep track of their tasks and skills they are developing to help them prepare for future job applications.

Next Steps

What's next for U of T Clubhouse?

Further iterate on the prototype with another round of usability tests
Create additional screens for other app functions such as the explore page and search functions
Understand the needs from the club admin perspective. How can Clubhouse help them promote events and recruit new members?

Personal Takeaway

Power of storytelling

Through our bi-weekly presentations, we were challenged to create compelling narratives for our audience. I learned how effective storytelling can captivate an audience and allow them to empathize with the pain points of users.

Setting expectations

Our team was made up of 5 beginner UX designers with a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds. Since we were all collaborating for the first time, we faced challenges when trying to leverage the diverse skills and work styles of our teammates. Setting expectations for each deliverable, helped us align our strengths and grow as a team.

Embracing change

When working on a tight deadline, there is more resistance to change. However, I learned that exploring new directions can uncover new opportunities and ideas that lead to a stronger outcome.