IBhelpin'
Collaboratively made, inclusive app for International Baccalaureate students helping them manage and organise their extra curricular community service activities.
About
IBhelpin' was developed as a part of an Adobe Jam challenge. In a week, my project partner and I had to design an inclusive app for high school students looking for community service opportunities.
Both me and my project partner graduated from the IB programme, and we had first hand experience of how stressful managing the service activites together with academic and other types of extra curriculars was. Develping IBhelpin' with an international community of IB students in mind seemed like a natural step. The app provides a calming experience to relieve the students from some of the programme’s pressure.
Purpose
IBhelpin's functions are tailored for the unique needs of IB students as they go through their academic journey. The purpose of the app is to aid with the most tedious tasks of this part of the curriculum.
User Research
In order to better understand the needs of IB students interviews were conducted to gather insights into the IB students' views on service activities. Based on this research a number of UX deliverables were collated to inform our design process.
Persona inspired by insights into the students' perceptions of IB and mandatory service activities.
Empathy map that outlines different areas of the user's experience related to the IB service activities requirements.
Insights collated into 3 categories that informed later development of the app.
Information architecture tailored to the IB students' needs.
IB requirements
Service activity requirements for IB students are strict, and require planning. Features such as a built-in space for writing reflections (mandatory part of completing IB extracurriculars), and a clear, goal-oriented dashboard were implemented to help navigate the abundance of planning and mental effort that goes into this part of the curriculum.
Execution
IBhelpin's design eases the pressure put on IB students through a simple UI that supports their unique service activity requirements. An uplifting colour palette, a friendly mascot, and features helping students both with their individual journey as well as encouraging experience sharing through the community tab ensure that the app eases students' mental load.
