Project Gather

With a multitude of distractions, tasks, and assignments it has become increasingly difficult to keep pace with responses on numerous platforms and forums. The MDM student faces the challenge of managing time, communications, participation and collaborations. We are seeking a digital solution that will facilitate as well as inform and amuse the user. The solution should create a unified identity and utility for the group of users. We are open to all approaches in the realm of digital media that can provide a proprietary and closed system dedicated to the MDM and its programs.

Solution

A Google Calendar plugin, for MDM students with automatic meeting time suggestions, that supports multiple teams.

Team

Evan Feng

Hang Yang

Viet Phan

Noor Yeslam

Zehao Eric Huang

Role

Team Player

Research

Concept Development

Wireframing
UX & Visual Design
User Testing

Design Process

We came up with a new concept that could possibly help the students from the Centre for Digital Media to have a better way of getting their work and life more organized. Before the actual development, we dived into the sea of market research to see how students here at the CDM are not completely satisfied with the product out in the market. We downloaded and analyzed products including Google Calendar, Assistant.to, Boomerang Calendar and etc and here are some of the brief reviews of how we like the product.

Google Calendar

Pros: Can check others’ availabilities.

Cons: Not specifically designed for teamwork.

Assistant.to

Pros: Google Gmail plugin; chooses the time from Google Calendar; schedule will automatically appear on the calendar when other people click on it.

Cons: Confirm by using emails; hard for multiple groups; some don’t check email regularly.

Boomerang Calendar

Pros: Google Gmail plugin; automatically picks meeting time; automatically change timezone.

Cons: Confirm by using emails; hard for multiple groups; some don’t check email regularly.

Key Features

Gather gives autogenerated suggestions
Gather syncs with Canvas
Gather is easy and simple to use

Early Iteration

To make sure the time management process is well-considered. We decided the development and design process should include both the meeting organizer and the attendee. Starting from the organizer who proposes and sets the details for the upcoming meeting. After settling and sending out invitations to the team, teammates will enter the designed user flow process.

The product was redesigned based on the feedback we heard from school dailies and user testings. Here's the second iteration which at that time was a more intuitive version of the product and had a clearer view for users to understand the flow and its functions.

Orangizer UI design early iteration

Attendee UI design early iteration

Testing

Gather is a product that specifically designed for students at the Centre for Digital Media. During the product development, we worked closely with the students by conducting several user tests and interviews. We received constructive feedback from the cohort and more than 30 cohort members tested our prototype during the beta test event.

Final product

After rounds of user testing and multiple iterations through the semester, we finally delivered a proved concept and a prototype. In terms of user experience, I kept enhancing the overall experience of the app by removing unnecessary function, such as log-in function, adjusting the design, and adding user feedback to make it more intuitive.