Designing a Better App for Universities

Abstract: There is an app for everything, however, not every app delivers what the user expects. As a student, I had many tasks which were routine such as keeping track of the courses, events, exams or to dine. I wished for a mobile application that would ease the burden these routines create. While there was an LNU mobile application, it failed to address some of the needs I had as a student. Consequently, I felt it lacked the tools I needed to be successful. For instance, absent features such as a personalized academic calendar prevented me from finding relevant information about the location and times of classes. On our way to improve the functionality of the current solution, we started with surveying other students and collecting their thoughts about the LNU mobile app. Next, we performed market research in order to understand how other universities handled these needs. Finally, we combined the findings and built a prototype for students to test. The prototype managed to achieve higher rates of student satisfaction and will serve as the basis for future development.