This semester was interesting we had initially started off with a different project brief and then changed it to university life. I struggled at times with this brief as I find it very hard to research it, it’s such a broad subject that when researching hard to focus get general research without focusing on a specific area. in the end, I focussed on international students which is a really interesting user group as they tend to experience an increased amount of issues or challenges because they are dealing with moving, language, social support, and anxiety. I think if I didn’t focus on a specific user group my research would have been lacking. I find international students a really important research group to focus on, and there was lots of research and data behind it. After my desk research, I then began to conduct an interview and use that as my base for things like user personas, user stories…

I was able to take all of this research and create an app that focused on helping international students in their transition and building social circles. I am really happy with my app in that it really targets the user group prioritising their needs and wants to be able to ease a problem in their lives. I was able to explore the international student side, the app works by pairing you with another student.

To encourage the app use, it can also be built into the University's pairing system that you can sign up for to gain an achievement that goes towards the Edge Award. So the app can also have this built in to ensure people are willing to be a guide and help new international students, I didn’t develop this side of the app as this was only a 12-week project but if I had more time I would add elements that showed the university s confirmation and the amount of time spent with the match talking or at events to receive the Edge Award achievement. if I had more time I would add this element but instead, I chose to focus on the international student's experience of onboarding and interacting on the app.

Overall, I am happy with the app I have created I think the branding across the app is really strong, I think it targets a problem and is able to help.