One Place, So Many Possibilities
QUAD was designed as a final project for DESIGN 11: Visual Thinking at the Stanford d.school. Students were tasked with identifying an unmet need in college students’ day-to-day routines and designing a solution to solve that problem. When I started approaching the needs-finding process, I reflected on characteristics of college student lives that differ from other demographic populations. I began by brainstorming 50+ “bugs”, identifying the crux of each problem and presenting a visual depiction of how each issue impacts a college student.
Step 1: Needs-Finding
Step 2: Narrowing + Ideating
After identifying needs, I narrowed my options down to two. First, I was interested in redesigning extension powerstrips to allow for greater flexibility when plugging in multiple chargers.
idea 1: extendable power strip, allowing for more space for larger charging blocks idea 2: attachments for exisiting powerstrips to vary the heights of charger blocks, minimizing overlap
I also tinkered with a digital solution to streamline communication for college students. Ultimately, I chose to pursue the digital solution given its relevance on Stanford’s campus and my own personal interest in UI/UX design.
Step 3: Low-Fidelity Wireframing
Next, I designed a low-fidelity prototype of QUAD, a mobile application that combines sought-after features from other communication platforms to create a centralized location where teams can message one another, access a shared calendar, post important announcements, and coordinate times to meet.
1. sign in/up page 2. home page, select workspace 3. chat feature 4. shared calendar feature 5. announcements page
Step 4: High-Fidelity Wireframing
Finally, it was time to finalize QUAD by transforming my low-fidelity prototype into a high-fidelity one. I continued using Figma, but this time I maintained a cohesive design style, color pallette, typography, and user workflow.