UX Design | Graduate Thesis

Sunny
. Engage gamification into campus counseling for international students

Highlights

This research is about how to improve the experience of international students who want to seek help from the counseling center in their school. This research evaluated the emerge of the concept of "gamification" into the counseling system and make the service apart as online service and offline service. The methods used in the research were focus groups, online surveys, and in-depth interviews. After analyzing the research data, the results showed that "gamification" can be engage in the system in a moderate way but the form of the service still needs to be discussed.

 

Time Frame: Aug. 2019 to Apr. 2020

Role: User Researcher, UX/UI Designer

Involvement: Literature Review, Primary Research, Rapid Prototyping, Interface Design

Committee Chair: Takamura

Check the Full Thesis

.Background

/Validating the Problem

In these years, depression is one of the most common psychological conditions afflicting adolescents worldwide. There are many ways for these adolescents to release their depression, but for international students who have no support from family or close friends, it is hard for them to seek help in a strange place based on the research I conducted. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to create a better experience for international students with depression by gamification when they set for the school counseling service.

.Discovery

/Research Questions

1.

Current Situation of
International Students
  • What are the pressure sources for international students?
  • How do international students cope with their stress and depression?

2.

Current Situation of
Campus Counseling
  • How do international students think about campus counseling services?
  • What are the international students’ experiences of campus counseling?

3.

Current Situation of
International Students
  • What do international students think of gamification?
  • What functions do international students think should be included in the online system?

Conceptual Framework

Get an insight into the pressure sources and coping strategies of international students , identify their perceptions of campus counseling services and explore the possibilities of gamification in this service.

Methodologies

This study will employ quantitative research approaches to have insight in what current situation of international students is, including their pressure and their attitudes to campus counseling and online services. Then qualitative research approaches will be conducted to draw the current counseling services and the future counseling services.

Qualitative & Quantitative - mixed research methods

Online Survey
(n=62)

Semi-structured
Interviews (n=8)

Semi-structured
Interviews (n=8)

.Analysis

Depression and Campus Counseling

After conducting the online survey, the problems of international students were dug out. I received 62 participants' answers who are Chinese international students in USA, Japan, and some Europe countries. The age ranges from 19 to 30 and 58% of the participants are between 20 to 23 years old.

How often do international students feel depression?


What do international students do when they feel depressed?


Do they know the counseling center?


Have they tried the campus counseling service?


Can face-to-face counseling be replaced?


/About depression

All participants reported depression situation

Half of participants take initiative to seek help from others, the other half digest bad emotions themselves.

Only few people seek help from the school (campus counseling).

/Attitudes towards campus counseling

The face-to-face counseling cannot be replaced, so the online service is not online counseling. It can be a service to maintain mental health.

Empathy Map

In the focus group, they created a virtual person and the keywords were organized by an empathy map.

/Fears

  • Not understood because of culture and language
  • People’s prejudice against depression
  • Counseling is a waste of time
  • Lack of support and loneliness

    • /Ideas

  • Service should be EASY-to-Reach
  • Provide solutions with school resources
  • The counselor should know students' general situation before they walk in
  • Online assessment and reservation

    • Gamification

    In the focus group and interviews, the participants talked about their perceptions about gamification and evaluated the application of the eight core drives of gamification in the online system. Keywords mentioned by the participants according to the eight core drives of gamification were analyzed in the octagon, which were sorted by typology and affinity map.

    Service Model

    • The service combines online services with offline services.
    • Students can use the online service to maintain mental health and counselors can know students in advance by using it.
    • The online service can also be a bridge for international students.
    • The offline service will be the integration of traditional face-to-face counseling and other school resources.

    Design Guideline

    Interface Interface
    • Safe and tidy;
    • Icons or emojis rather than texts;
    • Avoid stereotyped images of depression;
    • Warm Color;
    • A virtual character is welcomed;
    • Easy interactive guide.
    Interface Online Assessment
    • Shorter questionnaire;
    • Distinguished with traditional psychological scale test;
    • Feedback after answer;
    • Illustrate the result;
    • Not display the results with the stereotype of depression.
    Interface Communities
    • Gather people through activities;
    • Talk in an anonymous forum, and comments are reviewed by the administrator;
    • Classified by different kind of problem;
    • Convertible and translatable languages.
    Interface Activity Recommendations
    • Combined with school activities;
    • Can get rewards as a task;
    • Irregular activities and location recommendations (similar to Pokemon);
    • Record online after participating in the event.
    Record Self-Record
    • Record emotions by selecting icons and interactive Q & A;
    • Optional text, voice or image recording;
    • Periodic record visualization;
    • Obtain achievements through continuous recording and unlock titles;
    • Visualized accumulated images (such as planting trees, standing water, etc.);
    • The authority can be opened to the counselor.
    Appointment Online Appointment
    • Browse the information of the counselors;
    • Select special requirements (such as nationality, language, consulting questions);
    • Send a short message to the consultant in advance.
    Feedback Feedback
    • Reliable feedback from experts;
    • Special access in emergency situations;
    • Automatic Reply in warm tone;
    Knowledge Psychological Knowledge
    • Combining text and images and do not have a lot of text;
    • Interactive mini games or videos;
    • Get rewards or unlock achievements after reading.

    .Ideation

    Our Users

    persona

    Jason Wang

    • Graduate Student
    • Major in Design
    • Single
    Jason is in his second year in the US. While his studies aren't overly demanding, nearing graduation has him grappling with future uncertainty and sporadic depression. With few friends, he opts for walks or games to lift his mood. Bio Jane once stayed with a homestay, an unhappy memory. Making foreign friends was tough until university. Sensitive, she grapples with relationships, and after a complicated campus counseling attempt, confides in her boyfriend about her depression.
    His own problem can be solved. Goals She wants some empathic advice for her dilemma and a nice place to talk.
    He couldn't finish many things in time because of serious procrastination, he is anxious but but doesn't know who to talk to. Frustrations She walked in the counseling center and waited for one hour. The counselor could not fully understand her because of the cultural barrier.
    Anxious and haven't open his heart for a long time. Current Feeling Upset and feeling not understood.
    He feels comfortable using technology. He thinks he has no need to meet counselor because he can handle it himself. Knowledge She feels comfortable using technology and she spent a lot of time on the internet. She wants professional counselors to guide her.
    persona

    Jane Li

    • Freshman
    • Major in Finance
    • In a Relationship

    User Journey Map

    user map

    .Solution

    Interfaces Display

    Design implications

    Menu & Self Report

    Record your emotion every day and get your growth map. Remembering that happiness can cure you in some time.

    If you feel not okay, you can book a session with our consultants, choose who you want to talk to, and send him/her a message in advance.

    Book Sessions with Consultants

    Community Sharing

    Catch up with fellows in your community, get your daily feed from their inspiration. Also, you can speak and post for yourself in anonymous mode to get advice.

    .Reflection

    This project was a personal user research project aimed at providing design guidelines for future designers in the field. During the research process, I primarily conducted qualitative analysis through methods such as individual interviews and user groups. Engaging in conversations on this topic left a profound impact on me and greatly assisted my research. However, I must admit that my quantitative analysis wasn't as comprehensive. Using unidirectional surveys as the sole source of quantitative data was rather limited, which my thesis committee also highlighted.


    If I had more time in this project, I would focus on the following improvements:

    • A more comprehensive quantitative analysis method.
    • Testing and gathering user feedback with the existing demo and iterating based on it.
    • Optimizing the product's visual aspects, creating more creative and enjoyable animations.
    • Integrating AI models as they advance into the project.

    Finally, I hope that more and more people will pay attention to this special group.

    reflection

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