Canvas Student Market
A student-centric marketplace for university essentials, integrated on Canvas.
This is a university group project in which all members held different roles. I performed as main UI/UX designer and co-researcher.
Role
Duration
March 2023 - May 2023 (13 weeks)
The Canvas Student Market is a dedicated secondhand marketplace designed to address the financial pressures faced by students in Sydney, ranked as the 10th most expensive cities to live in. The goal of this project is to facilitate convenient money-saving for students by seamlessly integrating a secondhand market feature into a platform used in all universities.
Overview
Team
Sally (Main designer, co-researcher), Joyce (Main researcher, co-designer), Junyu (Main researcher)
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, Miro
Scope
UI/UX Design, User Research, Usability Testing, Prototyping
DESIGN BRIEF
The problem
Australia is currently experiencing its highest inflation levels in over 30 years, primarily due to the lingering effects of the pandemic. These rising costs have disproportionately affected the quality of life and well-being of many students. So,
How can we alleviate the cost of living pressures faced by university students?
EMPHASIZE
Kicking off,
To inform our design decisions, we focused on a multi-methodology research approach to comprehensively understand the current solution space and identify opportunities. This included conducting user interviews, online ethnography, affinity diagrams, and background research to pinpointed user needs and pain points.
In our preliminary research,
We identified heightened financial concerns among students, especially those who moved overseas. This was unsurprising as international students face tuition fees double those of domestic students and also contend with rising living expenses and rental prices. However, we were to discovered articles highlighting domestic students' discontent with international ones, attributing it to the belief that international students drive up rental costs.
Given the widespread impact of this issue on students, our assumption is that rent and housing are student’s main concern. We also see an opportunity to find solutions by tapping into the strength of a unified student community.
Getting to know the users…
To gain insight into the users’ genuine needs and frustrations, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews focusing on diverse tertiary students at the University of Sydney. Our objective was to uncover opportunities to effectively address their needs by understanding their spending habits, responses to rising housing costs, and impacts. Despite encountering privacy concerns related to probing into their spending habits, it is important to note that we obtained consent from all participants prior to conducting the interviews.
We discovered that…
While the results did mostly align with our initial research and assumptions, when questioned about their concerns regarding housing affordability, the students’ response took us by surprise. Contrary to our assumptions, they did not express significant (or, if any) worry when asked about high rental prices. As most students receive financial support from their parents for basic needs, their main concern revolves mainly around entertainment and other irregular expenses paid from their own pockets.
PIVOT #1
Upon this new understanding, we reorganized the affinity diagrams, refined the scope of the problem, and raised a new question:
“How might we reduce miscellaneous expenses for university students without compromising their quality of life?”
DEFINE
Fresh considerations:
Questionnaires
We knew it was essential to circle back to our users to gain further understanding on their lifestyle and pain points. We opted for a questionnaire as it provided a swift and efficient approach to gather a large volume of information. We’ve also pulled aside several users to gain a deeper understanding of their struggles. Our questions were targeted towards uncovering their desired areas for spending reduction and their recent expenditure patterns. Here’s what we’ve found:
Talking to the users gave us a new idea.
What if we establish a student-oriented secondhand marketplace on campus?
By establishing a student-oriented secondhand marketplace on campus, we provide students with a convenient platform to buy and sell items effortlessly at affordable prices, right within their everyday surroundings. This not only tackles miscellaneous spending but also cultivates stronger camaraderie among students. But how can we make this happen?
IDEATE
Exploring solutions
Our initial concept involves creating an on-campus “wish boards”, where students can jot down items for sale or things they need on sticky notes. Not only would these charming boards allow students to buy school-essentials for cheap, but also foster greater student interactions.
Yet, after a three-day trial period and user feedback, we found several limitations.
Recognizing these challenges, we realized the need for a more efficient and effective solution. That’s when it dawned on us: What if we utilize Canvas - a platform used by all university students?
PIVOT #2
Integrating a student-only marketplace onto Canvas.
Competitor Analysis
Before diving into the design process, we looked into some of our competitors to understand what is currently on the market.
We found that university textbook selling primarily occurs through unofficial university Facebook groups and occasionally through the Facebook Marketplace. However, navigating the vast Marketplace proves challenging due to its size and the presence of numerous trolls. With no dedicated exchange platform for university items, these unofficial Facebook groups serve as the closest option, although they often suffer from being outdated or obscure. While the Little Red Book app offers robust protection against scammers, its Mandarin interface limits accessibility for some students, and it lacks dedicated groups for secondhand selling. Notably, all three platforms operate nationally, leading to distant exchanges for students, and the absence of safeguards against fraudulent transactions poses a significant concern.
PROTOTYPE
Next, wireframes
Guided by the fresh goals and research outcomes, I single-handedly engaged in a hour-long brainstorming session to develop low-fi wireframes that would seamlessly introduce a student marketplace to Canvas, while incorporating the initial essence of the wish board idea.
Hi-fi prototype
To ensure seamless integration of this new feature within the existing Canvas flow, I began by deconstructing the platform into its core components. This process involves matching the existing style guide and designing the features in alignment with those components.
Style Guide
USABILITY TESTING
A design isn’t complete without testing
By adopting the Think Aloud Protocol, we were able to observe and simulate real-life user behaviors, capturing the participants’ actions and reactions to the design in real time. We also conducted short post-study interviews to better understand their feedback.
This is what they have to say.
01 Complex Visual
The user feedback highlighted the issue of a crowded design, with Marketplace features and notifications mixed alongside coursework features and notifications. I aim to create a clearer differentiation while maintaining a cohesive interface.
A potential source of confusion lies in the similarity between buttons such as "Wishlist" and "View Listing," as well as labels like "Student Market" and "Market." Naming conventions will be edited to address this confusion.
02 Unclear Naming Convention
03 Student-tailored features
Users expressed a desire for more features specifically tailored to students. They want to see a clear distinction that sets us apart from existing platforms beyond the fact that only students can use it. I plan to address this by placing a greater emphasis on university pick-ups and student wish board.
Addressing the feedback
I revisited our design goals, user needs, and competitor analysis. As we aim to fill existing market gaps by dedicating a platform specifically tailored to students' lifestyles and needs, I emphasized the design aspects related to exchange accessibility and strengthened the wishlist feature.
Added reaction icons to encourage student engagement.
Added “resolved” option to filter to avoid clutter.
Increased engagement
Renamed “Market” to “Marketplace” to avoid confusion with the Student Market feature and added breadcrumbs for easy navigation.
Removed course-related buttons to reduce clutter and added Marketplace notifications with newly created icons that matches Canvas’ brand guidelines.
Simplified components
FINAL PRODUCT
The solution
Purchase and sell with systemized on-campus exchange options
Create and fulfill wishes to increase student interactions
Message directly on Canvas with verified student accounts
An afterword
Design is not a linear process. Our team faced numerous challenges that hindered our progress, with the most significant being the need to scrap our original concept and reconstruct it from the ground up. Although we all loved the concept of producing a physical wish board that could substitute as art on campus, we understood the inherent value in considering alternative design strategies.
Another alternative we considered was to implement the Student Market on other platforms such as the university website or as a stand alone page. Some strengths include having a clearer purpose (Canvas is mostly for coursework while the university website includes all student-related information) and having more creative freedom. We eventually didn’t go this route due to its limitations (such as needing alternative messaging platforms, being harder to find, and difficulty verifying users). However, if we had more time, we definitely would have tested both designs out and conducted a deeper analysis to ensure that our design is the best option.
