CMU Freebies
An interactive mobile app that allows Carnegie Mellon University students to report and locate free goods on campus.
View Prototype on Figma →
For my 05-391 Designing for Human Centered Software course, I was tasked to design an interactive app prototype that would benefit Carnegie Mellon University students. After brainstorming several ideas, I decided to design an app that would help students locate free goods on campus. This was inspired by the “Free Food CMU” GroupMe, where students share the location where free food is given out on campus. However, this app would be more accessible and provide advanced features, such as a map, a calendar, and content personalized for the user.
I created a paper prototype of the app that would allow for easy user testing with few constraints and a greater focus on technical details rather than design imperfections.
After conducting the initial user tests on CMU students, we found that some icons or buttons did not stand out and were not intuitive, and that certain features should include more interaction, like zooming in on the map.
On Figma, I created low-fidelity wireframes for the app and incorporated changes that would fix the issues detected during user testing. I also prototyped interactions on FIgma that would allow for smoother user testing in the future.
Further user testing found that there was confusion over certain terms, like the terms used to indicate the availability of an item. Posting was also confusing because it was hard to find their post after it was created.
The final design solves the issues from the previous user testing, and also incorporates color, fonts, and images.
Through this project, I was able learn how to design an app and create an interactive prototype. Specifically, I learned to:
Reflecting on the work, many improvements could be made, such as: