Loyola New Orleans

USC App, Case Study

Date

Fall 2022

What I Did

Homepage, Favorites, Map, Exercise Classes, Navigation & Modifying Information Page, Calendar View, & Profile Based on User Feedback

Loyola University's University Sports Complex serves students, faculty, and the surrounding community as an established health club and sports event center in the heart of uptown New Orleans.

Club usage at Loyola suffers because members can't easily find information, locate the facility, or feel a sense of community. The University Sports Complex (USC) app solves this by centralizing key information, improving discoverability, and fostering connection, helping students, faculty, and neighborhood members get more out of their gym.

Problem

Loyola makes it incredibly hard for students and USC members to view ever-changing updates and information about the university's gym in one place. Sporadic emails and a plethora of paper signs act as the USC's communication system, leaving gym users confused and deterring them from using the complex in the first place.

Goal

The USC app aims to create an efficient line of communication between the university gym and its users by providing a "home" for information about sports, amenities, and common questions.

Interviews

To start, we interviewed students and USC workers about their knowledge and hesitation regarding USC, and if the student uses the USC, when, and for how long.

We interviewed a balance between athletes and non-athletes, as athletes generally know more about the USC.

Key Interview Findings

No one knows how to easily find information about the USC.

Athletes only knew information about the USC that their sport required.
Information about the pool is most in demand.
Students didn't even know that the USC offers exercise classes.
Non-athletes didn't know how to find out about sporting events.

Students were just shocked and exasperated by how hard it is to find any information on the sports complex especially if they don’t have athlete friends.

People wanted more general, easy-to-access information about the sports complex: availability, facilities, and amenities. Athletes expressed that they only knew information about the gym that their sport required.

Students showed the most interest in finding the available pool times for public swimming (The pool is often closed at irregular times due to swim meets and practice) and were surprised to find that the university offered exercise classes.

User Persona

Goals

I want to maintain a healthy lifestyle while balancing the heavy workload that comes with being a bio pre-med major and keep a consistent routine to ensure my productivity.

Frustrations

When I walk to campus from Cabra Hall*, the weight room is often at capacity or a sports team is using the space, which leads to me wasting time by taking the trip to campus in the first place. I never know what time certain sports are using the facilities or when the gym isn't packed.

*Cabra Hall is a dorm that is on Loyola's Law campus and is separate from the main campus where the USC is located.

User Journey: Jeremy at the Gym

Scenario

Jeremy wants to figure out the least crowded times in the first-floor weight room, so he can weight lift without feeling self-conscious and at a time between his packed class schedule.

Goals

• Find times the weight room is available to non-athlete students.
• Figure out the most popular times in the weight room, so he can avoid them.
• Discover more places to work out in the USC.

User Testing & Results

Some users tried swiping to see the back of the mock ID, but we didn't change anything because the important information is on the front.

A few people didn't recognize the color-coded availability on the gym map, but that didn't hinder them from completing tasks. (They later found information when they opened the facility pop-up).

Students were just shocked and exasperated by how hard it is to find any information on the sports complex especially if they don’t have athlete friends.