RxResearchConnect
RxResearch is the current name of an idea generated by the Department of Pharmacy at Purdue for a platform that connects students to researchers.
Spring 2022
#Guided Tutorials
#Web & Design Consultancy
Basic Information
Time Duration
January 2022 - May 2022
Utilization Tools
Miro
Whimsical
Figma
Contribution
Overview
User Interview
User Journey map
Value-effort Matrix
Ideation + Sketching
Paper Prototype
Co-design
Low-fidelity Wireframes
Project Team
8 ux undergrad students +
1 ux grad student
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Project Overview
Background
Pharmacy researchers on Purdue University's campus are in need of student assistants. However, there is currently no direct communication between researchers and students who are looking for assistant positions. The process is long, tedious, and impractical. To solve this problem, my team designed a new platform.
RxResearch is the name of the website we designed to connect researchers and Purdue pharmacy students.
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Our
User Group
The main user group we focused on within this project was Purdue Pharmacy students, specifically those looking for research opportunities.
However, this platform also involves the researchers providing student opportunities. Due to this, we made sure to incorporate researchers and their perspectives during this project.
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Final Design SectionPeek
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Screenshots of selected secondary research
Secondary Research
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Important aspects of a matchmaking site include clear display, searching, and filtering
Current platforms lack ease of communication between students and researchers
Before we began conceptualizing, we conducted secondary research, including comparisons and competitive analysis, to see what other services offered users.
Takeaways:
Research
After completing the research, we reached out to our users to learn about their perceptions, wants, and needs for the platform. Ultimately, we interviewed nine pharmacy students and five researchers about their experiences with the current researcher-student matching process.
Takeaway:
Interviews
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Website is the preferred platform
Chat/Q&A feature facilitates student questions
Students feel uncertain/uncomfortable initiating contact with researchers
Researchers want students to take initiative (e.g., ask questions, initiate contact, etc.)
What we can do:
Centralize all opportunities on one website and have a clear application process
Ability to contact professors through the platform
Takeaway:
Not having a space where all information is easily accessible
Students lacked confidence and were unsure of the entire process
Researcher's email easily loses communication
After learning about the current process from both students and researchers, the team needed to find areas of opportunity that we could design for. In order to gain a better understanding of our user's pain points and needs we created journey maps for both the researcher and the student perspective.
Journey Mapping
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Some of the initial sketches
After researching and identifying the main focuses of RxResearch, the team narrowed down the sketches. We broke into three groups to further sketch each focus. This allowed us to visualize ideas, make continuous improvements, and reach a team consensus.
Ideation
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Design Iteration
Add clear categories for students to choose from during the onboarding process
Elaborate role descriptions in the onboarding process to make filtering more accurate
Takeaways:
After the team agreed on our final design and its features, we decided to conduct user testing to determine if our design successfully achieved our goals for the platform.
To do so, we contacted pharmacy students to test with us, created a paper prototype, and testing protocol. During the testing session, we presented and explained our prototype to users, as well as have them give us input on design, flow, and overall usability of our design.
User Testing
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Page1.1 Preference
Page1.2 Preference
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Student View
From here, students begin the onboarding process for the site, with the platform clearly explaining the difference between each option in order for students to better fill out their match profiles.
Final Design
Next, students will see this page with a list of example roles and role descriptions. Students can select the example roles they are interested in.
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Page2 roles interest
Page3 filter Information
After this, students are taken to this page where they can see a list of all potential research opportunities, automatic filters based on onboarding results, and automatic filters that can be easily removed if needed.
The filters also allow students to narrow their search. Each position has color-coded labels that correspond to the selected filters.
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Once a project of interest has been found, students can click on the project to view a more detailed list of positions.
This includes general information about the project/position, a snippet or quote from the researcher, and the ability to ask questions.
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Page4 Information detail
Page5 Roadmap Page
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Students can star all the positions they are interested in and then view them on this page. They can see information about each program. Students can also view suggested trainings. Students can also see if a position is no longer available.
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Researcher View
When a researcher has a job opening and wants to post it on RxResearch. They will be presented with this form, which contains all the necessary information (with a small amount of typing).
Page 1 Researcher info
Project Development
Purdue Pharmacy loved our designs and saw the incredible value the platform provided for their students. Due to this, they decided to move this project into development! As of Spring semester 2023, this platform is in development.
Comparative + Competitive Analysis
Researched both a comparative and competitive site in order to learn more about the space and discover necessary features
Notetaking For Other Interview
I took notes for a teammate during their interview
User Journey Mapping
participated in group creation of user journey maps (both student and researcher view)
Value-effort Matrix
participated in group creation of value-effort matrix, along with group discussion of what elements to prioritize within the site
Ideation + Sketching
Participated in group discussion and ideation sessions
Sketched ideas and initial wireframes of the site
Paper Prototype
Hand drew and assembled parts of the paper prototype used in user testing
User Testing
Took notes during the user testing session
Low-fidelity and Mid-fidelity wireframes
Created both low-fidelity and mid-fidelity wireframes
Documentation
Contributed to group's project documentation
Project Presentations
Contributed to creation of all project presentations and spoke during every presentation
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Individual Contribution
Here, researchers can view all of their active job postings. They can see information such as the project name, description and tags.
They can also click edit to change any details if needed.
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Page 2 Active Position
