Srishti Connect — WhatsApp for Srishti Institute
Concept:
My main aim here is to bring WhatsApp down to a semi-formal level and get inspired by what the people in Srishti think about the Srishti Community.
Initial Thought:
My first idea was to add an extra feature within WhatsApp solely for communication within the Srishti Community (like a separate tab replacing the picture status tab which wasn’t a favourite of neither the faculty nor the students). Though this seemed easy, it would not justify the separation of personal and workspace. Hence I chose to not go ahead with it.
Rough Idea for Final Outcome:
Now, the idea is to make sister applications, one at the end of the students and one at the faculty end. The applications would remain text-based, which was voted the favourite aspect of WhatsApp. The application at the students’ end would meet the wishes of the students, for instance, one being, not having to e-mail the faculty, privacy, instant clarification, etc.
The application at the end of the faculty would cater to the needs of the faculty, for example; not having to share the contact number, ensuring that the conversations are short, etc.
Screens for the Faculty App:
Screens for the StudentApp:
Complete final experience on InVision;
Links:
- Students App: https://invis.io/YDGWWQTH5GT
- Faculty App: https://invis.io/B9H22YNHQKW
Complete Paper at
Building a smartphone application:
Developing a smartphone application may not be necessarily restricted to it lacking depth. The amount of thought and the sort of context it is built up on can give it depth. When I first received the question I started looking for things to do offline, but I could not convince myself to bring WhatsApp offline since it being easy and convenient for conversations on the go. To me, it meant like I was taking away the essence from it.
So my tentative plan would be to make a mobile application that effectively balances out the requirements of the students and the faculty at the same time. This would probably require me to develop two applications for each side so as to meet the extremely contrasting needs of the two parties.
KEY INSIGHTS
CONCEPT NOTE:
The main intention of my approach is to bridge the communication gap caused to the time taken to interact via email. The intention is to bridge a communication gap that I identified after conducting the research. The gap that exists between, faculty, students and administration. This is mainly in terms of the spontaneity of the replies. Both, the students and the faculty hope for a communication platform like the one provided by instant messaging apps. For example, addressing the privacy issue faced by the faculty. The faculty members do not want to share their personal contact numbers with the students on such a large scale. For this, I am incorporating a feature where the faculty can log in with their Srishti E-mail ids itself. This will reduce the hassle of having an extra account or making additions to the existing database. On the end of the students, they could log in with their Id card numbers, or by scanning the barcode on their id cards (just like scanning QR codes on WhatsApp works.)
This automatically authenticates the accounts and also doesn’t increase the clutter of data.
Focussing on some of the problems currently, a faculty has to take the effort to send an email for conveying even a very short message, for example, if he/she cannot conduct a class on that day. Some students may or may not read the e-mail before coming to college so early in the morning, thus, potentially wasting a trip. Instead, if the faculty just sends a message regarding the same, on the group created on the app (just like on blackboard) the students can reach faster.
Garett’s Model:
[4]
1.Strategy: User needs:
- Simplicity
- Familiarity
- Ease of use
- Removal of unnecessary features
- Against sharing contact number
2. Scope: Functional Specifications: Features
- Contact section: all departments
- Join groups (for students)
- The faculty is the group admin
- Message Requests
- Star mark for favourite/ frequently contacted.
- Id Card scan for Students to Log in
3. Structure: Expected execution
- Simple and easy to use interface with clear signifiers and affordances.
4. Skeleton: Concepts to start taking a physical form
- Ideating with scenarios
- Ideating with wire-frames
- Building wire-frames
5. Surface: Final Product
- Final Apps- student app and Faculty app.
This project was done as a part of a college assessment.
