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Social University Platform

Keeping College Students Connected

Background

College is overwhelming. It's easy to lose yourself and feel unmotivated. During these times, it's nice to have a supportive friend group that can help get you back on your feet. Unfortunately, campuses are gaining more and more students, which makes forming friendships a dreadful experience.
The first place to look would be the various clubs and organizations on campus. However, even the number of clubs can be abundant, which can be intimidating at times.

The Problem

Colleges need a centralized platform for clubs and organizations to reach out to students in order to promote their events. In turn, this would enable students to foster a social, helpful network of friends.

Solution Briefing

That's where my team and I come in! We developed an iOS mobile application called Social University Platform (SUP for short) which allows students to stay connected with each other and the events going on around campus. It also allows them to form groups to keep track of deadlines/responsibilities.
This project began in one of my classes, where students form teams of 10 to simulate what it’s like to work in the industry. This case study documents how it all transpired and what I learned from this experience.

A Rough Start

This was a huge project taking place during the early stages of the pandemic, and we were very disorganized at the beginning. Meetings were difficult to arrange because so many students were moving around and settling in at home because campus was closed.
We also had problems deciding the roles for each person, and there was a dispute over who would be the project manager. To resolve the problem of assigning roles, we let those who really wanted a role speak up first. Then we began asking for volunteers. However, when it got to the 'Project Manager' role, about three people wanted the role, which was dealt with by a majority-ruled voting session. Fortunately, everyone got a role they were satisfied with. Even though this was a 10-week class, we probably didn't properly start till Week 2.
I learned from this experience that cohesion is an important factor in the success of any team. Members need to be on the same page and each one must be motivated to work together and compromise.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

The first few weeks were spent drafting use cases, user stories, and ifferent drafts of our screen designs (see attached documents below). After we decided on the technologies (React and Firebase) and the initial design of the application, we finally began coding around Week 5/6.
Although we were a little pressured on time at the end, without the effort put into preparing all these materials, we wouldn't have been able to stay on track.
I never realized how dynamic a project could be! Everyday there were problems, with either quick or hard fixes. Team members constantly brought up great points about the product, making us rethink our design and functionality.

My Role

I was the Senior System Analyst, and I was responsible for the Use Cases and User Stories. In addition to these agile software development documents, I worked on the frontend team: designing not only the stylistic choices, but also the functionality of the application.

The Product

Unique account creation and relevant design choices

Personal homepage

Groups

Events

Demo Video

That's a Wrap

News flash! My team and I got an A on our final project. I learned so much from this experience. Personally, I think we could've started meeting a lot earlier to get everyone on the same page. We were definitely late bloomers, but I'm proud of us nonetheless. I hope working in the industry is as rewarding as this project was.

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