UConn Campus Navigation App

Campus Navigation App UX Research & Prototype Study

Date

Sep 2025 - Oct 2025

Contribution

UX/UI Design
UX Research
Prototype Design

Team

Soyeon Lee

Context

What if there were a more
user-friendly campus navigation app designed specifically
for students?

This project began with a research question:
Do students feel comfortable navigating the campus?

This question led me to conduct brief interviews with first-year students, where I learned that many struggled to navigate the campus due to its large size, numerous buildings, and complex directions.

Therefore, this campus navigation application study began with a real navigation problem experienced by UConn students.

My Role

As the lead experience designer, I was responsible for conducting research, structuring the design system, developing the application architecture, and iterating on the prototype.

Making Campus Navigation Students-Oriented

Based on the research, the application was designed around students' needs, including organizing their classes, interests, and essential facilities such as laundry rooms and dining locations.

I also proposed a personal map feature after learning that some students created their own customized maps to locate classrooms. This prototype explores how campus navigation can become more students-oriented by responding directly to students' everyday navigation needs.

Experiencers

Who Are the
Target Audiences?

In this project, I mainly targeted UConn students.
However, the design implications of this application
can also be applied to other university campuses.

User Flow Chart

The application was designed around students' needs and usage patterns including their preferences, class schedules, settings, and personal information.

I proposed the following use case: when students initially use the app, they first set up their information and preferences. Afterward, they can easily access their classroom information through
API connected to the UConn Student System and manage their personalized search preferences.

UConn campus navigation (User Flow) Fin.png

Case Study

Before creating the campus navigation application, we conducted a case study based of real-world navigation and location-based on the market. I selected three applications and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses.

Waze

This application features a playful visual approach through the use of car characters and icons.

Strengths include the consistent use of icons for intuitive navigation, simplified descriptions with clear typography, a well-layered layout for core functions, and a dark mode interface.

Weaknesses include an overly colorful icon palette and excessive variety of icons, creating a playful impression that may reduce the sense of clarity and reliability expected from a navigation application.

Transit

This application focuses on straightforward navigation through a clean and modern design.

Strengths include a minimal, modern layout with simplified menus; consistent icon and button colors; and clear directional maps with distinct icons for different modes of transportation.

Weaknesses include inconsistent use of the main color across different contexts, excessive color variation on the home page and transit option lists, and a weak visual hierarchy between font sizes and spacing.

Grubhub

This application focuses on food ordering and pickup, with integrated map and navigation functions that provide strong visual engagement through photos and icons.

Strengths include a clear hierarchy of menus and functions, large restaurant photos paired with essential information, and an organized navigation page with intuitive icons, highlighted colors,
and balanced spacing.

Weaknesses include inconsistent use of brand color across components, weak overall emphasis due to use of gray buttons, and the secondary placement of the map interface compared with restaurant-related UI elements.

UI Design Plan

I decided to maintain UConn brand identity while introducing minimal accent color and secondary colors to support the primary UConn color throughout the application.

Based on my professor's suggestion, a pink-magenta color was chosen as the accent color, while dark navy and gray were used as secondary colors to maintain visual consistency.

UX Improvement Suggestions

Based on students' needs, insights from the case study, and the process of narrowing down essential features, we proposed several UX improvements for campus navigation.

Navigation Patterns

Students can drop pins and highlight routes for clearer navigation. Categories can also be easily identified, navigated, and organized through the use of accent colors.

Personalized Sorting by Interest

Students can easily explore and organize specific areas, facilities, and buildings based on their interests, such as entertainment, study, and sports. They can also locate UConn landmarks when inviting family and friends to explore and spend great time on campus.

Automated Mapping

This is one of the key features proposed for the application. We explored the use of an API connected to the UConn Student System to retrieve students' academic schedules and department information.

After students initially set up their account information,
the application can automatically generate navigation
based on their academic schedules and campus locations. Students can also manually add schedules or modify details such as time, day, and purpose.

Design System