An academic project that became
a paper selected for IHC Brasília 2024.
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Historical challenges have limited women's presence in STEM, but initiatives like extracurricular communities and university programs aim to support retention. We developed an app prototype to enhance communication and integration among women at UDESC-CCT, a STEM-focused campus.
Developed by me and my dear friends: Mariana, Leticia and Luis.
First step: Defining the problem
Although women represent 56% of higher education enrollments in Brazil, they make up only 30% of STEM students, with gender bias being a key obstacle. Our goal is to improve the experience of women at UDESC-CCT and strengthen their support network.
01
Online Survey
Aimed at understanding the pain points and challenges faced by women in the academic environment at CCT campus.
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The questions covered demographic information, academic experiences, feelings of discouragement related to gender bias and inequality, familiarity with programs and projects dedicated to women on campus, and the available support network. The survey was shared on social media and university groups, resulting in the participation of 77 women.
02
Interview
We conducted a semi-structured interview with members of the extension groups Interagir and SWE (Society of Women Engineers) at UDESC-CCT to gather information about the students' involvement in events/conversation circles and the main complaints raised by them.
03
Analysis
Information collected by the survey and the interview showed that students' positive experiences are often linked to the presence of other women in the academic environment and the support they provide to one another.
One pain point raised by participants is the lack of time to participate in extension projects dedicated to women, which was identified in both the survey responses and the interview. Therefore, we believe more flexible involvement formats, such as asynchronous communication platforms, would be beneficial.
But how we made it?
The 77 responses were analyzed one by one by us, completely manually. We organized a document that separated the percentages of dissatisfaction, linked to the courses, the start period at UDESC, among other factors. Our goal was to find a pattern in the responses, and that’s what we seemingly achieved.​
It is important to highlight that this data sample represents 12% of the women at the university, making it necessary to iterate on this process.
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On the other hand, the persona was created using artificial intelligence. We input the survey data into a compiler, which resulted in:
Designed by Freepik.
Freshman Effect?
None of the 15 women who enrolled in 2024 reported a negative experience throughout the course:
20% rated their experience as very good
66.7% rated it as good
13.3% rated it as neutral
It brings up a reflection: Have they not spent enough time in university yet to classify their experience as negative? Perhaps it is something we could investigate.
BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming session to define key app features: publication feed, private messaging, event promotion, and harassment reporting guide. We gathered usability references from Instagram, LinkedIn, Bitrix24, and Duolingo.
USER FLOW
Navigation flows and information architecture depth.
Each section dives with sub-categories and settings.
WIREFRAMING
Let's take a look on the
High Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing
To discover interface issues, investigate opportunities, and learn more about the users.
1. Pilot Testing
With diverse users to identify general usability issues and gather feedback on the features before testing with the target audience. We used an online satisfaction survey with a Likert scale.
2. "Real" Testing
After making improvements from the pilot testing, we tested the prototype with five target audience participants. They completed ten tasks independently, with task completion time measured and success rates evaluated.
The result
Participants rated the navigation as
intuitive, the features easy to use, and the design pleasant. They indicated that continued use of the app would have a positive impact on their routines.
We identified the need to
implement accessibility options, post moderation, and a more distinctive visual identity for the app. Some tasks presented difficulties due to the small size of the clickable areas of the buttons.
People with badges are the users who participated in the tests, while the rest are members of the 2024 HCI class from UDESC, assisted by Isabela Gasparani.