Looking at the current iHull app, I believe it does a bad job at tailoring to a wide demographic of individuals. In my revised iHull app the multiple stakeholders are students, lecturers, staff members, event organisers and the app administrators.
My revision of the app aims to provide an equal and integrated experience through its many connected features and functions to every type of person associated with the University of Hull in its entirety (excluding guests, as some communication-based features are impossible to use without an account created). This is very important as ease of access and usability is necessary to provide an easy to use/understand, and a frustration-free, confusion-free environment for every user.
However, I do consider students to be the most primary stakeholder compared to the others, as since the university is a service that primarily provides for the students, I feel the university app should aim to do the same. I also believe this because the majority of the users will be students since they are the largest group of individuals associated with the university, so some elements of the app may be tailored to students specifically.
Every person in each stakeholder group will be able to access the majority of the app’s unique features too. Of course, however, some features the app has to offer will be altered depending on the type of stakeholder using it. Some examples are;
- A guest using the app will not have access to all the connectivity features like direct messaging, a personalised user-profile and submitting files to a database (i.e. Canvas). They would, however, be able to access information about any locked features should they choose to create an account.
- Event organisers and administrators would be able to make important announcements or widespread posts to everybody using the service and add new events and features to the app.
- Lecturers would have the ability to form class chat rooms, look at any submitted student work and add an important date to an individual’s calendar.
With ease of access to every type of user being a priority, my app can include;
- Different language options, for international students and visitors. An app featuring lots of text for lots of different services and purposes, but viewed in a language not native to you, would be impossible to use.
- A light and dark mode, for different lighting environments and users with brightness sensitivity and other issues regarding eyesight.
- Different colours used in the interface, with regular colours and brighter/bolder colours for people with eyesight issues like colour-blindness.
- A function where if you hold down onto a certain area of text that text is read aloud if, for example, that specific text is too small for a person to read.
- Multiple fonts and text sizes for different levels of eyesight qualities.
- A function that remembers the user’s login information, useful for the average person and people who suffer from memory issues.
In terms of the design of the app, it will have to be visually appealing to the user. I believe a modern and clean aesthetic and layout reminiscent of social media apps like Instagram and Twitter is perfect, as it’s not only visually appealing in design, but it is clear to see and navigate for everyone, and it will appeal to the student stakeholder. Since the majority of students attending the University of Hull are aged 18 to 23, this age group has grown up with and currently use social media heavily, so a social-media inspired design for the app would interest and appeal to them.
For lecturers, administrators and university representatives, their altered version of the same app (classed as Lecturer and Admin additions of the app) should allow them to utilise their specific abilities with ease too. A simple system for their tasks, like sending out mass-messages, hosting virtual rooms, making main-page announcements, accessing privilege services and issuing maintenances etc., needs to be incorporated to maintain the feel of an easy to use and widely used platform.
Additionally, in order to make my app available to anyone part of the University of Hull, I would make my app available on a wide variety of platforms, being the; Google Play Store, Samsung Store, Apple App Store, Amazon App Store and Microsoft Store, which are the biggest and most used app stores in the world.