CoHeart .
Project Overview .
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Time Frame: September to December 2022
Project Team Members : Rachel Baker, Will Gelder, Iris Sun, Abhishek Patil
My Involvement : UX UI Design, Usability Testing, Data Visualization, Qualitative Coding, Data Analysis, Ideation Drawings.
Tools : Figma, Procreate, Adobe Creative Suite, Qualtrics, Tableau, Miro
Understanding .
Problem Space .
Our project focuses on Introverted International Graduates Students (IIGS) and their unique barriers to establishing a new social support system when studying abroad in the US. We aim to identify the cultural, academic, and social factors that impede introverted international graduate students in establishing their local support networks during their initial acclimation.
Target Users.
Introverted International Graduates Students (IIGS)
Our target user group is international graduate students who identify as introverted and have recently begun their processes of transition to their Masters and/or Ph.D. programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and more generally, to the city of Atlanta. This user group will fall within a 20-35 year age range. Special focus will be given to those individuals who have never lived in or visited the United States for any significant amount of time before the start of their programs. These individuals will have a limited or non-existent support network before their arrival in the city of Atlanta.
Project Goal .
Generate an intervention that guides these individuals through the initial steps of establishing connections - gently steering them to step outside of their comfort zones and build their confidence throughout the process.
Areas of Focus .
Research .
01.
How IIGS behave across a range of social contexts with special attention paid to the size of the context, its primary function, and the nature of its organization – whether programmed or casual.
02.
How IIGS establish their social circle with special attention paid to the qualities of the environments into which they choose to invest their time & energy.
03.
How IIGS successfully or unsuccessfully establish friendship within these new cultural contexts and how they evaluate and make value judgments around friendships they deem as important.
Methods .
The research methods for this project included event observations, online surveys, and one-on-one interviews with IIGS and International student organizations’ staff. After these methods were carried out, they were analyzed individually. Survey data was visualized through Tableau and analyzed. IIGS interviews and organization interviews were transcribed and then analyzed using qualitative coding.