A Mobile Application For The UAK Students
The University of Agriculture in Krakow and the Softnauts team have joined forces to improve the student experience with a helpful application. This new app offers easy navigation on campus and provides valuable university-related information. The development of a centralized platform aims to address common communication and navigation issues that new and exchange students often face.
The Project Founded With NAWA - Polish Agency For Academic Exchange
Universities can face significant expenses when it comes to redesigning applications. However, they can rely on subsidies available through state grants or the European Union. These grants are not limited to entrepreneurs and are accessible by consortia of scientific units or companies.
Many higher education institutions often seek financial support from the Polish Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). In 2021, the Welcome to Poland program funded more than 130 projects. It includes mobile application development to cater to both domestic and ex-pat students.
Challenge For A University Mobile App
Navigating the University campus and Kraków city can be extremely difficult for new and exchange students of the University of Agriculture. Furthermore, staying up-to-date with important information regarding the University's activities, events, and announcements can pose an additional challenge.
This communication gap often leads to confusion and missed opportunities for students. The University needs to address these issues promptly and effectively to facilitate navigation around the campus and the city - and stay informed about important University-related matters.
We have undertaken a similar endeavor during the designing and development of the AGH UST application. See the results for yourself!
Scope of work
UX/UI · Android · iOS · Web
Solution
We have developed a mobile application specifically to meet the needs of students at the University of Agriculture. Thanks to an intuitive and user-friendly interface, our app provides students with a comprehensive guide to the University's buildings and surrounding areas. In addition, the app informs students of key events and announcements related to daily campus operations.
With our app, students can effortlessly navigate their way around and stay up-to-date with all the latest news and updates from the University. Let us now dive in and see how the Find UAK app’s design covers the students’ needs.
Design Process
Target Audience - Personas
We have created personas that depict different user requirements and situations. That way, we gained a comprehensive understanding of our intended audience.
Find UAK College App - Features
After careful consideration and collaboration with our client, our team concluded that students would benefit most from a mobile application that is user-friendly and easy to maintain.
- To ensure the app is accessible to as many people as possible, we created it for iOS and Android using native frameworks.
- The university’s international community required us to make the app available in English and Polish.
- We opted to source our data from a backend to keep up with the ever-changing content and information. This feature allows the app's administrator to add new points of interest (POIs) to the map, upload photos, edit POI details and articles, and send push notifications through the app.
Fully Customizable Points of Interest
We created an app to help students in Krakow to navigate through the city - with public transportation being the main point of our focus. The map displays key locations, like deans' offices and UAK facilities. The administrator can manage the points of interest by adding, removing, and modifying them, classifying each into seven categories.
Such points of interest can contain:
- a description,
- relevant photos,
- contact details,
- external links.
Clear, coherent application design facilitates access to every piece of information.
User Flow
A carefully thought-out user path leads to a successful college application that meets the target audience’s needs.
Colors And Font
The colors we use take their inspiration from both the University and the vibrant city of Kraków. Specifically, the University's brand color is a rich shade of blue - symbolizing its reliability and long-lasting expertise.
Regarding the font choice, we have implemented a widely-known Open Sans. This sans-serif typeface is perfect for such an application thanks to its simple, minimalistic design. It perfectly complements the remaining parts of the visual identification components, which we will elaborate upon shortly.
Visual System For The University Application
Our app's design system encompasses every aspect of its appearance. That includes:
- layout,
- typography,
- color scheme,
- iconography.
We opted for a sleek and modern minimalistic design to keep the focus on the content. Our design system’s versatility allows us to accommodate future updates and new features. We prioritized accessibility during the creation of the design system by selecting the Open Sans font for its clarity and legibility.
Home Screen
The app’s home screen consists of a map interface to instantly provide its users with the key functionality of the app.
List of Places
This roster contains the most vital locations of the UAK campus and Krakow city. It is handy when the users look for a specific place to meet or deal with university-related duties.
Emergency numbers for those in need
Our app provides quick access to emergency contacts for various scenarios - such as medical emergencies or security issues. Call for help and get the necessary assistance you need with no delay.
Universities Meet Digital - Work With Us
Do you have an interest in developing a contemporary university application? Our team is here to assist you in this endeavor. To learn more, refer to the article on mobile applications designed specifically for universities. We warmly welcome you to collaborate with us.
The program is co-financed by the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme Knowledge Education Development, a non-competitive project titled “Improving the academic staff’s skills and the Institution’s potential for accepting people from abroad - Welcome to Poland” (Action: 3.3 Internationalization of Polish higher education), specified in the application for co-financing project No. POWR.03.03.00-00-PN14/18
