Building a WiFi issue report platform for both WiFi service user and provider. 

Currently, Dartmouth Network Service (DNS) is aiming to improve the outdated campus wireless infrastructure. We are tasked to create a WiFi reporting website that allows students to report campus WIFI issue. These reports will help DNS conduct accurate troubleshooting as well as understand the renovation sequence of the wireless infrastructure.

How do we collect huge volume of high-quality WiFi issue data for DNS to troubleshoot? 

Data collection process is extremely important. As our project is very technical-based, it involves a lot of work in back-end data processing, our developers offered six questions to include in the front-end website. These questions framed our platform into an online survey website. 

The chicken or the egg dilemma…

The two different types of users we identified are DNS staff and the Dartmouth community during initial user research. 

Although these two groups of users share the same goal of an improved WiFi service, as we considered both of their user journeys, we ran into a chicken or the egg dilemma: DNS staff would want more accurate data to conduct efficient troubleshooting, however, getting these data means more effort made by the WiFi users. The WiFi users would have to go through a relatively slow and inefficient reporting process to offer that data to DNS, which does not seem delightful in terms of user experience. As a result, this would lead to deficiency in the amount of data received, which then caused trouble for WiFi system fixations. 

To satisfy the needs for both user groups, we focused on designing the front-end UX experience targeting mainly WiFi users. 

How do we attract people to come?

Every action has its reason behind it. Same goes for reporting: people spend time reporting for a reason. One main takeaway from initial user interview is that people are concerned about the intransparency in report system where they cannot know the actual value of their contribution. For example, would DNS relay their report promptly and actually conduct troubleshooting based on their information. 

offering more transparent information to users

Working along with the developers allowed us to also understand the basic back-end structure of the platform, which includes a map that displays all the bad spots extracted from WiFi reports. We realized we can make use of the map to increase the transparency of communication between DNS staff and the Dartmouth community by sharing the map on the front-end.

Not only taking, but also giving

We decided to include this map on the front page because we believe this map could serve propaganda purposes. People would know this is a place to come for WiFi status information. As they visited the website, they are not just offering information, instead, they are exchanging information for information.

Although having the WiFi system improved is already a good incentive for people to come, the map incentivizes people in a more explicit way. 

Every report is valued

I brainstormed ways to show our users that their feedback is valid, and the time they spend on the survey is worthwhile. I came up with the idea of adding the user’s reported location onto the map after they finished reporting. This could show users that their report is taken into account by the DNS.

However, after weighing the pros and cons of having the map

We decided to take off the map. During our user testing, our users addressed concern of displaying the map twice. Some said that they would just reload to view the map again if they want to, others said that they were not sure if the information displayed is accurate and useful. I considered the purpose of the map in terms of trust-building instead of providing information. Therefore, we started off again, brainstorming for a simpler solution to the trust-building problem. Due to policy issues, our website cannot address reports individually. But we realized that we can find another way to prove to our users that this website is an effective tool to communicate with the DNS staff. Therefore, we decided to display statistics on DNS’s troubleshooting progress with a straightforward progress bar. 

Filling out a survey might not be enjoyable… but how do we make the process less tedious? 

In our initial user interview, many people said that they would report if the reporting process is not necessarily a serious time and intellectual commitment. We figured that we need to make the process 

Fast, intuitive, and Simple 

To do so, we decide to implement auto-swiping animations between questions. This allows the users to click on a minimal number of buttons to complete the survey. 

As our project is heavily UX-based, we need simple and efficient UI design. I experimented with different layouts and end up with a carousel design that matches our auto-swiping navigations. Our MVP device is desktop, therefore it is important to understand which area of the screen are we using the most as desktop screens are relatively large. The carousel with a strong contrast background offers a more efficient visual experience. 

I also experimented with different colors in the Dartmouth style guide. The typical Dartmouth Green makes the website too official, which contradicts our concept of a casual website. The forest green color is the secondary color in the Dartmouth style guide. It can also set the website apart from the rest of the Dartmouth related websites.

How to make people come back whenever they have an issue?

The reward system 

I gained a more in-depth understanding of this problem after conducting user testing on the initial project we had. Initially, we thought that we could make a more detailed map from the map on the first page with information of each floor’s WiFi status displayed. However, the user testing showed that people would love to know more processed information like specific locations of good WiFi instead of finding those on their own with the map. Moreover, many users addressed that they would want locations that are available to them both in terms of WiFi connectivity and distance from the current location. Therefore, we decided to replace the map with specific recommendations of locations to our final screen. These locations are calculated based on the user’s current locations and WiFi qualities. 

• As I worked through the process, I realized the importance of communication with teammates who have different tasks. Based on the technical nature of our project, I find it is very important to keep the boundaries of freedom we had in our design in mind. For example, in our project, the technical nature framed our website to be a survey form.

• I think one thing that could have done better is implementing a separate flow for non-first time user with the last question eliminated, which we think will make the process easier. We have not yet figured out how that would look like because there is not much existing surveys that share that feature. Moreover, this issue is also associated with account security as users will not be able to know that part of their information is shared with DNS. Therefore, further research needs to be done.

• I learned from this project that it is important to keep our primary goals in mind. During the middle of the process, we were distracted by the minor features related to the website that we forgot our main goal is to keep things simple, fast, and quick (To make the users stay less time on the website every time they visit).