I've been an RA for nearly 4 years now, and have learned the ins-and-outs of Residence Life at RIT. During my time here, I've:
- Overseen 300+ residents
- Organized and collaborated in 10+ events per semester
- Been our school mascot twice
The RA role has introduced me to incredible people and taught me the value of community building. This project was my opportunity to give back by creating a system that simplifies my coworkers' workflows and amplifies their impact.
In order to design a dashboard for RA's, research and understanding are necessary to dig down to root issues that RA's are dealing with.
To design an RA dashboard, I started by interviewing five current RAs. They shared their frustrations and revealed patterns in their workflows. The most common issues were:
Too much irrelevant resident data slowed down task completion.
Navigation was unclear and complicated, even for veteran RAs.
Tasks lacked clear progress indicators, making it easy to lose track.
The current process for task completion was overly complex, requiring 8 steps just to complete one task.
During the ideation phase, I took the research and stories I collected from users, and compiled a list of assumptions to test, problems to prioritize, and to experimenting with advanced variables in Figma while cross-referencing techological feasibility.
- Selecting a resident revealed overwhelming data, creating unnecessary delays.
- Choosing a task came too late in the process, leading to cognitive overload.
- Task completion status was unclear, reducing user confidence and efficiency.
Based on assumptions and hypothesis made during the ideation phase, it was time to start designing potential solutions to problems.
I began sketching and iterating low-fidelity wireframes. Tasks were organized into two categories:
- Admin Tasks: Event planning, scheduling, etc.
- Resident Tasks: Building relationships and completing resident-specific duties.
After some designing wireframes, designs needed to run through user-testing. This would test assumptions made throughout the design process, and to gain insights on user interactions and preferences.
By streamlining task completion, I reduced the process from 8 steps to 5, improving workflow efficiency by 37.5%. Through usability testing, I identified further optimizations:
- Tab navigation between residents without resetting progress proved intuitive and time-saving.
- Quick task prioritization significantly reduced cognitive load.
After the first round of iterations, my designs received valuable feedback. One key insight was the efficiency gained by allowing users to tab between residents while referring to the resident list without resetting the workflow. This feature significantly reduced cognitive load and improved task completion time.Further testing is ongoing to refine the design and continue enhancing the user experience.
Through trials of design and testing, I have conceptualized Version 1 of a final design for an RA dashboard. As this project continues, I am working with the development team at RIT to help enhance the overall experience for RA's.
Every RA is different, so a one-size-fits-all won’t cut it. The default screen would provide RA’s with:
- Resident count on floor
- Semester Budget for events
- Upcoming Deadlines
A glanceable list allows RAs to quickly see resident stats and open modals for more detailed info.
Tasks are now organized by task type, not resident, allowing quicker navigation and better progress tracking.
- Exact Deadline
- Residents completed
- Residents are incomplete or pending
A large focus for this project was to make task completion for RA’s much easier.
With my design, I focused on making sure that tasks and progress were prioritized for RA’s use, and are now able to complete per task, not by resident.
Orbit is a centralized, intuitive dashboard designed to streamline Resident Assistants' workflows by organizing tasks, deadlines, and resident information. It simplifies complex processes, offering quick access to insights and actions, allowing RAs to focus more on building community and less on navigating inefficient systems.
Empathetic Design
I learned the importance of deeply understanding user needs by conducting interviews and gathering insights. This approach ensured that the design addressed specific RA pain points and user workflows.
Streamlined Simplicity
The challenge of simplifying complex workflows while ensuring the dashboard remained functional and informative taught me how to prioritize features and maintain usability.
Scalable Design
Creating a system adaptable for future needs taught me how to think strategically and design for growth.
