Category: Student project
Collaborators: Ingvild Årdal, Henriette Greve-Schjelderup and Maja Hansen Moe
Subject: Design and prototyping for digital products
When: January – April 2023 (4th semester)
Ung Fritid
What is ungfritid.no?
Ungfritid.no was created by the Norwegian government aiming to reduce socioeconomic disparities and increase youth engagement in leisure activities.
The website serves as a resource hub for young people offering information related to their hobbies and interests, fostering community and social inclusion.
Task to be completed
TietoEvry Create is responsible for operation and maintenance of the website ungfritid.no on behalf of Frivillighet Norge. They see that the site needs improvement, and wanted us to evaluate it, conduct user research and redesign the site.
How we completed it
Secondary research
First, we performed desktop research to explore the problem, identify important questions and learn about best practice in the field of study. Inspiration from similar services were identified. Expert evaluation using the service was performed by us to find potential usability problems in the interface.
Primary research
We recruited users - both young students in the target group, but also parents - to perform predefined tasks using the service, talking us through their experience and their thoughts. This was done both using Zoom and in physical locations, depending on the users’ preferences.
Our findings
Research revealed that the interface had several missing functions. Some functions were not following standard metaphores. Others were not working properly. Free search was hidden. Subpages also confuse the users.
The result
Our concept is a responsive website that allows the user to
Find an activity by using the free search field, browsing the page or using a simple form (age, address) for the site to suggest activities nearby
Find information about an activity, including a link to the organization's homepage
Signing up for an activity and paying for it immediately
The prototypes
Scenario for mobile phone prototype
Tove, at a café with her friend, vents about her 12-year-old son, Oscar, diving deeper into gaming.
Her friend suggests ungfritid.no for a non-screen activity suitable for Oscar's hearing impairment.
Tove mentions having an account for her older kids, and plans to sign Oscar up immediately, hoping pre-payment will encourage him to try it.
Scenario for desktop prototype
Elisabeth is at NTNU Gjøvik's orientation week and discovers a stand for "UngFritid."
Interested in joining a leisure activity, she visits the website and signs up for golf after finding sufficient information. This requires creating a user account on UngFritid.
Reflection
In this project, graphic design students primarily worked on the design manual and elements for the user interface, while the interaction design students prioritized research, and constructed the prototype. It turned out quite well!
Still we were all involved in some of the processes, like choosing research methods, analyzing research results, and deciding colours and style. I had a great time being in charge of this group of dedicated students.