Campus Grub
Fall 2024
Campus Grub is a collaborative project that was completed with a small group of other designers in my class. With on campus dining halls not getting much attention from upperclassmen, we were given the task to create a service that could revive this element of campus. This was the first time we were given the task of working with a team and coming to design decisions together. This was also the most extensive researched project that we were given during school, with user interviews, studies, and an interview with the Director of Food Operations at GVSU.
Before even designing any part of our app, our class was divided into our groups and each given a section of research to go in depth into. My group was given the assignment of interviewing the Director of Food Operations at GVSU, Karrie Erwin. We came up with around 20 mock questions and took the notes below on our findings. We went into the interview hoping to get a better understanding on the thought process of the current state of on campus food, and what they see as problems they need to address. Our interview along with the other groups conducting worker and consumer surveys, we used this to develop certain focal points of our app, Campus Grub.
Pre-Design Research
After coming together as a class and comparing our findings, we were tasked with developing a user journey map to discover pain points and important moments of someone’s experience of getting food on campus. My group chose the perspective of a professor, who after our research segment learned that they prefer bringing food because of the crowded dining halls and the time it can take walking to get their food.
User Journey
After getting an understanding of the user needs, my group wanted to focus on the reoccurring problem for people not eating on campus, the wait. When students and professors are on a tight schedule with limited time between classes, they don’t have time to stop and wait in line to get their food before sitting an eating. Campus Grub brings quick and convenient service that GVSU needs. By ordering ahead from restaurants or dining halls, people will be able to walk in and grab their order from the food lockers by scanning their QR code that is specific to their order. This easy system will decrease the line size naturally, while also give customers the option to have time to sit and eat or take it on the go to their next class or their commute home.
Meet Campus Grub
Working in a group of other designers compared to individual work was a learning curve. We created style guides and mood boards for similar food service apps, to narrow down our options for a color palette and style of the app. We ultimately decided to have a general color scheme of black, white and red while having elements of the GVSU color scheme, something that can change and coordinate if this was picked up across other Universities. You can see the Campus Grub style guide that we chose also.
Design Process
As a team we used the Campus Grub style guide to keep a consistent look to our app, despite working on it separately. We wanted a simple and easy to use UI for anybody to be able to navigate the service successfully, and since we wanted the conservation of time as one of our main goals, being able to navigate and complete tasks quickly was essential. The use of the QR code and lockers is used to negate the size of a line at dining halls. Even with a quick pickup service, the need to wait in line to get to the counter just to pickup your order can be a problem. Scanning the code found in your app is a secure way to reassure that you are getting your food in a swift and safe manner.
