Senior Capstone Project Reflection & Resources
I made a strategic decision to complete my senior capstone project in the summer semester between my junior and senior years in college. A few things led to this decision:
I had a lighter course load than in previous semesters, so it would allow me to give a little more time to focus on this project.
I knew I wanted to start applying for jobs during my senior year.
I wanted to use my capstone project as a portfolio piece for the job application process.
Now, just to back up for a minute, my degree program offered me the option of doing either a senior capstone project or an internship of my choice. A bit of thought went into deciding between the two, but ultimately, my decision landed on the idea that I needed more in a portfolio than I needed experience in the field I planned on going into. This decision will vary widely and be really dependent on personal work experience and history. So don’t consider that my choice is a one-size-fits-all because it’s definitely not. It requires some planning strategy.
I was really interested in the idea of researching and designing a mobile app, because it’s something I wanted to learn more about, but also because it would give me the space to combine my knowledge of visual design with more research and learn several new pieces of software.
Right around the same time, I was searching for a solution to a problem my husband and I were personally experiencing. For about 17 years, we have been responsible for managing my father-in-law’s finances due to a brain injury disability. I reached a point where I was tired of categorizing his many times a day purchases at gas stations and McDonald’s. I had the idea to get him a prepaid debit card that wouldn’t be directly attached to his checking account, but as I was doing research on those - I found a few big problems.
The ones that had mobile apps for convenience in tracking and funding were all geared toward teens or kids with full-fledged chores & allowance systems built in.
If they didn’t have a mobile app, you had to go to physical stores to fund them.
The only ones that seemed to offer a separate “administrator” account from the “cardholder” account were for parents and children.
I started to make a list of what my requirements were in order to have this work for our situation:
A mobile app
No parent/child language
No chores & allowance system built-in
No way for the cardholder to fund it themselves - so separate access for administrator and cardholder
In my search, I found one company that offered what I was looking for - exactly one. But, they only had a website to manage the card and access information. There is no mobile app. I started to think I couldn’t be the only one in this situation. And I found via a number of Reddit threads that I definitely wasn’t. This leads me to the question - how many millennials are in situations like mine? And I focused on millennials because we’re the generation that the “Boomers” gave birth to and the Boomers are starting to age, while their millennial children are beginning to help care for them. Or at least that was my suspicion at this point.
I decided this would make an excellent research project and app to develop and design. I had a concept that I suspected was a gap in the marketplace and I knew that myself and at least the number of people I found on Reddit asking for a mobile app was somewhere to start with research.
I won’t go much into the project itself because I have a portfolio piece you can look at for that. But I do want to share a little more about the background of how I tackled this project and what resources I used.
This is a general idea of what my process actually looked like. I utilized the help of this Skillshare course because I think she did a fantastic job of really walking through her process for something similar.
I knew that as someone who was new to this field, but not new to design, the aspects I would need to learn more were wireframing in XD and user testing and that is really a big portion of what that skillshare class taught.
Other tools I used at different points in the process:
I utilized a platform called Lookback.io for a remote-capable user testing option.
Google Forms for Surveys
Zoom (of course) for research interviews
Notion to organize the project tasks
Miro to lay out the process and progress
iPad and Apple Pencil along with this template for my sketches
Gifski to create GIFs in my portfolio piece
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
Overall I’m really proud of what this ended up being and have gotten good insight and feedback from those who have looked at the finished product.
