A native application prototype for the student learning system Sulis

SULIS as a Mobile App 

The aim of this final year project was to design a prototype application for the University of Limerick’s (UL) learning management system SULIS, based on a study of the existing mobile web version. As of now, there is no available native mobile application for SULIS. Students have to use the desktop version or use the mobile web version, which is not user friendly and can only be accessed through their mobile browser.Aisling’s goal was to take the mobile web version and redesign it using usability and accessibility principles, and design a user-friendly working prototype application that benefits the academic life of UL students. In order to pursue this FYP topic, she has undertaken secondary research to familiarise herself with existing literature regarding learning management systems for mobile, web and mobile usability and accessibility, universal design for learning, design for mobile and other similar research topics. Aisling used secondary research to familiarise herself with other existing web applications for learning management systems such as Moodle and Blackboard.

She undertook fieldwork studies in the form of interviews, focus groups, user testing and observations as she wanted to take a user and human centred design approach to designing this application, where the end users of the application are heavily involved in the design process of the application. Based on her primary and secondary research, she then designed a low-fidelity prototype application in the form of sketches and wireframes and was tested with target end users. Based on the feedback and observations from the first round of user testing, she created a high fidelity prototype that is more interactive, and performed user testing before undertaking the final design of the application. The prototype was again evaluated with users and went through a redesign cycle to ensure the application is user fluid.

Aisling’s goal was  the designed application to be as sleek and professional as possible. Aisling designed the prototype using software systems such as Adobe XD and Adobe After Effects.

This project allowed her to utilise the skills she has acquired over the last four years of my studies at the University of Limerick and during her internship as a UX Designer. She improved her design and prototyping skills and the ability to iterate designs based on feedback from usability testing. In conclusion, Aisling considers that her project was successful in regards of aims and objectives. It allowed her to address a problem she saw within the UL community and apply her design skills to solve this problem. This was her first experience of this kind and she is looking forward to bringing the skills she learned during this project with her as she launches herself into her future career.

Contact

Email: aislingnoone97 at gmail dot com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aislingnoone/ 

Website: https://aislingnooneux.myportfolio.com/ 

Date Published:
Tuesday, 31 August 2021