AHS-L2-4. A Study on Improvement of Mobile App for UNLV: Campus Safety Protocol in User Experience
Kristine Monsada1
Mustafa Diallo2
Cecilia Garcia-Leon2
Mayra Carrera2
Khristine Le2
Faculty Mentor: Sang-Duck Seo, Ph.D.2
1Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science
2College of Fine Arts, Department of Art
ABSTRACT
According to The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an average of 28,000 crimes were reported on college campuses across the United States in 2019. However, while many universities offer services to help students stay safe while on campus, students continue to feel unsafe.
The University of Nevada Las Vegas’s (UNLV) proximity to the Las Vegas Strip causes campus to be vulnerable to crime. While UNLV offers students safety resources through their campus safety app, ‘RebelSafe,’ we found that only a small percentage of UNLV students actually use the app and wanted to pinpoint why. Thus, we focused our research on improving the usability and User Experience (UX) of this existing campus safety application by redesigning the app and conducting usability tests with the redesign.
To test the effectiveness of the new redesign, our empirical study consists of three tasks for participants to execute: contacting police, requesting safety escorts, and accessing other safety resources. The findings from the usability testing help us analyze the difficulties users experience from the prototype. They also help us determine areas that are working and areas that need improvement.
By focusing on the improvement of the existing UNLV RebelSafe mobile app, this study intends not only to specify an effective user interface design that fits into emergency protocol procedure but also to clarify the campus safety resources through a single mobile application.
Date
- Nov 15 - 19 2021
- Expired!
Time
- All Day
Labels
- AHS: Lighting Talk Session 2
Organizer
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The Office of Undergraduate Research
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Phone
702-895-4771 -
Email
our@unlv.edu -
Website
http://unlv.edu/our
Speakers
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Cecilia Garcia-Leon | College of Fine Arts
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Dr. Sang-Duck Seo | College of Fine Arts
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Khristine Le | College of Fine Arts
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Kristine Monsada | Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering
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Mayra Carrera | College of Fine Arts
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Mustafa Diallo | College of Fine Arts
Firstly, I love the visual aspect of your presentation! It caught my attention even before the presentation began. Especially with sample photos of the RebelSafe app, because personally, I don’t have the app downloaded, and this gives me a visual idea of how the app actually works through user experience perspective. Secondly, the way you organized the information is very clear and concise, making it easy for me to understand, despite not having the app myself. I agree that the app currently has many cons and can be heavily improved and promoted in a way majority of students can easily navigate and have access to the app. I recall the only times I’ve heard of RebelSafe is either on the poles of campus or through emails which I recognize as spam. The prototype your team created is very appealing to me with the way it functions and its simplicity. I can definitely see myself downloading your app solely because of the UX design. Thank you for a great presentation on improvements and changes to the mobile app service! This will definitely make an impact on student life and safety at UNLV if it were implemented.
Hello Mustafa, I really enjoyed your lightning talk about UNLV’s Rebel Safe App. You delivered a presentation that was organized, detailed, and easy to follow. I liked how you specified what issues there were with the app and included ways to improve it (ex. To fix the confusing design, keep the layout simple). Additionally, it was cool to see a demo about the new features your group created. By doing this, it helped me understand the new design and changes your group would like to implement into the app. Overall, I agree that these new additions will greatly improve the Rebel Sale App. Good job!
Before I came to UNLV in Fall 2020, I received many emails, saw many social media posts, and heard many admissions counselors and orientation leaders tell me to download the RebelSAFE app. Fast forward to a year and a half later and I have never used it. I downloaded the app and immediately found it to be useless, not user-friendly at all, and confusing to operate. I agree with all parts of your presentation, especially where your group broke down the differentiated aspects of the app that are undesirable for students and other users. The app definitely needs software updates, updated links, and better organization. Thank you for sharing your input so that change to the app and its services can take place!