UniBud.
An app designed to find student deals/discounts for London Uni students based on their location.
Team Timeline
Chiara November, 2022-
Emily
Sophie
Tools
Figma
Xcode
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Project Overview
UniBud aims to connect financially strained students and local small businesses in London.
Initial idea: focusing on assisting our community.
It all begins with an idea. As students (who are not working full time) we often find it financially strained to live in London, so we have started brainstorming an app that can help our fellow uni students to save and budget.
Market research.
Comparing UniBud with existing apps on the market.
Our solution is to provide discount information based on our users’ (students) location.
User Research
Survey with 81 responses
We made a survey to understand our users more. We posted this survey on our social media accounts and got 81 responses.
“I like to use student beans and Unidays, but I wish they had a wider selection of discounts in London.”
“Google in general or UNiDAYS/student beans… but annoying that they don’t carry the same companies, so you have to check both.”
“I use Wowcher. I like it for miscellaneous products but not very helpful for food.”
“Unidays and Student beans, but that is only because that’s all that exists. I wish there were an app for more lowkey smaller local companies ?”
We found that our users find it hard to find discounts rather, it is too inconvenient, time-consuming, not focusing on local stores, or there is not a holistic platform to do so.
User interview
Name: Sophia
Age: 21
Gender: Female
How do they describe themselves?
An international student sharing a flat with a friend, on a budget constantly as living in London is quite expensive.
What apps do you use most often? Instagram, Tiktok, and Whatsapp.
Do you look for good student discounts/ deals when you shop?
I would occasionally check Unidays and Student Beans, but the options are quite limited.
Do you check for deals and discounts before you go shopping for groceries or eat at restaurants?
I don’t. I guess it’s because the process is too inconvenience and time-consuming. I’m too lazy for that.
But if you see good deals on Tiktok or Instagram, will you still go?
Definitely, I love a good discount, makes me feel good about saving money also.
Interviewing local/ independent businesses
The percentage of student customers of stores around student-heavy areas can be approximately 40%-70%.
Students aren’t aware of the stores offering student discounts, it heavily relies on the staff to inform them about the offers.
Local businesses find it challenging to target the younger audience.
Many of the local/ independent stores rely heavily on natural footfall.
We interviewed 1 retail store, 1 restaurant, 2 coffee/bakery shops, and 1 grocery store. They are all small/independent businesses located nearby Universities in London.
Local/ independent stores find it difficult to reach the younger audience or promote their student discounts.
The Solution
—Users get notified by nearby deals/ student discounts sent by ibeacons installed in local stores.
iBeacon is a small low, energy device that broadcast signals continuously. implementation of Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) wireless technology to create a different way of providing location-based information and services to iPhones and other iOS devices.
—Users can search for nearby deals based on their preferred radius or category.
User flow chart
Users are able to look up nearby discounts/deals with a filter or manual search. If a preferred deal is found, they will be given directions by city mappers or maps.
Wireframe sketches
A Youthful and Inclusive Branding Identity
Aiming for a unisex, young, playful identity to attract University students.
User Journey Map
To help understand the user experience and identify areas for improvement.
Prototyping with Figma
Users have to get verified as students first using an ac.uk email account.
Users can manually search, use filters, or simply use the map view and list view that is based on the preferred radius to find deals.
Get directions from GPS navigation apps to get to the selected stores.
Create an account to unlock student-exclusive deals/ discounts.
Start searching for nearby deals.
User Experience Testing
Tested on University students. Maya -Yaska and Louie.
✅ User friendly & easy navigation
✅ Unisex design
✅ Clear and concise
✅ Simple concept
❌ Favourite icon is confusing
❌ Price range is unclear
Prototype Version 2.
Based on user’s feedback, we have added new features to enable a smoother, more intuitive user experience.
Additional Functionalities
📌 Student ID embedded in Apple wallet.
📌 Clear and understandable price points.
📌 Function to share via social media.
Attracting student users and building sustainable revenue.
📌 Acquisition
📌 Activation
📌 Retention
📌 Revenue
📌 Referal
Posting content on Instagram and Tiktok, which our target audience mostly use.
Work with Tiktok content creator who focusing creating content on student life in London.
Recruit student ambassadors from different London Universities to promote our app to students.
Start the hashtag #buddyforbudget on Instagram and Tiktok to generate interaction between users of our app.
Build a strong and interactive community of our users.
Smooth and intuitive user experience, so users are more willing to stay and become loyal users.
Through commissions from purchases and advertisement revenue on the app.
University students had positive experience using UniBud, spreading our app via word of mouth to their peers and community.
As people are usually only students for 3-5 years. Therefore to retain our user base, we could sustain that traction by giving referral coupons so that Unibud can spread on campus through word of mouth.
Coding it on Xcode 💻
With the assistance of MapKit and Core location API, UniBud can track the user’s location and provide GPS functions via Apple Maps.
The app is still under construction, further adjusting and proper functionalities will be added.
