why saenghwa?
master’s degree holders note few information about work
foreign students find the language barrier the hardest
to local information and services is salient
the challenge
Having been international students in Korea ourselves, we knew the struggle of moving to another country alone – which inspired us to do the project.
the solution
We designed Saenghwa to provide international students with tools that can help them adapt to a new environment's culturally and socially.
Students can access an organized system of information on life in Korea. Searching is possible on main screens, and articles can be saved for quick navigation.
Students can engage with other users through groups in Community by joining organized offline meetups and online conversations in Messages.
All user activities within the app can be viewed in the You page, as well as the option for users to adjust their initial preferences.
impact
Surveys suggest that social relationships and accurate information can positively impact the quality of life of international students in South Korea.
exploring opportunities
We conducted a competitor analysis to explore existing apps in the Korean iOS market, and found that there were no direct competitors that catered specifically to students who were already in the country.
building context
As former students, we were aware of our own biases on the problem space. We conducted 3 user interviews with students in Korea to ensure objectivity, which uncovered three main themes.
Kevin
26
Male
Daejeon → Seoul
Graduate
Goals
Learn about local rules and regulations in the country
Maximizes his benefits in healthcare and finance
Find a job position that matches his skillset and Korean language level
Anna
20
Female
Seoul
Freshman
Goals
Find updated information needed to live in Korea with minimal effort
Make friends to feel more at home
Navigate and adapt to the country’s culture easily
Overwhelmed
Confused
apologetic
Lost
Lonely
does
Look information up on the internet
Use Google Translate to translate information on websites
Ask friends about how they’ve done/they’re doing it
Check online group chats to hear about similar experiences
Follow social media accounts for news and events
says
It’s hard cause I don't know a lot of Korean
Sorry, what does that mean?
I don't know too many people in Korea
What do I do?
I heard that this is how you do it. Is this correct?
thinks
How am I supposed to read all this in Korean?
I don’t want to look clueless when I ask for help
This is way too much work
I wish I had someone to figure all of this out with me
I want to go here but I don't know anyone to go with me
user
brain blast
We wanted to build a simple navigation that didn't undermine the abundance of information students accessed (see: Tesler's law), so we developed a system that emphasizes hierarchy and organization.
We made multiple wireframe iterations, particularly on screens that were option and text heavy. Utilizing Jakob's law, we used cards and a combination of horizontal and vertical scrolling for clearer distinction among different types of information.
conveying optimism
Drawing on the wordplay with saenghwal/생활, or "life", we designed the app with the hope that users lead a bright, fulfilling life in Korea. We chose a simple, bright color palette to communicate this.
takeaways
Collaboration means a constant exchange of ideas and feedback. Because I was working with a fellow designer, building off on each other's thoughts was crucial to our work.
The wireframing stage was especially important during the design process, because it held the meat of our design work. Continuous iterations – that of course, met our desired timeframes – were necessary to reach a level of design that we were satisfied with.
My teammate and I understood that our design would take a long time to implement in the real world, and while this was just a concept app (for now), it's still important to be conscious of planning out a design that can adapt to both adding and forgoing features depending on user needs.