Juhyun (Tim) Yim
U&ME
How might we create a community of students that helps first-year students transition into and navigate university life?
U&Me is a club-based student community application that helps students with both academic and social support. Last year, over 50% of new students said they experienced anxiety and depression; most of them said it was a result of struggles to find new friends and academic stress.
The application offers a 'To-do' management feature, enabling students to stay on top of their tasks and keep engaging with the product. Ultimately, U&Me aims to create a large, active community among students to help them connect with others.
Try out U&ME (Recommend to use chrome on Desktop)
Insight
As I continued self-isolation from society during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started to worry about my job prospects and felt depressed and unmotivated. I began to wonder how the other students are dealing with their stresses, so through desk research and interviews, I learned that students are relying on their peers more than anyone else: the answer was closer than I thought.
Idea
The core idea of U&Me is to make a sustainable community where students help students to get on board. Often, peers are the greatest source of information and emotional stability, and so U&Me helps students to create communities based on similar interests, schools, majors, etc. The best approach to creating a community is to get more people together. Academic support features on the U&Me product will attract more students and keep the communities active.
Impact
Through my project, students will keep in touch, particularly during these difficult pandemic days. Even after COVID-19, the product will remain for new students to access the community and get assistance from others. It will allow people with an introverted personality to connect more within their comfort zones, and with its multilingual features, U&ME is also available for international students to become better connected to the community. When we have similar interests and situations, we can be connected easily, and when we are connected we are stronger.
Biography
Tim Yim is a product designer mainly focusing on digital products. His design process begins with empathizing with users and asking 'why?' to clarify the problem. This allows him to identify the fundamental issues behind a problem and to propose human-centred solutions. He is also interested in climate and social justice issues as he believe if the design can change peoples' behaviours, it can change the world as a whole.