Business Access
Parent Access
Gru is an app that provides families living in rural areas with extracurricular activities that are hosted by the town’s businesses.
Project Duration
01.06.20 - 03.12.20
10 weeks
Course
Information Architecture
Prof. Eun Yoon
Team Members
Andrea Castro, Athena Giani
My Role
Project Lead
Explore activities
Parents can review the activities they are interested in for their children. Detailed information about the company will also be given for each event that is posted.
Calendar
Gru offers a calendar separating each activity for your individual children for easy organization and set up.
Create Activity
Gru offers a template for local shops to easily insert the information about the activity and upload it to the platform.
Analysis
Businesses are also able to analyze details of the event; such as reviews, attendance, and income.
The Problem
There is a current new trend of young families moving back to small towns in rural areas.
These young families are lacking extracurricular activities that encourage personal growth of achieving one’s fullest potential.
Our Goal
Create a platform that will allow families to connect with their communities and encourage the personal growth in their children.
The Solution
Gru is an app enables not only the children, but the businesses to grow. Children need these activities to allow self-growth, while the businesses will be able to promote themselves as well as create a stronger community
Vision Video
Check out our Process Book:
What I learned
Working as the project lead for this team was a great experience to learn about leadership and taking responsibility. Beyond that, I learned about trusting my teammates and making sure everyone is staying up to their tasks. I also found fun the observations for the research, as it required analyzing a completely different environment and way of living.
Team Rustiko
Process
Research
Observation
7 locations considered rural or semirural
Survey
97 responses
Interviews
13 interviews
Local families and business
Findings
The Real Rural America
When we first started our research, we heard a lot about the stereotypical rural areas: isolated, technology unfriendly, and hard to find jobs and good education. Instead, what we learned from rural areas was actually a very close community, with a great education system and aspiration to grow
Research Insights
Education brings in new families
People reunite with their families
Communities lack events and activities
Sports dominate activities
Define
Create more diversity and interest within various extracurricular activities
Integrate extracurricular activities in the daily life of children
Create motivation leading to a growing community
Target Audience
Business
Family
Develop
When developing the app, the main focus was on the information architecture. Creating a clear and intuitive navigation system where parents can easily find activities for their children, and business can promote their events.
Final Design
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