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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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