The Search for Belonging Project was one of my first projects during my Stanford Master's degree. Our class partnered with the Stanford Office of Sexual Assault & Relationship Abuse Education & Response (SARA) to identify ways to engage students in healthy sex education and to create safe spaces where honest conversations and discussions could be had. I worked on a team with 3 other students in the program to address this issue.
In order to delve into this, we began user research and interviewed many Stanford undergraduate and graduate students. All of the students that we interviewed were open with us allowing us to have honest conversations. From the interviews, we synthesized our insights and we realized that there are a lot of shared 'mythologies' that are thrown into the mix. This often leads to undue pressure on all aspects of student life; academic, personal, sexual, etc. However, we uncovered that most Stanford students struggle with finding their place or sense of belonging on campus. This lack of belonging often leads to students isolating their feelings and thinking that they are the only one facing these issues.
From here, we set out to ideate and test some prototypes to solve this problem and create a healthier Stanford community. Our user research insights and prototypes are outlined below.
In order to delve into this, we began user research and interviewed many Stanford undergraduate and graduate students. All of the students that we interviewed were open with us allowing us to have honest conversations. From the interviews, we synthesized our insights and we realized that there are a lot of shared 'mythologies' that are thrown into the mix. This often leads to undue pressure on all aspects of student life; academic, personal, sexual, etc. However, we uncovered that most Stanford students struggle with finding their place or sense of belonging on campus. This lack of belonging often leads to students isolating their feelings and thinking that they are the only one facing these issues.
From here, we set out to ideate and test some prototypes to solve this problem and create a healthier Stanford community. Our user research insights and prototypes are outlined below.