Food (In)Security

Interface:
LOCATING OUT-OF-STATE ONLINE ASU STUDENTS IN NEED
ANDREA AUSMUS, PAULO BUENCAMINO, JENNIFER GRETHER, STELLA KIM,
KERRI KRESS, AARON SCHUCHMAN
Food (In)Security Interface:
Out-of-State ASU User Research Plan and
Implementation
Andrea Ausmus, Paulo Buencamino, Jennifer Grether,
Stella Kim, Kerri Kress, Aaron Schuchman

Food Insecurity is a reality for many college students in the United States. In James Dubick,
Brandon Matthew, and Clare Cady’s study Hunger on Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity
for College Students (there is another study I linked to in the prompt) student were asked
questions to find if they fell along the lines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s scale from
“high food security” to “very low food security” and their study showed across thirty-four
campuses were near or at 25% very food insecure (p. 17). These studies, which primarily
investigate on-campus student populations, drove us to question if students what happens to
students educated online and out-of-state from their college. Our UX study was designed to
locate the most common interfaces out-of-state online college students at a large metropolitan
university use for finding solutions to their own food insecurity.
Our team is focusing on the out-of-state students of Arizona State University (ASU) that only
interact in an online digital format. These students are not able to rely on canvas opportunities
like those that attend an ASU brick and mortar school. Semi-synchronous and variable distances
create several problems with how to reach and assist these students. Research challenges
include locating students who have these worries and determine the potential interface
improvement. We are relying on surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect user data
and insights to ideate potential interface improvements.
First, we are going to contact the university and try to find a way to gain contact with a large
group of students. Our team decided that the best way to reach these students would be using
online resources using our university’s own directories and databases.
Because our user group are located out-of-state, we decided the very best method to reach the
greatest number would be using an online survey. As for a second, triangulating research
method, we decided that connecting face-to-face (F2F) in an interview format to answer more
specific questions.
For our survey we plan on using an online survey instrument to connect with students that we
locate. To locate these students, we are going to rely on snowball effects and social media. In
this survey we hope to find information about demographics, level of food insecurity, and allow
for any feedback they might have about how and where they find assistance already. We will
also use this opportunity to find preferences in what they expect in a tool so that we are able to
create a mockup that a student would prefer to use.
During our follow-up semi-structured interviews, we will try to expand the granularity of the
information in the survey and get qualitative feedback for how a student uses online resources
to deal with food emergencies. For these connections, we hope to find students local to our
own out-of-state locations and/or interview in person or using a video conference method (ie,
Skype or Google Hangouts). To ensure that our participants are within our specific user group
we will need to rely on the use of demographic questions. In the surveys, we will identify our
subset by asking questions alluding to the where and how a student participates with their
education. When conducting follow-up semi-structured interviews, we will allow for a more
freeform method of questioning, allowing for the interviewee to describe their own
circumstances and what they feel they are missing in the current available tools.
To judge the material and data that we collect we will produce a research report based on the
compiled data from our surveys and interviews. From this report analysis we will assemble a
few Proto-Personas of our potential users, usage and concept stories, and construct an
interactive mockup to be tested in follow-up interviews with both local and distant students.
The goal is to engage the students in a conversation about food insecurity and to provide tools
that will assist those in the greatest need.

Citations

Dubick, J., Matthews, B., & Cady, C. (2016, October). Hunger on Campus: The Challenge of Food
Insecurity for College Students(Rep.). Retrieved January 24, 2019, from Students Against Hunger
website: http://studentsagainsthunger.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/10/Hunger_On_Campus.pdf