MatchMate

Project Description

The Project's Idea

As a group of students, we repeatedly encountered the same frustration: finding the right group partners for university projects is often random, stressful, and inefficient. Whether it’s matching by working style, shared interests, or skill level, current systems leave a lot to be desired. That’s why we developed the idea of a smart matching app specifically designed for group work in academic contexts. We brainstormed several app ideas, from health tools to task managers, but this concept stood out. It’s highly relevant to our current student life, offers a clear user need, and allows space for design-focused innovation. We also found the market relatively underdeveloped, giving us room to create something meaningful.

The Project's Vision

We want to build an app that helps students form ideal project groups based on shared preferences, availability, and working styles. The app should be easy to use, inclusive, and flexible. It will guide users through the matching process using short questionnaires or inputs and return suitable partners they can contact directly or be matched with automatically. Our prototype will focus entirely on the user experience: input forms, result pages, and user flows. AI will be assumed to function in the background but will not be implemented

The Project's Goal

Our goal is to simplify and improve the process of forming project groups at universities. By offering a digital, user-friendly solution tailored to students’ preferences and academic needs, we aim to reduce group work stress and improve learning outcomes. To achieve this, we need to fully understand how students currently form groups, their frustrations, and what they expect from a better solution.

Contextual Inquiry

Preparation - Current Status of similar Solutions

Before developing a user-centered application, it is essential to analyze existing solutions that offer similar functionalities. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of comparable apps helps identify what already works well and, more importantly, where current tools fall short. This benchmarking process ensures that our app doesn't merely replicate existing features, but instead fills concrete gaps in functionality, usability, and user experience. By studying similar platforms, we gain valuable insights into best practices and potential pitfalls, allowing us to create a solution that is truly innovative, relevant, and tailored to the needs of students working in groups.

1. StudySmarter

• Use Case: Digital learning platform for students (offers flashcards, summaries, and group features)
• Similarities:
  • Offers collaboration features and study groups
  • Focused entirely on students and academic needs
  • Includes scheduling, shared resources, and goal setting
• Strengths:
  • Strong educational content creation and sharing tools
  • Large user base among students, tailored to academic progress
• Weaknesses:
  • No smart group matching (students join groups manually)
  • Collaboration features aren't deeply project-focused (more general studying)
  • No integrated task or role distribution within groups

2. TeamUp

• Use Case: Simple tool for organizing teams and managing availability
• Similarities:
  • Helps form and organize teams, manage schedules
  • Useful in both academic and casual contexts
• Strengths:
  • Very intuitive calendar-based interface
  • Good for seeing when team members are available
• Weaknesses:
  • Not designed specifically for university or academic group work
  • No intelligent matching (manual input only)
  • Lacks collaborative features like chat, file sharing, or task assignment

3. Tandem App (for Study Groups)

• Use Case: Originally for finding language exchange partners, but adapted for finding study partners/groups
• Similarities:
  • Focused on matching individuals based on interests, goals, and preferences
  • Designed for student collaboration
• Strengths:
  • Smart matching algorithm with profile preferences
  • Encourages meaningful connections and goal-based study sessions
• Weaknesses:
  • Not structured for project-based teamwork (no shared tasks, file exchange)
  • Less functional when it comes to organizing full teams or long-term collaboration
  • Mostly mobile and geared toward 1-on-1 interactions

The most relevant existing apps—StudySmarter, TeamUp, and Tandem, each offer useful elements such as content sharing, scheduling, or user matching. However, none of them fully support project-based group work in an academic setting. While StudySmarter excels at study material sharing, it lacks structured group matching; TeamUp handles scheduling well but is not tailored to academic collaboration; and Tandem offers user matching but is limited to one-on-one connections. Our app addresses this gap by combining intelligent group formation, task distribution, and collaboration tools specifically for university group projects.

Planning of the Contextual Inquiry

Goals & Objectives of the CI

We want to understand how students currently find and select group members for university projects. Our goal is to learn about their workflows, frustrations, needs, and wishes, so we can design a matching app that truly supports and improves this process.

Target Users We have two primary user types:

• Students
  • from different departments & levels (Bachelor & Master; Design, Business Psychology, Management, etc.)
  • Students with experience in forming or joining group projects
  • Form the core user base of the matching tool
  • Will offer insights into preferences, experiences, frustrations, and expectations
• Lecturers/Professors
  • Assign or supervise group work
  • Provide insights on what makes a group effective from an academic perspective

Recruitment of Participants

• We will contact students in our own networks (classmates, friends, students from other programs) and recruit via student group chats or email lists
• Target number of participants: 3 interviews (two students and one teacher/professor), at least 10 students for surveys

Activity We Want to Support We want to support the formation of effective student groups for coursework (projects, assignments, etc.) by building a digital tool that matches users based on preferences, availability, study style, and personality. The activity includes:

• Searching for potential teammates
• Evaluating compatibilityCommunicating initial expectations
• Forming and starting group work smoothly

Where and When Does the Activity Occur?

• The group formation usually happens at the beginning of the semester or project phase
• It often occurs:
  • In class (announcements)
  • Through university learning platforms
  • In informal online channels (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack groups)
  • Via social media or word-of-mouth
• We can investigate it by:
  • Asking participants to show us how they currently do it (re-enactment)
  • Discussing their last group formation experience

Roles, Jobs, Tasks to Investigate

• Roles: Students looking for a group or recruiting members
• Tasks: Searching for partners, posting requests, evaluating candidates, agreeing on forming a group
• Problems: Identifying skills/availability, dealing with unreliability, coordinating first meetings

Methods and Techniques for Data Collection

• Interviews:
  • Semi-structured, guided by tailored interview guides
  • Conducted remotely via Teams (with permission for screen sharing if needed)
  • Audio recorded (with consent) + field notes
  • Duration: ~10–15 minutes
  • Materials:
    • Interview Guide – Students (Design & Business Psychology)
    • Interview Guide – Teaching Staff
    • Consent & explanation form (verbal or written)
• Survey:
  • Online questionnaire created with Google Forms or Typeform
  • Mix of Likert-scale, multiple choice and open-ended questions
  • Focus: group formation process, group challenges, preferences for future app
  • Duration: ~5 minutes

Duration & Documentation

• Interviews: ~10–15 minutes per session
• Survey: ~5 minutes
• Recording & Notes:
  • Teams recording (audio and screen, with consent)
  • Backup: written notes taken during/after session
  • All data anonymized
  • Raw results stored securely for team access