Unimood
UNIMOOD is a student community dedicated to sharing and visualizing the mood of students across various Italian universities.
Client
UNIRSM
Year
2019
Type
Interaction Design
CONTEXT
A survey involving 4,000 students from Italy, China, the US, and the UK revealed:
38% are dissatisfied with their life
46% reject their academic career
36% have contemplated quitting their studies
Several reasons contribute to these results, with school pressure and a lack of prospects for the future being among the primary factors:
43% do not believe they will find a job after graduation
39% doubt their ability to seek employment after graduating
80% lack confidence in achieving a grade meeting their expectations
"The concern for the future in a complex society like the current one and in a moment of economic and values crisis, seems to discourage and condition the vision of a university path, as if a lack of proportionality was felt between the commitment to study and the job opportunity."
Loredana Garlati, Deputy Rector for Orientation and Job Placement, University of Milan-Bicocca.
CONCEPT
The concept involves designing a space where students can share their moods within their universities.
The goal is to provide a new orientation parameter for students yet to choose their university and simultaneously offer a quick investigative tool for university management and local authorities.
This intends to raise awareness of an issue that is not adequately monitored.
DESIGN PROCESS
Utilizing Face-Analysis technology on the platform, regularly enrolled students can independently capture a photograph of themselves. The software processes the result based on the expression during the shot.
Face API is an open-source library used for detecting faces, age, gender, and facial expressions of individuals, returned through a numerical value ranging from 0 to 1.
It seamlessly incorporates TensorFlow, an open-source machine learning library, offering valuable modules for crafting algorithms tailored to diverse perceptual tasks.
Each event or emotion is linked to a mood color:
Positive student mood (green)
Neutral student mood (blue)
Negative student mood (pink)
Finally, students can upload their data, which will be consultable by everyone.
With my team, we've started collecting data at the Design Faculty of the University of the Republic of San Marino.
Phase 1:
Introduced the project to students.
Capturing their mood through a photo.
Phase 2:
Processed the photo using software.
Collected numerical data about the emotion.
After completing the data collection phase, we successfully developed a prototype for the project.
The video below provides an insightful demonstration of the page navigation process, as well as the loading and sharing procedures for the collected data.
