Appendix
University of Queensland (n.d) How do I make friends at university, are there social events, programs or networks? Retrieved from https://support.my.uq.edu.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/1247/~/how-do-i-make-friends-at-university%2C-are-there-social-events%2C-programs-or
UQ Life (n.d) Get Set Program. Retrieved from https://life.uq.edu.au/getset
UQ Union Club & Societies (n.d) Boost your social life. Retrieved from https://www.uqu.com.au/connecting-u/clubs-societies
UQ Union ISEA (n.d) International Students Engagement Association (ISEA). Retrieved from https://www.uqu.com.au/club/international-students-engagement-association-isea
Kennedick - Common user
Storyboard Ambassador
- Miriam sits at home and tries to come up with a fun activity for the week
- She thinks that forming a debate club on politics with her friends from university would be fun
- Unfortunately due to mid semester break all of her friends are away travelling or doing other things
- Because of the niche topic, it is hard for Miriam to find other like minded people so she tries to think of a solution
- Miriam suddenly realises that there is an app that could help her. She launches it and creates an account using her UQ email
- Among other details, in the questionnaire Miriam also mentions her willingness to become a group administrator.
- A list of group chats based on Miriam's interests appeared where she saw that there already was a group chat about poetry and literature. She joins it!
- Now, Miriam is a member of a group chat where she met 10 interesting people from different countries and are eager to discuss their favourite topic. They also agreed to meet on Thursday in the library. Miriam is happy.
Fringe user
- Chinese traditional painting clubs, teaches Chinese painting and calligraphy, good opportunity to learn things from China (culturally) Learns meaning behind words
- I rarely go to UQ events because they are usually of a different culture. People who join these events are usually local and I’m not confident in having the capability to sustain a conversation in english.
- I’m really interested in career events. I was once invited by a friend who was also Chinese but has pretty much lived in Australia for 7 years.
- Well, the reason why I go to University in the first place is to gain knowledge in my chosen academic field. If I could additionally learn something else, for example, coding - it's expensive to hire a tutor. I would gladly attend.
- Currently job search related workshops and seminars. Sometimes UQ hosts them, I always try to learn more about current market conditions - CV, Resume, Motivation letter, etc... I need to know these things, cause it's a bit different than in China
- I try to regularly attend events, such as job fairs, because I'm looking for a part time job around 10-20 hours
- Yes, I go to them to meet with friends and professionals within the industry.
- Not really. I don’t know where to find UQ events
- No because i usually stay at home unless my roommate goes then I also will go
- Because of pandemic, go out less, sometimes prefer to stay at home
- We get to know the team members when we collaborate together through group assignments. We also get to know each other when we play games together, this breaks down the awkwardness and allows us to really get a ‘feel’ for one another within our group. Additionally, sometimes we also go out to each lunch to get to know each other better.
- Yes but sometimes if they don’t want to then I tend to not. It can be demotivating because I don’t know how to chat with those who might not be interested. Otherwise, if they are willing to talk I am usually happy to talk to them and gain friendship
- Yes, depending on the different culture, they would generally tend to spend more time with them. For example, individual was placed in a group that was multi-cultured (Australians, Canadians and Chinese individuals) they would talk after class but for an hour or so and all other communications were through messenger. This group also has a differences in age gaps and life differences like having partners (girlfriends/boyfriend) and so there isn't much time to go out and hang out with them.
- The other group this individual spends time with she goes out a lot with. They are all international students but they come from different countries (all Asia/of the similar culture). They go out one a month for leisure (shopping, festivals, eating). This individual also feels closer to this group than the other group.
- Yes because he met a group of four people that were all introverts and so they persuaded everyone to talk for the sake of their assignment even though it was out of their comfort zone, they made the effort to talk to other people so that they could achieve something together.
- I don't know... (confused about the questions, provided an example of a group work) ... oh, I see. Well, I prefer to just sit and listen to what others are saying, and I like graphic design, so if we need to design a prototype, sketch, or anything else, I will gladly help. Other than that, it's hard, because my English is not that good (followed up: would you be willing to improve your language skills?) Yeah definitely, but I don't want to go alone. I know we have free courses at UQ. I'd feel more comfortable when I'm with someone I know.
- To know them personally? Well not immediately, because if I'm in the group with people I don't know the first thing I need to understand is the skills that they have. If it's a workshop event, for example, I'd need professional skills first, rather than personal values
- .No, because i would let the other person take the initiative to talk to me first and then i will talk to them
- Yes because they are probably trying to find friends and people they can study with too
- Yes, I would definitely take the initiative to get to know my group members. I actually prefer to get forced into a group of people who i dont know rather than picking a group of people in my circle because it helps me to get to know more people and not just stick with the same people.
- Hmmm, well I guess after classes, sometimes we stay a bit longer and just talk - complain about home work (laughing) and also help each other. For example, some students who already finished course can help to explain what to expect from it. We all know, how confused the Blackboard is... (a bit irritated)
- Working in a group can be really fun, so it's nice to get to know other group members. Sometimes you will stay in touch after the group project ends so there is a lot of long term benefits of being proactive.
- Easy to talk to but sometimes it becomes hard due to cultural/ language barrier. Need another person to translate or to explain certain item to individual. They placed Majong and they found it a little bit hard to explain the game to him because there were Chinese characters in the game and the rules were all culturally based off Chinese characters. But they tried their best to explain it to him.
- Yes i think it easy, because im not shy to talk to other people
- Yes and no. Its easy to interact with them if their pronunciation is good and vice versa
- Yes, I think people are usually really encouraging and nice to chat to from all ethnicities. Sometimes there is a language barrier but not often
- No, it's harder to speak to people that don't speak Chinese because there are some terminology they simply cannot express whereas they can express it in there own mother tongue. For example, there was time where people were saying jokes but he didn't get the context of the joke because there was the literal meaning and there was the metaphoric meaning. Everyone ended up laughing at the joke except for the individual because he took the joke literally.
- I don’t find it easy but it is not hard sometimes it is difficult to understand certain things they are talking about if I don’t know about them
- Not really, so long as individuals have the same thoughts and ideas, this person will get along with them.
- Honestly, it's based on the intention. Why do I want to talk to people outside my ethnic group? Is it to find a job, go out on a date, drink a beer? It depends on the interaction itself. If it's just hanging out and chilling, yeah, it's easy. But from academic perspective, hmmm... I'm not sure if I'd like that. Explaining my ideas in the language I'm good at is much easier. So, if there is an option to form groups, I'd definitely choose my friends or people who I know
- It depends, if they open-minded and friendly, they are pretty easy to interact with.
- (confused about ethnic group. provided example of a same language group) - no, not really, I like to hang out with people I know. (probing: why?) Because I don't like meeting new people
- yeah, absolutely. For now I'm working in a company part time, and some times we have Friday bar days - just go out as a team to chat and drink beer. It's fun! :)
- I have not problems interacting with people outside of my culture. Sometimes the biggest constraint is the language barrier but it is not a big obstacle in most interactions.
- I felt anxious and shy at first but in the end i felt comfortable as i got to know other people since i like to chat
- From homework assignments, group meetings, attending classes - everything is mandatory in a sense. You know, although I feel at time uncomfortable for one or another reason, I still think it's gonna help me in the long run. I mean, I'm forced to attend a course which I don't like, yes I'm irritated but I know that in the long run it would help me a lot. So, I feel perfectly fine with obligatory participation as long as I'm provided with the course content where I can see what value I can take away.
- In a networking event. It was interesting to hear another perspective and people in the industry I am interested In. I felt scared at first but encouraged by the end of it
- Yes, during group assignments where I everyone was not willing to talk to each other. I ended up asking the other international students within my group first to gain a common understanding of what the project required of us before consolidating our ideas with the rest of the group who weren’t international students. The reason for this was because they felt culturally attached to international students who belonged to the same culture because our conversations were easier to flow in terms of the topics.
- It was a career fair, i didnt want to go because there were a bunch of people so i didnt get a chance to communicate with company representatives but i just went anyway to keep my friends company and it was alright. I felt okay cause it was pretty normal where friends force you to go to things that you dont want to go but in the end, it was alright for me.
- (Surprised, laughing...) When I was back home and wanted to study in UQ, I needed to do English test. So, in some sense, I was forced because of my ambitions to participate in something I don't really like - by the end of the day however, it helped me a lot (he is here now) because of that choice I met new people and seen new cultures. It was nice I don't regret.
- During welcome week, students were asked to participate in social events and I think those were mandatory. Anything that's mandatory is slightly annoying cause it basically means "You have no choice but to attend this university event". Usually, however, you end up enjoying the event.
- If individuals are pre-amp about knowing that they are going to need to talk to a stranger, it helps them become mentally prepared. Individuals would also be willing to prepare themselves for the meeting of this new person. It would also be less awkward for people to talk if everyone knew that they had to connect with each other. E.g. networking event. If I were at a social event, I probably wouldn’t be as outgoing and conversational than if I were at a networking event.
- Doing something with people who have a common interest. Preferably the more common items they share, the better it is. This is to based off the concept of a REQUIREMENT to do something. They tend not to want to move out of their comfort zone, but going out of their comfort zone assists them in growing more and getting to know me about other people and their culture. Individual partook in a christian outreached which allowed them to practice their English and feel a lot more comfortable speaking English. The outcome of this led to them being able to understand more key languages/jokes/ slangs that were said by their local friends.
- Accompany a friend who finds it hard to communicate to people to a party/event and after i start the conversation for my friend with other people, I will gradually leave them with them when they feel comfortable
- Social media groups such as Facebook pages and platforms that communicate events
- If a person doesn't understand, they could show them the google images to get a pictorial representation, otherwise they could google the rules within that language and pass it to them to have a read of it.
- Yes, usually anything from small gifts to money would impact my participation in activites but in general if the activities are interesting, I would still go
- Prize is not something they really care about. Firstly because there is usually only a prize for a limited amount of people (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Secondly, because they aren't a competitive person by nature so it does not incentivise them.
- Prize is a strong incentive depending on how much is provided. Individual will still go depending on the difficulty of the event. If the competition is very hard to win and the prize is only a relatively small amount, they probably won't go but if the prize is a lot they would consider going.
- oh my, money!? No, I don't think that incentives would be a major influencer here, it certainly helps but I will always look for more information about the event. I won't attend it if the topic is unfamiliar to me. But if there is a chance to receive a scholarship or at least apply for one, then why not, I would definitely consider
- es as I think it would be a great value and I would be able to gain some finances. Scholarships for active students would be useful as it would go to students who care and value campus activities.
- No. I would come to campus to meet people in my degree. If there was scholarships available then I would try to come in more
- Scholarship yes! Education is very expensive and if I can get some "discount" absolutely, however, I also need to be aware of the competition. I mean if participation is incentivized - it's going to be rough out there, people will do everything in their power to win. It would be fun! So, yes, I think I would attend such events.
- yeah sure, if I'm going to play a game and get money for that? Yes! Absolutely. Oh, you mean scholarship, hmm, well I'm on my 3rd semester, so last semester and I'm done with this, so for me it's not very valuable
After the concept proposal, further studies were done in order to attain a better understanding of what could allow for international students to culturally integrate. More specifically, what kind of different methods could cater for this desired outcome. After compiling the insights together, three major themes resulted consisting of ‘Networking and Togetherness’, ‘Culture’ and ‘Future Pathways.’
Within the theme of networking and togetherness, there were three further sub-categories which insights collected fell under. The topic of common interests was one of the sub-themes that interviewees brought up. To elaborate, individuals interviewed found it much easier to communicate to others outside their ethnic group when they held a common ground. In response to events, the same concept applies with interviews admitting that if a friend recommends them to come to an event that they would be more likely to go (Quote 44). For example, if both parties found a particular event interesting then it would be more likely for them to not only communicate with each other more easily due to a common interest but also go to these events together. Quote 38 also provided us with the insight of how conversations and friendship groups are usually based off how easily people are able to bounce ideas/topics off each other. Internationals found that the harder topics bounced off each other, the less likely they were to engage with that individual. Due to these insights, it lead us to think of a design opportunity that was based off an event driven activity. This way, it allowed for individuals to connect much easily.
Yet another major insight attained, stemmed from the topic of mandatory interactions . When individuals were asked how they reacted within a forced conversation, many reacted negatively at first with some saying it was ‘annoying’ (Quote 41). However, what was more interesting was the way they reacted as the event unfolded. Quotes 35, 40 and 41 for instance, are all prime examples of the positive outcome that can unravel when an individual is forced to interact within the wider community. All individuals stating these quotes had experienced a positive outcome whether that was meeting a new friend or being able to understand more of another ethnic group’s culture. Though people may find it slightly uncomfortable to interact at first, this ‘initial phase’ reveals the generic nature of allowing people to move outside of their comfort zone and explore new experiences. Ultimately, these insights gathered suggest that the nature of enabling individuals to go beyond their comfort zones have generated positive results for students especially when it comes to culturally integrating. As such, this provided us with potential opportunity to centre a design opportunity around mandated items.
Collaboration was yet another theme brought up. An interesting insight provided here was that individuals tend to bond better through a collaboration of activities. To elaborate, when there was an activity or common task at hand, international students were found to be more at ease with their conversations and more inclined to interact. Seen in quote 42, another insight gained was that the willingness for individuals to engage in conversation with one another was correlated to the theme of the event. For example, if individuals knew they were going to a networking event where their priority was corporate networking, engaging in conversations was not a concern for them as everyone wouldn’t know each other. However, if it was a social drinking event where the agenda was ‘chilling’ then students were more likely to close up due to the differences in agendas. This alluded to the concept of creating a design that revolved around the concept where individuals didn’t know each other and were encouraged to engage in conversation. This would assist in the demolition of the ‘awkwardness’ that is formed during events where students have pre-formed friend groups.
As talked about previously, it is very common for people to spend more time within their same ethnic group when socialising. This is due to ease of communication and socialising when there are no language barriers, as well there being a further level of bonding due to having similar/same cultures. From this as well as other interview insights we can gather that intractability between people is very dependent on their accent/pronunciation or in other words, how easily they can communicate and feel culturally in tune. Despite this though, interview insights suggested that despite any language barriers individuals are still willing to interact with people they aren't familiar with within a group/social environment. An important insight to consider is that to culturally integrate and feel as though they are part of a group without feeling left out an individual has to understand the jokes or even general banter that occurs. This is clearly difficult when there is a clear communication obstacle. However, over time this will be mitigated and reduced. This is especially the case as insights suggest friends or associates of international students are willing to try their best to help them integrate by including them in groups and social events or hangouts. With google mobile technology devices such as mobile phones being more popular than ever, cultural barriers are broken down and pictorial images as well as translation apps all help to mitigate this issue as suggested by interview insights.
Overall what can be gathered from these insights is that while a person may feel initially comfortable within their own cultural group, if placed in a situation where they are surrounded by local students, or if they are already friends with a local student, the breaking down of walls is very likely to naturally occur assuming the international and local students can bond and make friends in the first place. - this is dependent on other things such as common interests. This opens an opportunity to design a technology that more easily facilitates the initial interaction or meeting of international and local students within our target audience group to ensure they get the initial ‘foot in the door’.
Another major theme that was identified through the extracted insights is future pathways. It is divided into two sub-themes which are school related and work related. These two sub-themes have a similar context where individuals are more motivated to culturally integrate when they share the same interest/common interest or if it is beneficial to them.
For the school related sub-theme, individuals are forced to get out of their comfort zone to socialise and collaborate to achieve the common goal they have at hand. Individuals are also motivated to attend events when incentives, such as scholarships, are in play that benefit them during their time in university. Quote #51, #52, #53 (refer to appendix) further supports this insight. This gives us an opportunity to implement incentives into our design concept which is an event driven-based concept to increase cultural integration. However, we have to be weary on what incentives to implement as Quote #54 showed that individuals may not be interested in attending events if the incentives do not benefit them at all.
For the work related sub-theme, individuals are more likely to attend events if they can benefit from them in the long run. An example of an event that individuals can benefit from is cultural events. This is backed up by Quote #1 where it was stated that the interviewee was able to learn a new culture through this cultural event. An interesting insight that was extracted was that individuals will not get to know each other personally when there is a higher priority at hand such as a workshop/assignment goal (Quote #17). However, this usually provides a foundation of becoming acquainted with other people which eventually leads to friendship. It was also stated that individuals are more likely to culturally integrate if the event is a networking event instead of a social event. According to Quote #37, this is because individuals feel more comfortable in networking events as everyone does not know each other whereas in social events, the number of people who know each other is higher. These insights provide us a brief idea on what events we need to focus on to implement into our design concepts as these events will increase the chances of cultural integration to happen.
- Yes, a lot more international student within this semester (2% start of the year). 10% makes international students now. A lot of individuals that are international pay domestic fees.
- Yes, approximately 15%.
- Don't really differentiate marketing for international, they specialise more towards first/second and third year. However, they target their events according to first year, second year, third year etc. First year evens are targeted towards how to land a job second and third year events are targeted more towards getting a jobs.
- We don’t segregate our market. Instead we usually base it off similar interests.
- Because we’re a social and corporate clubs, we hosts corporate events which means inviting firms to our events so that they can teach and give tips on different career topics. From how to interact with industry recruiters to resume writing.
- Corporate events because it's very insightful, they get provided an opportunity to land a job.
- More people at corporate events but could be because based off word of mouth through executives.
- In order to host events that reach multiple people, a multicultural event is something that could be held. E.g. a picnic event that you bring a plate of food from your own ethnicity.
- Posting on Facebook, harder because international students use WeChat
- Being more involved in talking to members, introduction for them, give them social media. MAKING IT A COMMUNITY rather than a society. Usually individuals that you have conversations with usually come back to these events when you take the effort to talk to them.
- We host social events/ activities regularly too. “Day in a life” shows team members what they do in their lives (create personal community) Social events consist of trivia (end of semester/start of semester) these posts will be placed on social media and flyers are done as well.
- Campaigns on social media is a place or area they need to work at.
- Create corporate society events --> e.g. post tips about companies that get to your events. Tips on how to talk to them when they're hiring.
- People complete corporate events. Representatives from multi corporate companies also come and join into the events like problem solving and pizza night.
- About 20% are international students
- Yes, 30%
- yes, around 80%
- Primary marketing is facebook and linked in, Instagram. UQ first years UQ student only pages.
- Using Chinese social media, external link are sent using WeChat. Usually events are posted on all social media platforms but if in order to get information to international students, links are sent to a massive WeChat group. Group can be subscribed to and information will be sent out there.
- Chinese events don't seem to attract Chinese international students. It's actually more Non-Chinese individuals who come to learn/ speak Chinese.
- Target them by using food from their home country or have an event which introduces them to Australia so they can fit in nicely into the culture
- Professional events, case competitions networking events. International students engage more in social events within their own communities. For example, Asian society or tennis club whatever. They are getting something out of professional events.
- Came to one event make a friend. Have seen international students make friends at the bar. If they make first step and hang out, then more people do it kind of thing.
- International Ball by far. Most likely because it's a collaboration between a few clubs. Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Japanese (Mostly Asian countries) clubs are the ones that contribute towards this ball. Events are sold to everyone and not just internationals.
- Movie nights, sports events, carnival. Its because it has attractive prizes and it looks fun
- Events are purely value driven that is how people come back. Providing student value in the fact that there are big valuable companies.
- Enjoyment and entertainment of events is something that is very important. Another thing that you need to view is whether they make friends. Usually when people go to social events, they make buddies/ a group of friends. It is more likely that when an individual makes a group of friends, it becomes a lot easier for them to come to events because there may be multiple people that want to go to an event.
- When you want people to keep coming to your events, you should first communicate to them on the right social media channels. E.g. if students mainly use WeChat, don't use Facebook to try and market to them. Also assisting them by giving them everything in terms of event signing ups all in one link that is sent through WeChat.
- Enabling everyone to feel inside a community. For example, tips and tricks on daily life things - where to buy cheap food, how to write their CV etc. These tips are placed inside the group chat so that people can help each other. Chat is also good conversational starter for anyone within that group (anyone can respond and ask questions). The other thing is providing them with opportunities to go to corporate events and reaching out to them continuously.
- Make personal connections like make friends with them over the semester instead of it being a one time thing because they don't have friends here in Australia
- Used to because they took the same CLASSES but not anymore since they no longer take the same courses.
- Probably had a few a while ago, went back to China. High school friend and course mates
- Have 2-3 classes together but only hang out once a week by going to the city or study together after classes. Only hung out once a week because they weren't that close to organise a meet up, it was just 'since we're here want to go out.'
- Yes to dinner, usually hanged out at uni so once a week. Similar classes so just hanged out after classes.
- Met them through class through a MUTUAL FRIEND. At that user was trying to learn Korean and individual was Korean, so the clicked along.
- An international buddy system, basically an exchange program where they get a buddy from a different country. I was in boarding school so we both lived in the same dorms.
- University international friends, doing the same course and were in the same group
- Would not go to events that are mutually exclusive for international students. The main reason stopping the from inviting these ISF is because they didn't seem close enough to them
- Networking events because we did the same courses so we had the same interest. Wouldn't go to events that were heavy on alcohol as they don't drink alcohol.
- Yeah definitely. In fact, one of my closest friends is an international student. I met my friend back in 2019 when we both started studying business law (Faculty of Business, Economics and Law).
- I have a few friends from different countries such as India and China.
- I have some international friends from university and student accommodation
- We are doing everything together. We even took the same courses. I remember we even stayed at my place working on a thesis. It was fun and also helpful because we did it together.
- During the weekends, when there isn't so much work, we go out with other friends either from her circle or mine or mixed. Well, it depends, sometimes we go sightseeing, hiking, or just hang out in the club or do something fun together.
- Usually on the weekends we would drink together. They are part of the larger group of friends that I have
- Some of them I go out with pretty regularly. We get food together or just chill on the weekends.
- Oh, I think it was in the very early start of a semester, I remember I couldn't find the lecture class, you know UQ is quite big. I asked a girl to help me... I think it was in the Great Court. It turned out she was from the same class! What a coincidence. Since then, we sticked together. I think because we shared common interests. She likes volleyball and art, and I'm also interested in those things. It was easy to find a common ground to talk about when our friendship was only forming.
- Group work, classes, different types of environments. Some social parties as well
- Accommodation and group work in uni
- Well, as I mentioned earlier, we are friends because we have something in common. I don't think that she would go somewhere where I don't want to go. You know... (insisted on providing example) well based on personal preferences I think it's the job fair, cause I'm looking for a job, and she doesn't need one in Australia. She is not looking for one right now. So, this is the place which interests only me.
- We would go to a bar or drink together in student accommodation. We also have some on campus events that we go to together such as a Student's Ball
- Food, parties, movies, travel
Moving forward from the second round of interviews, we have decided to obtain more insights to understand our problem space even further. Instead of viewing from the international students’ perspective of the problem, we decided to view it from the perspective of Club Executives who attempt to obtain an increase of attendance to their events. After completing the interviews with Club Executives, we obtained two major themes of insights which were International Integration and Event Changes (change this theme title if needed).
A major theme that we discovered after extracting insights from interviews is International Integration. In this theme, we developed three different sub-themes which are Anti-Discrimination, Commonalities and Familiarity.
The Anti-Discrimination sub-theme is essentially discovered from an insight which showed that societies do not discriminate between whether students are international or not. The Club Executives cater to the needs of everyone through events. This insight was discovered through Quote #3 and #24. This provides us an opportunity to target not only International Students but also Local Students in our conceptual design.
Commonalities is another sub-theme which we had come across after extracting insights. This sub-theme essentially showed us that International Students are more likely to attend events which are common with their field of study. This is because these events are able to help build their future careers and are beneficial for them in the long run. Quote #3 implied that International students are more likely to attend events where they’re able to build their personal career skills from the events. Quote #6, #7, #13, #14, #22 suggested that International Students are more inclined to attend corporate events because executives from big companies attend these corporate events which gives them the opportunity to land a job. This gives us an opportunity to focus more on prioritising events that are corporate/networking in our conceptual design.
Familiarity is a sub-theme which essentially showed that it was more likely for students to attend events and retain their participation if the events contain something that has a nostalgic feeling of home. This is backed up from Quote #8 and #21 from the interviews. It was also identified based on Quote #10, #26, #27, #29, #30 that Students were more likely to come back to events if the events made them feel as though that they are appreciated and part of a community.
Another major theme that we had discovered after extracting insights from the interviews is Event Changes. We also developed two sub-themes from the insights we had obtained which are Consistent Attendance and Amplification.
Consistent Attendance is a sub-theme we discovered when we had found insights from the third round of interviews. We had found out from Quote #25 that International Students are more inclined to attend events when there are attractive incentives in play and most importantly, the events look fun to participate in. It was also discovered from Quote #20 that people who are not culturally aware of other cultures are more inclined to attend cultural events to learn about the culture.
Amplification is another sub-theme that was discovered and it discusses how a person is able to amplify their ability to culturally integrate. Quote #24 suggested that a person is able to amplify their ability to culturally integrate by going to multi-culture events. This is because there is a greater exposure to different cultures instead of just a single culture in such events such as the International Ball.
After completing the second round of interviews we decided that more insights were needed in order to understand the problem space from all perspectives. As such, we decided to expand out interviews to the point of view of locals and ways they would interact with international students.
Commonalities shared through their social space, interests and classes was one of the major themes explored by interviewees. Quotes 14 and 15 provide the insight that it’s much easier for international students to integrate within a group when there exists a larger group of friends they can socialise with. To further this, quotes 18 and 19 point out that social environments where the act of socialising is promoted are usually the most common grounds for individuals to make friends. Thus, we are provided with the notion that the stimulus for a better engagement and thereby a partial attribute towards solving cultural integration is to facilitate grounds for internationals to talk within group settings.
The interests of different individuals was yet another key factor that was highlighted by interviewees. Locals stated that completing an activity together or where there was a shared interest definitely assisted the process and formation of a new friendship with an international student (Quotes 9, 17, 20, 21). Furthermore, that interaction between heterogeneous groups was made easier when there was an intention to complete an activity together outside of the regular school week. This is seen within quotes 14, 16 and 17 where local students mention their views on doing activities over the weekend. Through this, a design inspiration that gathered might consist of creating an event driven activity that would allow interaction across heterogeneous groups. This was in hopes of spurring engagement and ultimately, new relationships to set the basis of activities to be planned outside of schooling hours.
A further insight gained from these interviews is that many international friends are made through the common classes within university. It is common that people doing the same degree will spend more time together and thus become close as friends.
If the purpose of a design solution would be to bring people together, the insights gained from this theme of commonality present a design opportunity that takes advantage of this fact that when there is commonality, whether it is from the same interests or classes, it is very likely that friends will be made. For example, it would be natural to think of an application that brings people together based on their commonalities to increase the chance of a long term friendship.
From the interviews conducted it is clear that local students are more than willing to make friends with international students. When given the opportunity to spend more time with them whether it is through an event or meeting most local students will in fact take the initiative to make friends regardless of culture. Again, this presents a design opportunity to create a technology that facilitates more local to international student interactions that can result in friends being made and cultural barriers being taken down. // if you provide the right opportunity, local and international students can often find common ground and develop long term relationships.
An interesting insight gained from the interviews is that local students are more likely to create a faster mutual friendship with an international student where they can mutually benefit from each other, or in other words, there is a symbiotic relationship. As well as this, having a common goal is more likely to bring these two categories of people together. This creates a design opportunity to facilitate friendships that will result in a symbiotic relation so that the chances of the two groups of people becoming friends is more likely once the initial interaction is made. Two people of the same mind even with cultural differences or communication issues are still likely to bond and make friends with this in mind.
Our goal is to design and to develop a mobile application that promotes communication and collaboration among domestic and international university students by forming user groups based on common interests and hobbies.
For the next iteration of the design process, we conducted observations of our target demographic. Finding situations where we could best identify key interaction patterns and personal characteristics. The situations which we observed were:
- Educational environment (studio)
- University food court
- College Dining hall
- Professional networking event
These observations have helped develop 3 key themes of insights that can be extracted to better understand the requirements of the end user and how we can help them be effectively culturally integrated. The key themes identified are motivation, comfort and environment.
The motivation of an individual plays a pivotal role in whether international students will make the step to integrate themselves into society. Motivation exists to push people and to provide them with a purpose to create action. This is a strong theme that can be seen in the observations as students often act uncharacteristically when there is an external need to complete a particular action. Compared to the social observations where students often have been seen to remain in their ethnic or linguistic comfort zone at professional events international students were seen to interact with students with similar career interests and professional representatives from companies despite their language barriers, these issues previously stopped them from socialising with students in college dining halls and university break rooms but due to the external motivation of professional development and needing a job these students were able to move out of their comfort zone, look past their weaknesses and take action. This helps understand that individuals are able to look past issues if they really need something and this is an important aspect to build into any solution. Motivation can be created through professional development, monetary value or recognition which helps ensure that students make the step to culturally integrate.
Remaining within a comfort zone is something common that has been identified across the observations. The comfort zone for international students means remaining within linguistic, cultural or ethnic groups. Having a comfort zone is not bad but if students do not venture out of it and remain within it then they are more likely to not culturally integrate. This theme was extracted based on individuals' social interactions in the dining halls and university food courts where individuals during their free time were seen conversing in either their native languages or hanging out within ethnic groups. This confirms that comfort zones are created within ethnic and linguistic boundaries. Another indication from the university studio mentions that some international students in their presentations failed to conversate effectively due to their language barriers. This can help understand why these students would prefer to socialise and spend time with people who can completely understand them and where they can have a deeper level of conversation. Similarly at the professional networking events language barriers did affect the conversation and some students were required to repeat phrases, this suggests that these students when required opt to speak in english but otherwise prefer to remain within their comfort zone. This leads us to believe that students require comfort zones and they need to be broadened to properly integrate international students within society.
The environment is an important theme that is present across the observations conducted. This theme helps us understand that people can depend on a situation and how they feel about it to make a change in their approach. When conducting observations of our target user group it was noticed that there were a few instances where students acted in a manner which was unlike the previous trends developed as these students did not act to maintain in their comfort zone or choose to be entirely led by their motivations and this presented us with the theme of environment. When analysing the observations received from the university studio there was an instance where students were required to form groups, over here it was noticed that when international students created their own groups for projects they did not create groups based on gender or ethnicity (stereotypical groups) but they instead formed groups based on the fact that they “did not know anyone” and “wanted to make friends in their degree” or because they perceive others “ to have good coding skills”. This provides the insights that in an environment where comfort is a choice and external motivation is not evident, international students still chose to step outside of their comfort zone and attempted to integrate culturally. A strong potential rationale for the international student's action is that they were provided with an environment where they could culturally integrate. The benefit of studios is that there is such a vast amount of individuals, that students generally tend to have the possibility to choose any group they want, this creates a safe environment where one feels comfortable to take a step out of their comfort zone as it is on their own terms and only if they want to. This provides an insight into human psychology when given the option and environment to make changes international students changed their actions as it was on their own terms and they felt in control.
The three themes of motivations, comfort zone and environment help us understand the key insights which drive the user base. Incorporating external motivation, broadening the comfort zone boundaries and creating an environment which nurtures change is important when trying to create cultural integration programs.
Compulsory Driven Sign Up Process: Mandatory sign up process for all incoming students will facilitate the formation of an active user base. The initial push for students to sign up will act as an encouragement to develop friendships among peers who perhaps would have never talked to each other outside of the application.
Sign Up Survey: The students will be asked to complete a survey about their personal interests and hobbies as well as their level of extrovertness and leadership abilities.
Group Formation: Groups will be formed on the basis of common interests that have been identified through the users’ survey responses. All students will be placed in groups and a student with the highest stated level of extrovertness and leadership ability will be the designated group leader for each group. Furthermore, considering the high risk of the formation of homogeneous groups a system would need to separate students based on nationality. We will achieve it through a questionnaire (sign up survey) which would allow us to separate students and prevent a majority of individuals from the same ethnicity from forming a group. This will be done prior to the orientation week so that individuals get the chance to know who is within their allocated group and provide them with the opportunity to meet outside of the educational environment.
- Communication: The students will have an ability to discuss their common interests within created groups, through text, gifs, images and videos.
- Alternative Group Chats: Members will be able to join additional group chats of their interest from a total pool of formed groups.
- Leaving Group Chats: Members will be able to leave a group chat at will and to report members inappropriate behaviour to the university admins.
Interaction Paradigm Mobile Application for both iOS and Android (caters to a broad audience)
Interaction Mode Instructing (Users rely on the smartphone’s touch screen functionalities and give commands to the software)
Interaction Metaphors Group Chats represented as thought bubbles - to create an association with bubbles and thoughts
What: Sign up forms provide data on potential ambassadors, local and international users
Reason: In order to find out and group individuals based on commonalities such as interests, hobbies and beliefs a questionnaire needs to be sent out to individuals so that they are able to fill in their details. This will customise the application towards the individuals and eventually allow for a higher chance of engagement, interaction and development of an organic, culturally integrated relationship.
Notes **Round 3B Interviews Quote 14, 16, 17 **shows that international and local students were more likely to engage in a deep conversion when performing an activity together of interest. As such our application requires basic information to understand which individual would best fit into which groups. Furthermore, because the separation of individuals into heterogeneous groups was the goal in order to promote cultural integration, attaining information on people’s ethnicity is a much needed requirement.
What: Groups formed on the basis of common interests provided in user’s responses to the survey
Reason: Common interests lead to long term relationship formation between individuals, promoting communication of international students with domestic students and students of other ethnic groups and languages. Contributes to cultural integration of international students in the long run.
**Notes **
- Round 3B Interviews Quotes 9, 17, 20, 21 show that locals are more likely to engage in a conversation with international student friends if the events interest the internationals and vice versa.
- Furthermore, Round 2 Interviews Quotes 43, 44, 45 provide us with the insight that it is easier for individuals to communicate with others outside their ethnicity when they hold a common ground together. As such, facilitating a communication pathway through the commonalities of different individuals would spark engagement, thus promoting cultural integration.
Fringe User (Ambassador) need to quickly find all events and social activities so that she can save time and energy needed to search for them Research into existing technologies points to the need to introduce a cultural hub where students will be unified by a common theme, interest or a topic
What: Students communicate through text, images, gifs and videos on the platform. To keep up with social media trends and to provide all major methods of communication that are already available on alternative popular platforms in order to maintain an active user base in the long run (to prevent users from leaving the application which would lead to group chat inactivity on the platform)
Notes
- Round 3A Interviews Quotes #9, 18, 19, 28 show that Individuals are more likely to communicate on platforms which they feel comfortable with. Incorporating these aspects into an application would cater to the needs of individuals communicating to each other over social media, encouraging engagement.
- Ethnographic observations suggest that students at UQ tend to communicate primarily through text but mix up a large amount of images and gifs in their group chat conversations. Additionally, funny videos are shared in group chats
- Fringe users (Ambassador) need to talk to other people and know their thoughts about a particular activity rather than solely relying on the subjective description provided by the club or an administrator.
Users are able to join group chats from the overall group chat pool in addition to belonging to those that they have been initially assigned to based on interests provided in the mandatory sign up survey. To provide flexibility in use of the application and to possibly promote further exploration of personal interests through the app.
Notes
- Round 2 Interviews Quote 12 showed that people find it demotivating if the opposite party is not interested in socializing. Thus, providing flexibility to individuals so that they are able to place themselves into environments where there is a higher chance to gain a deeper level of communication and friendship should be provided to facilitate cultural integration.
- **Fringe User (Ambassador) **need is to engage with others who already participated in the activity or get acquainted with students who are about to enroll in the event, workshop or an activity
- Users will be able to leave any group chat that they are no longer interested in.
- To provide additional flexibility as personal interests can change. To provide an option to opt out if the user does not feel connected to other members in the formed group chat.
Notes
- Round 2 Interviews Quote 12 showed that individuals will feel demotivated to socialise with others when the opposite party is not interested to socialise. Hence, giving an option for the user to opt out of the group is taken into account.
- Research into existing technologies indicate that if a student's current needs will not overlap with the value derived from joining the association or an activity student may simply skip the participation
- Whilst the group leader is automatically assigned within each formed group chat (the person with the highest leadership and extrovertness scores from the survey), the group leader will be able to leave his “ambassador” duties and designate a new leader at will. If the group leader leaves the group chat, the group will be able to vote on a new group leader.
- To provide flexibility for group leaders and group chat members - it is possible that the initial group leader is not the best fit for the role or the initial group leader simply would like to give the responsibilities to another group member
Notes
- Observations - Displayed that one individual will interact and if they correctly integrate they will influence others to engage with the same events.
- Fringe User (Ambassador) need is to receive feedback or some form of comment or critique about abilities or progress so that they would be able to improve and learn.
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Events are aggregated into a list by keyword (topic) and date. The list of events is compiled from UQ Eventbrite, QPay and Humanitise. Events that are relevant to particular group chats based on identified keywords are pushed in a form of notification message into the relevant group chat.
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This will possibly increase the amount of domestic and international students who go to university events. It will help the students meet their fellow group chat members in person by providing them with a reason. As a result, university events and the university will benefit from increased attendance whilst the users of the group chats will have a chance to become better friends; the international students in particular will benefit from cultural integration.
Notes
- Round 3B Interviews Quote 14 points out that interaction between different ethnicities are made easier when individuals are performing activities together such as hiking. Thus, a major requirement should stem from the ability to facilitate an opportunity for individuals (local & international) to go to events together based on their interests. This is further supported by Round 3B Interviews Quote 17 which gives the insight that common interests are catalysts for a deep relationship between individuals to form. As such, this would provide the basis of how event driven notifications assist with culturally integrating individuals.
- Research into existing technologies shows that an Artificial intelligence system capable of improving cooperation and collaboration within the groups helps to raise efficiency
- For chats that are inactive for over a week, automatically send a meme gif to the chat in an attempt to stir conversation
- To promote reengagement of users with each other within an inactive group chat. Automatically pushed content will increase the probability of sparking a conversation in an otherwise inactive chat.
- For flexibility, the users can turn off push notifications if they no longer want to see automated pushes.
Notes
- Observations - Displays that individuals that share similar interests tend to interact regardless of ethnicity and language barriers. GIFs as a communication tool break boundaries as they are universally understood.
- Research - Displays that GIFs improve team engagement especially in virtual / remote working situations, due to its universal approachability and embedded interaction design.
From chat groups to social off campus events, there are a myriad of opportunities and existing technologies already developed by UQ that help new students [University of Queensland (n.d)] quickly accommodate to the new environment. There are over 200 clubs and societies that form a vast network of opportunities ranging from sports, volunteering, arts to games, and mentoring programs.
Get Set Program [UQ Life (n.d)] - from the orientation day to discovering experiences in the long term new students can connect with other like minded people, find new friends, discover places that they didn't know existed. Furthermore, it is an excellent place for new students to find mentors and become part of a community.
UQU Clubs and Societies [UQ Union Club & Societies (n.d)] - UQ University provides access to more than "200 affiliated clubs and societies" in a single intuitive platform [UQ Union Club & Societies (n.d)] where new students can learn, engage with or build new skills (politics, public speaking, etc.), find like minded people based on education, religion, and even campus location or the faculty.
International Students Engagement Association (ISEA) [UQ Union ISEA (n.d)] - association provides a myriad of multicultural activities with one single purpose - help international students adapt to the "new environment of living, studying and working" [UQ Union ISEA (n.d)] in Australia. ISEA helps international students to culturally integrate by connecting with Australian organisations, local communities and various student associations. Furthermore, they organise custom tailored workshops and events that help international students to overcome language barriers, form new relationships with locals and improve "interpersonal skills". [UQ Union ISEA (n.d)] Finally, considering that cultural integration works in both ways, through the same program international students can participate in local events that embrace multiculturalism where individuals have a chance to share their own cultural values and identity.
Our first design opportunity was a strong focus on an event driven application with a monetary incentive specifically for international students. However, after additional research conducted we decided on ideating this concept and questioning the concept of cultural integration. For example, how is creating an application for international students truly culturally integrating them without the presence of local students? As such we shifted our views towards local students and sought their advice on the matter. This broadened our targeted audience to incorporate new students within the university so that a mix of students are able to interact with each other. Furthermore, what we realised was that ultimately, it isn’t about incentivising someone monetarily or rewarding them with prizes but rather, about facilitating an organic relationship between each other so that internationals feel integrated within a particular group.
Our solution has now shifted towards assisting individuals to engage in meaningful interactions with others in hopes of developing a personal relationship. This could be accomplished through providing internationals with a means of easily communicating (e.g. putting them into group chats sorted on interests) to other students as well as strongly recommending key interest events for them to go to.