Imagine This...

This your first week of college and you are eager to make new friends.

You join Club 123, a student org with over 100 members.

You are at your first (virtual) meeting and are overwhelmed by the large amount of unfamiliar faces.

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The Problem

• Associations between social anxiety and social isolation have risen dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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• This sparked concerns surrounding re-engaging in social spaces post-pandemic.

The Opportunity

• We decided to focus on a specific group: first-year college students
• As they move into a new environment, they are eager to make friends… but they are overwhelmed
• Increased social anxiety
• Unfamiliarity navigating large groups

We aim to mediate interaction for large organization socials and while helping new members make friends.

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Playtonic

A guided friend-making experience to help break the ice in large org meetings.

The goal is to reduce social anxiety at large org meetings and get members comfortable with each other.

The Playtonic Experience

Evaluation Session Methodology

• Personality test to break the class into smaller groups

2. Trivia game

4. Simulated meet up

5. Collect feedback from audience

3. Prompted discussion

How We Prototyped

Stage 1: Egg Group-matching assessment using Google Forms

Behind the scenes...

AXXXXXXXX corresponds to the user’s PID

How We Prototyped

Stage 2: Caterpillar Competitive game to “break the ice”

How We Prototyped

Stage 3: Cocoon Collaborative activity to find mutual interest

How We Prototyped

Stage 4: Social Butterfly Share socials and meet-up in-person

• This is the last stage
• Once you share contact information with others, you become a social butterfly and can join your own groups you’ve made or still go into random rooms to meet people

Prototype Evaluations

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33 respondents total

Trivia game was not very engaging; it didn’t get people to talk

Conversations sparked organically as people answered prompts

“I like the idea, just needs to encourage more interactions (talking).”

“followup questions > new questions”

“I think facilitating the talking more, with things like leading questions could help.”

Q. Do you think this app would be useful for helping new org members feel comfortable making friends?

“Definitely.”

“It’s definitely a start in the right direction, I think with more time and in-depth interaction, it could be really beneficial.. ”

“Yes!”

“Anything is better than just a giant zoom room.”

“I do like it a lot and it was very fun getting to know people. ”

Evaluation Analysis

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• Trivia game was not very engaging/
• didn't get people to talk → we looked into other competitive games for users to choose from

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• When “meeting up” in CozyRoom, people did not know what to say → provide prompts to help people spark conversation when meeting up
• Icebreaker questions
• Build your cozy room together

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• Most people felt comfortable with the people that were in their breakout rooms after all of the activities (~25/33 people)

Issue 1: People prefered more extroverts a group

• Adjust algorithm when sorting groups
• 1:1 → 3:2 extroverts to introverts ratio

Issue 2: Some suggested more facilitation in groups

• Highlighted box around person to speak next
• Similar to popcorning to someone
• Incorporated discussion prompts within the games

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Final Prototype Changes - More extroverts, facilitation

Final Prototype Changes - New competitive games

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Added the option to choose a competitive game to play:

• Mutter Nonsense where everyone competes to answer funny prompts
• Trivia game but with added time for discussion after each question
• Backyard Co has a wide variety of games (drawing games, mafia, etc.)

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Issue 3: Trivia game was not very engaging; it didn’t get people to talk

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

What Prototyping Revealed to Us About Our Social Setting

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• Groups need someone to lead the conversation
• People are willing to share about themselves and want to learn about others
• Surprised by the willingness to open up in smaller groups

Thank you to our prototype participants, Professor Dow & the teaching staff!

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