Penn Portal
The Penn Labs team has created apps used by over 80% of all UPenn students which allow them to check dining swipes and book study rooms. I led a project to combine all our products into one portal to make our brand and user experience more cohesive.
Time
2 weeks, Spring 2025
Role
Lead Product Designer
Understanding the problem
Our team has created multiple standalone apps with inconsistent designs and separate device access points, creating both functionality and brand issues.
Product Separation
Our team has over 9+ different products, including Penn Mobile. Many people didn't know we made all of them, leading to a sense of fragmentation.
Device Restrictions
Penn Mobile was originally restricted to mobile only, which was incredibly limiting for our user base.
Mapping product hierarchy
How do you go about integrating 9+ products together?
We first started with one product, migrating our most used mobile app into a web format that was designed to be scalable.
We then thought about how we should structure our product hierarchy within the app to make one cohesive experience.
User interviews
We conducted a small survey of the UPenn student population with 20 people. From this group, there were 15 undergraduates, 5 masters students, and people from all 12 schools in different majors. We asked them the following questions.
66%
of students report checking multiple Penn Labs apps within a single hour
Students report that excessive context-switching can make student activities like doing laundry, booking study rooms, and checking course plans difficult
91%
of students want their academic and campus resources in one place
They see a single portal as a way to reduce friction and make daily planning easier
63%
of students feel unsure which Penn Labs app to open for a given task
Having so many separate apps doing similar things makes wrong clicks feel costly
Developing the design system through iteration
Part of making one ecosystem of products is to develop a design system. We constantly used Penn Portal to iterate on existing designs from other apps, allowing us to envision the final cohesive look for Penn Lab products in one place.
This created a feedback loop between Penn Portal and the developing design system!
Designing solutions
We first began implementation with the Penn Mobile dining and study room booking flows, then plan to integrate additional + future products like subletting, marketplace and courses.
Study room (GSR) booking
Dining hall view