Co-designing digital tools to support students' social challenges during and beyond COVID-19

The sudden emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted everyone’s way of life, but it took an especially heavy toll on college and university students' mental health and well-being, in part due to the limited social interactions and increased isolation. With the evolving nature of the pandemic, students must balance social engagements with the risks to themselves and loved ones. This preliminary work focuses on understanding college students' current and desired social interactions, social challenges they have faced during COVID-19, and anticipated social challenges beyond COVID-19 and explores the potential of mobile apps to support their social needs moving forward. As a first step, we conducted two human-centered design workshops with nine students to better understand their experiences, concerns, and generate ideas for digital solutions. Participants discussed the value of social relationships, the ways they adapted during COVID-19 in order to maintain some level of social interaction, and the challenges to engaging in social interactions even as more activities move in person. Priorities for digital tools centered around assessing risk and increasing visibility about vaccination status and mask use in order to make informed decisions about their participation in social activities