Timeline
March 2021 - February 2022
Tools
Figma
Figjam
InVision
Miro
Marvel
Pencil and Paper
UX Methods
This was a solo-UX project through Springboard in which I learned about and applied the core stages of design thinking from discovery to validating and iterating on my designs.
Discovery: Secondary Research, User Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Empathy Mapping, Persona
Design: HMW Questions, User Stories, User Flows, Site Map, Style Guide, Wireframing, High Fidelity Mockups
Validate: Prototyping, Usability Testing
The Problem
Most teaching apps are geared toward a typical student and learning environment, leaving the atypical student and teacher, such as adult education, to jump many hoops in order to achieve their goals. What could an ed-tech platform that centers on the atypical classroom as its primary user look like?
When the pandemic started, I was teaching English as a second language to adult immigrants and refugees. Our classrooms, once highly collaborative environments, struggled to remain effective. For me and my colleagues, adopting teaching to the online classroom meant losing the collaborative nature of the learning process. Why was this so and how could the online classroom also be collaborative enough to teach our low-tech-savvy students?
The Solution
Through user interviews, I learned that teachers were having to use multiple programs to meet their instructional needs and were overwhelmed because of the learning curve that each new program created for their students. This led me to create a mobile and web application that would help teachers of low-tech-savvy adult students get all their educational needs to them through one highly collaborative program, decreasing the learning curve for students and preparation time for teachers.
Three major pain points were addressed:
Easy Onboarding
Teachers can create classes and add students
Students can easily join classes through a link sent to them by their teachers
Tech-Friendly Lesson Planning and Classroom Management
Teachers can create lessons that are interactive and made for online learning
Teachers can control the layout and content of lessons
Live Online Teaching
Lessons can be easily displayed and marked up during class
Teachers can easily create groups and speak with students individually
View the Protoype
Secondary Research Validated the Problem Space
After choosing a problem space, I began my UX process with secondary research to further define, understand, and complicate the problem space of adult education. My research gave me insight into the demographic, demand, and unique qualities of adult education. I found that there was a high demand for adult education in the United States and worldwide. This demand would grow even more as the world’s population relocated within a quickly globalizing economy.
The growing need for adult education and the confirmation that adult education was indeed a unique education space when compared to the traditional classroom, confirmed that this was a worthwhile and valid challenge to solve.
In contrast to the traditional classroom, adult learners were:
Working poor or those looking for work
Youth who had dropped out of school
Immigrants
Parents
This confirmed two aspects of my hypothesis:
Adult education deserves attention because there is high demand for adult students that is projected to continue to grow
Students in adult education are atypical in that they are balancing multiple demands and come from unique backgrounds
User Interviews Highlighted the Users’ Pain Points
After validating that the adult education space was a worthwhile challenge space to address, I moved into understanding the user I’d be designing for through user interviews. I conducted interviews with adult education teachers who were screened to be experienced in the classroom and teaching virtually. I recruited teachers by reaching out to local nonprofit organizations that had adult education departments. Through user testing, I wanted to better understand their needs, goals, and barriers within the classroom and with education technology. Using affinity mapping to synthesize my findings, five major insights emerged. Overall, I found that teachers were struggling to find an EdTech tool that addressed all of their pain points.
The five major insights from user research:
Adult students live busy lives
There is a lack of adult-friendly, low-level education technology
Consistency and repetition are best for learning
Teachers want education technology that will support individual work
Teachers want to plan tomorrow’s class based on the results from today’s class
Competitive Analysis Confirmed the Users’ Pain Points
I focused my competitive analysis on EdTech tools that teachers from the user interviews had mentioned they were currently using in their classrooms. Keeping in mind the major insights I had gained through these user interviews, I wanted to assess how these competitive EdTech programs were addressing or failing to address adult education teachers’ pain points.
In congruence with the user interviews, I found that other Ed-Tech programs are either not comprehensive enough or don’t allow for customization leading teachers to use multiple EdTech platforms, thus increasing students’ learning curve and mental burden.
Empathy Mapping Revealed the Users’ Implicit Struggles
After user interviews and competitive research, I was starting to see a pattern of teachers and students feeling overwhelmed, stemming from juggling multiple EdTech programs and streams of information. Although this seemed like a promising focal point for my solution, I wanted to make sure I covered my blind spots by reading between the lines to understand the problem space exhaustively. Knowing that what we say doesn’t always align with what we do and feel, I decided to create an empathy map for adult education teachers.
Along with feeling overwhelmed, teachers were feeling disconnected. They could no longer share a space with their students, leaving them to guess the effectiveness of their lessons.
The Persona Encapsulated the Research Thus Far
HMWs Defined the Future Focus of the Design Solution
How might we provide lesson-planning capabilities to teachers who are teaching multi-level classes?
How might we increase communication and collaboration among adult education teachers?
How might we decrease the time it takes to learn a new interface for low-tech and low-English students?
How might we help teachers teach reactively (plan and teach in reaction to the previous day’s progress)?
How might we grab students’ limited attention in the midst of their busy lives?
Thinking Divergently to Begin Ideating on Solutions
I began the process of designing a solution by going wide when ideating. I conferred with my mentor to start weighing the pros and cons of each.
View my full ideation document here.
User Stories Helped me Organize and Prioritize my Design Ideas
According to the research, the major pain point for teachers had been to have an EdTech program that could cover all their needs in one tool. This meant that the design solution would be expansive and complicated. Since I had time constraints, I organized user stories into categories of: must-have, should have, and could have. This helped me figure out the designs that would be necessary for the MVP while noting ideas for future iterations of the product.
View the full Miro document of my user stories here.
A Sitemap Visually Represented the Structure of the App
I organized the design ideas I had so far into a sitemap in order to get a better understanding of how the app would be structured and how everything would connect to each other.
View the full Miro document of the Site Map here.
User Flows of the MVP Further Defined the Users’ Journey
For the MVP, I decided to focus on the login, lesson planning, and teaching flows. View the full Miro document of my user flows here.
Login Flow
Planning Flows
Teaching Flow
A Major Improvement from an Initial Round of Usability Testing
Sketching out screens allowed me to get my initial ideas out in a quick and effective way. Usability testing conducted with these sketches brought to light the need of redesigning the initial screen that users land on when logging in to the app.
An Identity - Style Guide and Branding
After wireframing, it was time to give this app an identity.
View the full Figma document for the style guide here.
Further Interations of the Design
Through two more rounds of usability testing, I iterated on both big and small details within the design.
Create a Lesson Flow
Start Online Class Flow
What I Learned and Would Do Differently Next Time
This was my first time going through the entire design process. Although it was difficult, I learned a lot about myself and, more importantly, about designing. Here are some things I learned along the way:
Keep flows simple. They’re pieces to a puzzle rather than a completed art piece.
When I made user flows for this project, I was trying to cover every little detail. This meant that my user flows were big, complicated, and hard to understand. After going through the rest of the design process, I realize now that keeping user flows simple means that I can perfect a specific flow. Eventually, my flows will come together to create a complex and well-thought-out program. I need to trust the process.
Keep my Figma file well organized.
This is something I tried to do but I think I could have done better. As I iterated on my design and created prototypes, I realized how important it was to keep my file clean and organized. It may take longer but it is something I will thank myself for later.
Understand the scope of the project early on.
Every project has its limitations. It is important to understand the extent of the project so you can design appropriately. No one has an unlimited amount of time and resources, so it is important to distribute your efforts appropriately.