ROLE
Project Lead
UX Designer, User Researcher
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Uplift K12 is an online education platform providing a space for students to collaborate, learn, and play. For this project, I worked with a larger team for all research and led a team of four through the design process to create an intentional, gamified learning experience for students and educators. The platform for this project is web-based. New designs are currently in development.
RESPONSIBILITIES
User interviews, Secondary research, User flow and journey, Task flows, Sketches, Widget tools design, Interaction prototyping, Usability testing
PROBLEM
Uplift K12 wants a gamified experience to motivate students in their learning.
The existing platform allows educators to provide gems to students as a reward for learning, however, there is currently no meaningful way for students to utilize earned gems limiting the value of the gems and their motivational impact on the student’s learning.
SOLUTION
Provide tools and strategies to recognize student achievement.
Our re-design offers new and updated features to the existing platform which provides a more customizable and meaningful way for the educator to reward the student during a lesson.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM
How do educators provide a gamified experience that entices students?
Preliminary research
Competitive analysis and psychology frameworks provided insight towards feature prioritization.
User interviews
Five interviews were conducted with educators to understand the relationship between an educator and student, and successful motivators during learning.
Affinity mapping
Insights and themes were gathered, and provided a better understanding of the educator’s role in a students learning.
KEY INSIGHTS
Based on the research, we identified key insights to guide design.
Educators need extrinsic tools to support intrinsic motivation
Students want recognition through verbal praise, daily conversation praise.
Educators want alignment with student incentives
The reward needs to fit to the student’s preferences.
Educators want students to engage through challenges
Facing disappointments would be a negative, it could really throw students off.
Educators prioritize building a trusting relationship
Having a good relationship with students makes a huge difference.
PRIMARY PERSONA
We defined our primary persona to guide us forward.
Meet Brandon
Brandon is an experienced teacher, known as a fun teacher! He uses a dynamic approach to teaching, bringing humor and structure into his classroom to support the success of his students. Getting to know his students and what motivates them is a priority for Brandon. He finds relationship is the pathway to gaining a student’s trust. Brandon’s mission is to see students’ faces light up with a smile while learning.
30. Teacher and Tutor. Palo Alto, CA.
BIO
“At first you have to start with extrinsic motivators until they (students) get in the habit, build routine, build confidence.”
GOALS
Support students to overcome challenges and develop skills
Build strong relationships with students to motivate them
Understand what motivates students
FRUSTRATIONS
When a student faces disappointment it could really throw them off
If students don’t feel trust and safety while making mistakes, it will hinder their progress in learning
When students feel discouraged by getting an answer wrong, they disengage from the learning activity
INITIAL EDUCATOR DESIGN
We moved from ideation to sketching to mid-fidelity prototype.
Our new design features a widget toolbar to allow for in-lesson recognition of student success including a sticker selector and notepad. Additionally, this toolbar provides strategies to accommodate student learning styles with a visual schedule and pomodoro timer.
As the educator supports the student to move through their lesson, the educator can reward the student by providing a sticker as a positive reinforcement. After selecting a sticker and placing it on the whiteboard, the educator can “x” out of the widget tool.
After ending the lesson, the educator is able to select a badge to recognize the students efforts, along with a personalized note. This badge will be stored on the student dashboard.
We also considered what it would look like for a student to receive a badge of recognition and note from the educator. All in an effort to put a smile on the students face moving an extrinsic reward to an intrinsic motivator.
TESTING + FEEDBACK
All users completed the testing tasks given time/ error constraints, however, we did receive feedback.
Icon use
Design iteraton. 3 out of 5 users had some confusion over icon similarity for two separate functions resulting in a change of icons.
Signifiers
Design iteration. 5 out of 5 users indicated signifiers of selected badge was not significant enough for certainty which resulted in us increasing visibility of badge selection.
CTA buttons
Design iteration. 4 out of 5 users hesitated with CTA buttons, unsure of functionality due to color, so we added color.
FINAL EDUCATOR DESIGN
We iterated and put together our high-fidelity prototype.
We considered the student too and added some new features.
STUDENT DESIGN
To support the student learning process, we added a manipulative toolbar which could be further customized for a variety of accommodations. Additionally, we added a reactions feature on the video call for students to share reactions visually. Below is a prototype walk through of these features.
Finally, we customized the student sign-in and dashboard.
STUDENT PROTOTYPE
LEARNINGS + NEXT STEPS
Handing off this project to the client was a highlight!
What I learned
Throughout this project, I learned how to hold both the user experience and the clients business goals as priority. Working as a part of a larger team provided an opportunity to collaborate in a new way throughout the project. I am grateful for a supportive client, and a creative team.
Where I’ll go
If given the opportunity to continue to work on this project, I would do another round of usability testing with both educators and students. I would conduct interviews with students to better understand how they like to receive recognition from teachers, and what motivates their learning.