Overview
EduFriend is a peer mentoring education mobile application prototype that aims to assist students in tackling questions that they are struggling with in their assignments, as well as giving students a platform where they can learn from one another online.
This project was completed in Year 3 of Ngee Ann Polytechnic, 2019.
Application used for creation: Adobe XD
Role: UX Designer, UI Designer
Tasks taken on are as follows:
Target Audience Research and User Research
UX, UI Design
Application Prototyping and Iterations
Problem Statement
It is common for students from both Primary and Secondary Schools to encounter problems understanding topics and theories covered in different subjects. However, they may find it difficult to consult the right person who is readily available in time of need. With the creation of a friendly educational app, I believe this problem can be effectively addressed.
What was done?
As the designer in this solo project, I aimed to create a educational application prototype that is dedicated in providing students with a user-friendly design and engaging functions and interactions. I planned to include various factors to ensure that it captures their attention well, such as colorful elements and gamification.
Target Analysis
In this day and age, both Primary and Secondary School students are frequently exposed to the use of online educational platforms, which gave them the convenience of accessing assignments and extra materials online for self-directed learning. Due to the convenience of online materials and search engines, students who struggle with their assignments and studies often attempt to rely on online platforms such as Google and YouTube tutorials for guidances.
User Research
I decided to start this project by conducting a survey targeting both primary school and secondary school students to find out more about how students cope with questions that they have difficulties with. The survey first started off with a few questions to find out their current level of studies, as well as discovering if any students has relied on an educational application before.
The questions involved are intended to sieve out valuable information to determine if the students have been seeking help from a professional. It also serves to find out if students have been relying on online resources to solve their problems. This also expands into gathering information on what kind of social media or platforms they use to do so.
I decided to add on further questions to find out what kind of application the students prefer, as well as understand what features and functionalities they seek when they are provided with a peer tutoring application.
User Research - Face to Face Interviews
Aside from the survey, I also conducted a one-to-one interview with 3 individuals: A primary 5 student, a secondary 4 student and a secondary school teacher. Based on the interviews, I found out the following information:
Primary 5 student's interview discovery
Primary school students are exposed to online educational platforms. These platforms are used for assignments purposes, and students found that completing assignments online is more convenient as they do not need to write the answers down on a piece of paper. Their assigned work also involves watching educational videos online before completing the assignment, which encourages self-directed learning as it prompts the students to search for more educational videos and guides online. However, observations have shown that they prefer gamifications to be included in the platform, and it has also been observed that they tend to text or call one another to discuss about their homework. There were rarely any interactions between the students and teachers after school, hence the students could not reach out to the teachers for help easily.
Secondary 4 student's interview discovery
Secondary school students do mug in school, and tend to consult teachers when they are unsure of a subject or chapter. However, not every students get a chance to get clarification from the teachers, and hence misses out on potential information that they can learn about the topic that they are unsure of.
Secondary school teacher's interview discovery
Online platforms are used in secondary schools as well, and teachers feel that it is a great platform that can benefit both students and teachers. Platforms such as Edmodo and Google Classroom greatly encourages and promotes online communication between students and teachers.
With these information from both the interviews, survey and researches, the following goals are established.
Goals
Providing users with a platform where they can learn from one another.
Allows users to easily reach out to teachers and access guides offered by certified educators.
Keep users motivated and engaged through incentives and gamification.
EduFriend's Target Audience
Based on the above researches and goals, the following target audiences is determined as follows:
Target Audience
My users are upper primary students and secondary school students who seeks support for their studies and education.
Demographics
Nationality: Singaporeans and Permanent Residents
Age: 10 - 18
Gender: Both
Race: All Races
Household / Individual Income: Monthly income of $100 – $300
Education: Children and Teenagers in primary & secondary education
Occupation: Students
Psychographics
Lifestyle: Experiencing stress from failed attempts to solve questions that are proven to be difficult to them, with no one to turn to for help. Due to this issue, they are unable to find out a solution to it and tend to leave questions blank, thus encouraging the behaviour of skipping questions on a regular basis
Attitudes: Has difficulty finding the correct answers to difficult questions and have no one to seek assistance from instantly. Feels that it will be best if they have a platform where they can get help from immediately so that they can learn and improve on their studies
Personality: Open to asking educational questions online, willing to learn from any useful information present, and offering help to those in need of educational assistance
Benefits sought: Find out answers to unsolvable questions from others who are willing to assist them in solving educational questions
Usage rate: Daily/A few times per week; when they have questions that can’t be solved with their knowledge alone/they have no one to turn to for help
EduFriend's User Personas
I started off by creating three different user personas with different objectives: personas that encompasses the personality of a secondary school student, a primary school student and a secondary school teacher.
To ensure that the experiences written in the personas are accurate, the habits and personalities of the 3 individuals that were interviewed are used as inspirations for the creations of the personas. As they are the primary target audiences who are more likely to use the mobile application, I decided to describe more about the different kinds of motivations and goals that each personas have based on the real-life experiences of those who fit those roles.
EduFriend's User Taskflow
With the user personas determined, I moved on to the user personas' individual taskflows, where it showcases the possible journey that users will take to complete the goals that they want to achieve out of this application.
EduFriend's Sitemap
Based on the created personas and survey results, I have decided that the following functions will be available:
- Question zone (divided by categories such as primary/secondary/subjects)
- Focus Mode (a function that is similar to Forest)
- Guides Section (where guidebooks made by teachers are displayed for students to refer to)
- Gamification – A farm where users can gain rewards from answering questions,
thumbs-up, Focus Mode, etc.
Below is a sitemap that has been drawn out to represent the pages that EduFriend will contain.
EduFriend's Mobile Application Low Fidelity Prototype
EduFriend's Mobile Application Final Design
*Do note that there are different prototype iteration showcases that caters to the respective personas' user task flow
Project Retrospectives
From this project, some key takeaways include:
Importance of understanding the target users
As this is a project that places heavy emphasis on researching about a target audience that's younger in age, I had to be extra careful to ensure that the product is user-friendly for the younger audiences, since they are still in the maturing stages of life. This is a very different experience from other projects, where the target audiences usually revolve around adults and youths. Nevertheless, it was a unique and enjoyable journey that gave me the opportunity to understand more about the younger audiences' needs as well as the psychology behind their thinking towards peer mentoring applications.
Importance of survey questions and interviews
Since this is a project that requires extensive research on the target audiences, it is a requirement to conduct face-to-face interviews with the target audiences to gather valuable insights on their needs. This allows me to learn the importance of preparing valid questions that can achieve what I need to know, as well as building up my confidence towards speaking to the interviewees and understanding their needs.
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