College Thriver
Research Testing Design
College Thriver is a tool created to assist under served students during their college application process. By providing resources like setting reminders for application deadlines and one-on-one guidance with a mentor, students who are overwhelmed with the application process, or don’t even know where to start, can be guided step by step from studying for placement exams to selecting the right financial aid package.
As one of four ux designers for this project, I needed to understand the goals of the stakeholders beefore researching the current market for edtech products to understand what needs are not met for highschool students applying to college. This was followed by sketching possible solutions based on our research, testing rapid prototypes with target users, and iterating on the designs to deliver wireframes to the Design Lead.
Problem: The process of applying for college programs can be long and overwhelming. Students want a platform to guide them throughout this process step by step while and keeping them motivated and engaged.
How Might We…..
Make the tiring process of applying to colleges fun and engaging for students?
Add elements of gamification to make the application process engaging but not a distraction?
Help students to find the right college options based on their goals and needs?
Client Kick-Off Meeting
During the initial meeting between the design team and the College Thriver founder Shawntia Lee, we discussed what phase the product is currently in and what research has been conducted throughout the design process. Primary research had already been conducted through addressing the needs of students based on educator feedback; however, the solutions selected by College Thriver hadn’t been tested with real users yet. The founder also expressed interest in gamifying the app in order to make it feel more fun and engaging for students.
Our design team decided on a strategy by creating a project scope that would enable us to conduct secondary research, iterate on College Thrivers’s current designs, and test the designs with target users.
Research
Each team member focused on analyzing one educational app that utilized games and a playful interface to help students learn and retain information. I chose to focus on Memrise, a language learning tool that incorporates games and memory challenges for learning vocabulary and phrases in a variety of languages. Successful flows incorporated customizable goal settings through the profile and the ability to earn points through a wide variety of activities. Playful sounds and animations kept students engaged and encouraging messages when goals were not met felt motivating. Each of these elements could easily be incorporated into College Thriver’s current architecture with small adjustments.
During the design session, the team began with a session of Crazy 8’s to compare ideas for animations and playful elements to add for gamification. We agreed upon which elements we would add to improve the engagement aspect of College Thriver and proceeded to divide the user flows into four main routes with each designer working on one flow.
Design
The sketched screens were then compiled into a low fidelity prototype to test with students who fit the target user for College Thriver. Four 30 minute sessions were conducted remotely. Each session tested for usability, clarity and enjoyment while also testing the need for additional tools or resources. The results were compiled into an affinity map to understand the main painpoints within College Thriver while also identifying what students found helpful.
The insights gathered from the competitive analysis research was then applied to the current College Thriver designs which were provided by the in house designer. Each team member selected one of the 4 flows to update by adding practical tools for students, but also playful elements such as graphics or animations. My contribution was a time management flow that incorporated a countdown clock to keep students on schedule. The objective was to motivate them to reach their goals for the week and gain more in-app points.
Pain Points:
Calls-to-action when changing weekly goals were confusing
Not enough information about the timer is included on the dashboard screen
Students want reminders about what points they will earn by completing goals on time
Timer illustration is not immediately recognizable
Likes:
Students feel motivated by the pressure of a timed deadline
Achieving the current goal by a deadline is exciting for students who like to work under pressure
The chance to change the goal for the week adds convenience and flexibility
The feedback provided by the test sessions was assembled into an affinity map in order to understand the scope of what was working with the screen changes. As the designer completing the “time management” flow, the main insights gained from this new data were:
The final deliverable resulted in wireframes that the founder could hand off to the in house designer. The team used the data gained from testing sessions to ideate on the new designs and refine them into wireframes that laid out specific placement of the elements on each screen. This deliverable also included suggestions for where to apply different aspects from the style guide and notes on next steps from the list of pain points to address.
What’s Next?
During this 4 week process, our team was able to address the main stakeholder’s expectations for iterating on the College Thriver app while also providing additional primary and secondary research to assess the app’s usability. For next steps, our team recommended incorporating more of the playful elements such as illustrations and animations in order to keep students engaged and motivate them while applying to college. One group member introduced the beginnings of a store where in-app points could be used for purchases. The founder is interested in continuing to pursue this new addition in future iterations.