Project Brief

As a part of our curriculum at Indiana University, our team was tasked with understanding the current problems with online learning experiences to create a solution that may leverage a recognized opportunity.
MY ROLES
UX Research, Ideation, Visual Design Lead, Prototyping Lead, Usability Testing
TIMELINE
8 Weeks
Oct 2021 - Dec 2021
TEAM
Sagar Mhatre (Me), Vanya Srivastava, Shariwa Malankar, Vishal Phalke
TOOLS USED
Miro & FigJam: Remote collaboration and brainstorming.
Adobe XD: Mid Fidelity & High Fidelity Prototype, and User Testing.
Illustrator & Photoshop: Custom Icons, UX Design and Research tools such as Personas, and Presentation Assets.
StoryboardThat: Storyboards and Scenarios.

OVERVIEW

PROTOTYPE

CASE STUDY

Understanding the
Problem Space

We iteratively conducted literature reviews, interviews, focus groups and competitor analysis to understand: methods and trends in learning, who the audience is, what high-level problems do they face, and what the opportunities are.
THE PROBLEM
Outside formal education, many working people value learning hobby-like skillsets for relaxation. Despite there being many online resources, most people try to learn these skills through their known friends - who may not always be available.
ROOT CAUSES:
  • Online Courses are some of the more formal methods to acquire skillsets, which require continuous dedication by its students, not ideal for short, informal learning experience.
  • In-person learning experiences are more human, evoking trust, motivation, and allows for quick responses to questions.
  • Online courses and tutorials cannot be adopted to accommodate for the student's existing knowledge.
  • It is hard to assess an online instructor's skillset to determine their compatibility.
  • Safety is a priority for in-person one-on-one learning, thus constricting several potential instructors and students.
We saw this as an opportunity to make informal learning experiences more accessible.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we provide an informal learning experience to working individuals that is human, accommodating and promotes a safe environment?

Crafting The Solution

We conducted individual, team, and peer brainstorming sessions guided by our personas, design goals, and research, leading to 65+ potential solutions. After scampering, sketching, and creating low-fi prototypes, we chose Instro - which was iterated to perfection within the time goal for the project.
THE SOLUTION
Instro is an instrument learning application that connects people willing to teach with people wanting to learn within their social circles.
Note: We selected instrument learning as the only skillset for this application, as adding other skillsets would increase the scope drastically, thus affecting quality of the outcome, considering that time was a constraint.
FEATURES IN FOCUS
Leveraging user's social circles for connections
Allowing pilot sessions to assess an instructor
Endorsements, reviews, and friendship levels
Facilitating skillset sharing within social groups

My Responsibilities

For this project, I worked within all the phases, however, my key input was overlooking the visual design of the application, conducting user tests, documenting and incorporating feedback within the prototype.
While we worked together on the research, ideation, prototyping and testing phases, I was primarily responsible for creating the high fidelity prototype through iterative sketching and testing. Here's a breakdown of my work in all the phases.
RESEARCH
Literature Reviews, Interviews, Focus Group, Competitive Analysis, Affinity Mapping, Persona Generation, Design Goals Articulation.
IDEATION
Conducted Individual, Team, and Peer Brainstorming sessions, SCAMPER method to generate Final Ideas, Storyboard & Scenario generation, Feature Requirements, Information Architecture, User Flow Diagrams, Sketching.
PROTOTYPING
Sketching, Low-Fidelity prototypes, Converted Low-Fidelity to Hi-Fidelity prototypes, Overlooked Typography and Visual Design System.
TESTING
Conducted Cognitive Walkthroughs, Think-alouds, generated Testing Protocol, Documented Results as Required.

OVERVIEW

PROTOTYPE

CASE STUDY

Interactive Prototype

Click here to launch it externally

OVERVIEW

PROTOTYPE

CASE STUDY

ResearchIdeationPrototypingReflection

Research

We drafted a set of primary research questions relevant to the problem space. These questions served as a baseline for other questions in research methods utilized.

What is an informal learning experience?

What solutions do currently exist?

What are the gaps in current solutions?

RESEARCH METHODS

KEY FINDINGS

Young adults aged 18-30 are more likely to learn new skills (56% - 61%).
Focus group participants did not know that they had skills that either of them wanted to learn, even though they had met each other previously.
Content on other websites offered low customization around the user.
YouTube offers different perspectives of various people, which might not be easily comprehensible for the user.
For informal learning, skills could be professional as well as hobby related.
Existing competitors that dispatch in-person learning experiences, often raise trust and safety concerns towards the instructors.

Analysis

As the data was significantly qualitative in nature, affinity mapping was used to group together relevant concepts, allowing us to "define" the problem space and articulate goals.

Design Goals

While acting as a starting point towards the conceptualization process, design goals also acted as a filter on rating various design concepts that will be generated in the future.

COMPATIBILITY

To facilitate compatibility between the instructor and learner.

AUTHENTICITY

Authenticate instructors and their skillsets.

TRUST

Build trust between the learner and instructor.

ENGAGING EXPERIENCE

Provide a more engaging & personalized experience.

USER PERSONA

Ideation

Individual Session

15 ideas/team member

Team Session

15 ideas as a team

Peer Session

10 ideas in a group of HCI professionals

We combined multiple ideologies, iteratively generating new concepts. Through this funneling, we reached a saturation of two design solutions that fit our design goals very well. Storyboards were created for both the solutions to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of each.

The final concept chosen was "instro", a mobile application that facilitates instructor-student connection through pilot sessions, social circle and location,  instructor skillset verification through peer reviews, and custom learning.

Storyboard - Instro

Defining the System

DEFINING FEATURES

The features of the system were broadly classified into two categories: learner and instructor.

Key Primary Features

Custom Recommendations

The application recommends instructors, prioritizing user's social group and vicinity.

Design goals facilitated:
Compatibility, Authenticity, Engaging Experience, Trust

Detailed instructor information

Instructor's profile can be viewed, with their work, skill demonstration, reviews and peer endorsements.
‍
Design goals facilitated:
Authenticity, Trust

Pilot Sessions

Allows the scheduling of pilot classes, thus allowing a student to assess the instructor.

Design goals facilitated:
Compatibility, Authenticity, Engaging Experience

Skillset Sharing

Facilitates sharing of skillset within a community or multiple communities or social groups.

Design goals facilitated:
Authenticity, Trust, Engaging Experience

SYSTEM HIERARCHY & WHITEBOARDING

The proposed features were utilized to rapidly generate a system hierarchy and sample screens.

Defining User Flows

1. Primary user task - booking a session

2. Student onboarding

3. Instructor onboarding

Low-fi Prototype

Using the defined system flows, we created a set of low fidelity paper prototypes for preliminary testing.

Cognitive Walkthrough

Each team member conducted a short cognitive walkthrough of the paper prototype. Here are some samples from the Cognitive Walkthrough:

CW Documentation

Findings & Changes Integrated

High Fidelity Prototype

The high fidelity prototype was designed using Adobe XD. The relevant screens are shown below.

HOME SCREEN

1. User Location

Location under consideration for recommendations.

2. Search Bar

Search for instruments, skills, or instructors.

3. Recommended Instructors

Recommendations based on connection level, distance, ratings.

Each recommendation card consists of:
(1) Connection level
(2) Rating
(3) Distance from current location
(4) Instruments taught
(5) View profile CTA.

High Fidelity Prototype

About

Instructor background, experience, and teaching techniques.

Gallery

Images and videos provided by instructor for reference.

Review

Reviews and ratings from students.

Peer Endorsement

Endorsements provided by peers that have matching skillsets, on request.

Pilot Sessions

1. Requirements

Specifies student's requirements, expertise level and reason to learn.

2. Customization

Specifies the student's need for an instrument, or any special requirements such as learning approach, specific song, etc.

3. Date of Pilot Session

Pick a day for the session, based on instructor availability.

4. Suitable time slots

Available time slots will be in light orange, and can be selected by the student.

5. Reminder

Set a reminder for the session.

Becoming an Instructor

Select Instruments to Teach

The instructor can select their instrument of expertise.

Skillset test

Instructor must complete the skillset test with a score of 90 or higher.

Setup Profile

Next, instructor can setup their profile with all relevant details.

Instructor Verification

Instructors must verify themselves by uploading at least one of the IDs and completing a photo validation.

Reflection

Scoping Down is Necessary

The initial scope was too broad in terms of skills - as each skill has different methods of learning, including these would expand the onboarding process excessively, considering our constraints.

Future Scope

Skillset Expansion

The platform can be extended further to other skillsets which can be within an organization such as coding, or external such as art, driving, etc.