A virtual platform to create fun, interactive, and diverse connections between students nationally and internationally during online learning
— PROJECT NAME
PenPal
— ROLE
- UX Researcher
- Project Planner/Developer
— DURATION
9 Weeks
— TOOLS
Figma
Qualtrics
Miro
Overview
Social interaction with peers is crucial for adolescents’ developmental and mental health. In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and schools turned to virtual learning. Online learning, along with social distancing measures, severely limits the time and ability that adolescents are able to socialize with their peers and to meet new people.
My team worked to develop a unique way for students to interact with other students internationally and nationally by building a digital platform that facilitate a “pen pal” relationship. This relationship would be strengthened through both synchronous activities during class and asynchronous activities and messaging.
Live Product Prototype can be found HERE
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Introduction
Problem Context
The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to transition to an online, virtual learning model. This model, along with social distance measures, limits the peer interactions of students. Virtual learning also presents another challenge: low engagement due to screen fatigue and the ability to have a web camera off and microphone muted.
In addition to targeting low engagement and peer interaction, we also targeted another problem: ensuring that these interactions were culturally diverse. This assures that the online platform could provide an experiential learning experience away from textbooks and lectures that are further applicable in the physical classroom past the pandemic.
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Research Question
In this period of COVID and social distancing, how can we design a platform to improve social interaction for students between the ages of 8-13 that has further application in the physical classroom?
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Exploratory Research
Student Surveys
(Quantitative & Qualitative)
Executed a Qualtrics survey with 13 students aged 8-16 years old, using convenience sampling. The questions focused on the student’s experience with virtual learning and peer connections, as well as knowledge around pen pals. All questions were close-ended and used a Likert-based scale that was modified to be more kid-friendly.
Semi-Structured Interviews
(Qualitative)
- Lead semi-structured interviews with three different middle and high school teachers to gain perspective of their experience with virtual teaching. All teachers were found through convenience sampling. Questions were centered around class engagement, the opportunity for peer interactions, and the ability to teach about diversity.
Direct Observations
(Qualitative)
Participated in direct observation on elementary-aged students who attended a private Catholic school. Observations were taken an hour per day, over three days in three different subject classes: math, reading, and social studies. In order to gain insight on a typical day of online learning and to see the engagement of the younger, primary school-aged students. The students were in 3rd grade (n=10), 4th grade (n=19), and 5th grade (n=1)
Contact
email@domain.com
000-000-000
User Interview Findings
Survey Findings
Direct Observation Findings
Findings
After the data collection I synthesized this data and identified 4 top themes:
- 1. Students struggle with being fully engaged and participating in class, despite the measures the teachers’ took to increase engagement
- 2. Students are more motivated to participate in class when working with others and prefer to work with partners over individually, but online learning limits interactions between students.
- 3. Barriers to student participation in class include technology literacy, internet connectivity, “Zoom fatigue”, and family-derived distractions.
- 4. Diversity is not a topic that is inherently present in teachers’ curriculum. However, teachers try to incorporate material related to diversity whenever possible
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Ideation
After we completed our exploratory research we began our product development, with a design proposal including our design idea, goals, and requirements. This was to help define a starting point for our study and ensure throughout the design process that we continue to keep our design decision in alignment with our project goals.
Design Goals
- 1. Promote cultural diversity: Our design should promote cultural diversity through the experience of different perspectives by developing close relationships with peers nationwide or internationally.
- 2. Intuitive and easy to use: Our design should be intuitive and easy to use. The design should not require a tutorial or manual to use.
- 3. Distinctive: Our design should provide a unique and new aspect of the pen pal experience.
- 4. Further connections: Our design should provide the space to develop relationships to enhance user engagement.
Personas
With findings from our formal research, we generated three personas (1 teacher and 2 students). For each persona, we identified goals and frustrations and continued to use these personas throughout the entire product development process.
Sketches
After our initial sketches our team scope was too large given the time we had to complete our project. Our previous ideation did not address cultural diversity or create a fun, and engaging experience for students.
We ideated and brainstormed again we continually asked ourselves the question: how do we make this platform engaging and fun for students?
We discarded our concept of a learning management system because students are not inherently motivated by academic curriculum. We decided that interactions would not be based on any academic content, but rather synchronous and asynchronous activities for the students to get to know the PenPals and further a cultural interaction. We decided to make the platform international to make it more fun for students and to expand their accessibility to other wider range of nationalities and cultures.
Information Architecture/ User Flows
After our design implementations, we finalized our information architecture and user flows, to ensure that users were immediately provided with the tools they needed to navigate as soon as they opened the application.
Information Architecture
Communication with PenPal Flow
Weekly Activity Flow
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Evaluation
Usability Testing
Recruitment Process
We used a convenience sample of 5 participants recruited from our own personal and professional networks.
We asked each of our participants to complete 3 different user flows over Zoom. Through the tests, we discovered that students desired to have some game-design elements to share with their PenPal. We also learned that the functionality of the message center was not clear to our participants. We discovered that some of the features that involved direct communication with their PenPal were confusing.
Usability Testing via Zoom
Analysis
After each session was completed, we measured each user performance on each task with the following standard usability severity rating scale:
Definition of Usability Severity Ratings:
- Severity 1: Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on the project
- Severity 2: Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority
- Severity 3: Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priorities
After all usability sessions were complete, I gathered the data from our notes and created a chart of each participant’s task error.
[Excerpt from Usability Report]
Results
Through the tests, we discovered that students desired to have some game-design elements to share with their PenPal. We also learned that the functionality of the message center was not clear to our participants. We discovered that some of the features that involved direct communication with their PenPal were confusing.After we completed our exploratory research we began our product development, with a design proposal including our design idea, goals, and requirements. This was to help define a starting point for our study and ensure throughout the design process that we continue to keep our design decision in alignment with our project goals.
Full Usability Report can be found HERE.
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Final Design
Teacher Rewarding System & Leaderboard
Students could get rewards from the teacher if they unlock the Teacher’s Rewards. Teachers could assign different rewarding systems depending on their class and curriculum. Examples of a reward could be earning extra points for the class. The more students interact with their pen pals, the more points they could get. Based on the scores and levels from their pen pal interaction, students could go higher on the class leaderboards.You can you this place to talk a little bit about the image on the side.
Recall Memories with pen pals
Memories can include videos, pictures and/or voice memos that were shared with a previous or current PenPal from messages exchanges in the message center and/or weekly activities. This will allow our users to remember what they have learned from their PenPal relationships and remind them of the connection and stories they shared with their penpal.
Used in an academic context, but not limited to academic interactions
Users can directly use the Message center to interact with their PenPal. Question prompts are focused on promoting cultural experiences, however, they are not based on the academic curriculum. This feature allows students to develop deeper discussions.
Link to High-fidelity Prototype can be found HERE
Duration
- 9 weeks
Team Members
Cailey Grembowski
Austin Kohnle
EJ Lim
Reflections
Challenges
The target audience was children, and it was difficult to find participants within our age range given that schools are closed during the pandemic. Our usability studies and user interviews were limited to students who had access to webcams.
We faced difficulties refining our project scope to make students self-motivated in using our platform. We kept asking ourselves the question ‘Will this be fun for students?’ at every point of the design process. We asked peers and the instructor for insights and different perspectives and completed iterations about every week of the process.
Things I learned
Taking a user-centered approach starts with listening: As a UX Researcher, I was able to focus on listening without assumptions or judgments. I verbally reiterate key themes so they know that I’m listening during the evaluation testing. I found that this created a sense of trust with interviewees and usability test participants.
- How to effectively collaborate remotely, as this project took place during the pandemic everything from meeting arrangements with my team to user usability studies was done completely remote.
