Challenges and Insights - Research Phase

Charlotte:

▪ Challenge:
One major challenge was translating our ideas about media literacy into a concrete and interactive prototype. While we had a clear concept—the Who, Evidence, Motive framework—it was difficult to simplify these ideas into interfaces that younger students (grades 4–6) could easily understand. We also spent a lot of time refining the flow to make sure each step felt natural and not overwhelming.

▪ Learning:
Through this process, we learned how important scaffolding is in learning design. Instead of giving all information at once, breaking the experience into steps—such as focusing on source, evidence, and motive—helped make the task more manageable. We also realized that visual cues, such as warning colors and simple feedback messages, play a key role in guiding attention and supporting understanding.

▪ Surprise:
One surprising insight was how strongly emotional language and visual cues influence decision-making. When testing and reviewing our prototype, we noticed that phrases like “Share before they delete this” or the use of emojis could easily distract users from thinking critically. This reinforced our decision to explicitly highlight these elements in the Motive step.

Zinan:

• Challenge

One challenge for me was turning our big lesson idea into a smaller prototype.  At first, our project had many parts, such as role cards, fake posts, group discussion, and feedback.  It was difficult to decide what to include and what to leave out.  I learned that a prototype does not need to show everything.  It only needs to show the most important learning experience clearly.

• Learning

Through Milestone 7 and 8, I learned that development and evaluation are connected.  When we built the Figma prototype, we had to think about not only what learners would see, but also how we could test whether it works.  Creating the evaluation plan helped me understand that good design is not just about making something look finished.  It also needs feedback, testing, and revision.

• Surprise

One thing that surprised me was how much small details matter.  For example, a button, a short instruction, or the wording of a question can change how learners understand the activity.  I also realized that evaluation does not always have to be very large or complicated.  Even testing with a few peers can help us find confusing parts and improve the design.

Jiaming:

• Challenge

One challenge for me was turning our lesson into a clickable prototype without losing the flow. Our design had a lot of parts, like role cards, fake posts, sorting, and feedback, so it was hard to decide what to keep and what to simplify. I kept thinking about how to make the experience feel complete, but not too crowded.

• Learning

I learned that prototyping and evaluation are really connected. When we were building the prototype, I was not only thinking about what learners would see, but also how we could test whether it actually worked. I also felt that research methods like think-aloud were really useful, because they helped us understand not just the final answer, but how people were thinking during the process. 

• Surprise

One thing that surprised me was how much small details mattered. A short instruction, one button, or the order of a few screens could really change how people understood the activity. I was also surprised that even testing with a few classmates could still give us useful feedback and help us notice what needed to be revised.