The problem:
Online learners often have a high online course drop-out rate. They need a tool to track course progress and motivate their learning.
The solution:
"100%" progress checking app is designed to provide learners pedagogically-driven study report features and easy access to learning progress.
Research Goals:
We want to know how digital tools motivate learning and how adult learners use such tools to track their learning, such as how to check progress, make schedules, and identify their knowledge gaps.
We also want to know what opportunities and needs might exist for online learners to help to shape the direction of the app development process. In this project, we will take UX design learners at Udacity as our main research subjects.
Method & Recruiting
Semi-Structured Interview:
The designer conducted 30-min interviews with 3 UX design learners at Udacity
The designer used interview scripts as a guide to asking questions
The designer developed organic conversations based on participants’ answers
Survey:
The designer used surveys to test interview results and gained a deeper understanding of the topic from 10 learners
After the interview, the designer uncovered common themes such as user behavior and user needs.
The designer wrote down user quotes on sticky notes about
User pains and frustrations
Wishes and desires
Delights and joys
Facts and desktop findings
Observations and AHA moments
Etc.
Key findings:
Checking learning progress is important and motivating for UX Design learners
Identifying learning gaps and outcomes motivate learning and should be an important feature of the app
Making learning schedules is not very effective at motivating learning
Recommendations:
Our product should provide a progress checking feature with greater accessibility and clarity
Our product should provide a learning report feature to help students identify learning outcomes and gaps
Themes and Opportunities:
The designer grouped and defined labels representing themes and opportunities
Feature Ideation:
The designer ideated solutions for observed opportunity areas from data
Feature Prioritization
The designer used Value v.s. Complexity Quadrants to prioritize features for the app
The designer used the Crazy-8s method, sketched an extreme low fidelity prototype that draws on the research findings and synthesis: the app should include a progress checking feature and a study report feature.
Based on the paper sketches, the designer developed a low/mid-fidelity prototype using Figma
Pages designed: Log-in Page, Sign-up Page, Sign-up Successful Page; Main View Page
Log-in/Sign-up pages user pain points:
Users were confused about the login and sign-up buttons
Users intuitively entered emails in the “username” column
On the sign-up page, users don’t know which column is required to fill in
Improvements:
Emphasized the importance of the "Login" button by placing it above "sign up" and make "sign up" tertiary
changed "username" to "email" to indicate what users should input accurately
added "*" to each prompt to notify users of the required information