Edu-Edge
Christopher Scales
The Problem
Students struggle to keep up with large volumes of complex academic texts, impacting their overall comprehension and class engagement, and existing educational methods and tools fall short in addressing these combined challenges effectively.
So...
How might we design a comprehensive and adaptable learning framework for high volumes of complex academic texts?
First, User Research
Surveys revealed that undergraduate students from a diverse background of majors struggle with completing their assigned readings for class due to lack of time, trouble with comprehension, and fatigue.
Students are in need of a tool to save time and energy without sacrificing the depth or understanding
In addition, Interviews revealed:
“Difficulty retaining an abundant amount of information makes it difficult to participate in class conversation.”
“Not being able to participate in class discussions, lack of retention creates difficulties in exams”
“It’s make it hard to understand and I have to spend more time understanding it”
“I can’t ever get to the full readings because of how many assignments I have to complete”
“Trouble keeping up with current lecture content, homework takes more time to complete.”
Personas
Divergent Brain-writing
Convergent User-Flow Mapping
Low Fidelity / Wireframes link to prototype
Based on user feedback I found that users were looking for a more personalized experience
Mid Fidelity Prototype link to prototype
Users had no trouble with the general flow of uploading a reading, selecting summary features and generating a summary, however,
- Users wanted a more interesting / dashboard with more than just a bunch of buttons
- Users were confused on how this was being generated
- Users thought there was too much blank space on some pages
- Users also wanted a way to highlight and annotate/take notes
- Users were able to easily generate new key terms and quizzes on the dashboard
Final Product / High Fidelity Prototype
select: options --> Fit screen
Be sure to explore all of the buttons to see all that this platform could be capable of!
