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Prenda

Roles

UX UI
Research
Product Design

Team
Solo  design
Group  build

Details

12 weeks
Thesis Capstone turned app development project




A report card for an education technology company that encourages student engagement and academic progress and keeps teachers and parents informed. 

Process
  • Research the standard practices when designing for children.
  • Research how students, parents and teachers track progress currently.
  • Expiriment with how to show the data in a way that is appealing to students and informative for parents. 
  • Interview students parents and teachers to ensure all needs are met.
  • Design prototypes in low, mid and high fidelity and continuely test them to insure iterations are informed on actual data. 
  • Hand off designs to engineers. Discuss design changes with engineers as needs arise. 











The Product




 
The report card shows 
  • Data from the weekly reflection
  • Their goal statuses in Math and English Language Arts
  • Feedback from their teachers 
  • 4 of their favorite projects
  • What subjects their projects focus on 










The Process





problem discovery

The ProblemHow do we encourage students to stay on track with their education goals and engage with their weekly reflections? 

My SolutionA report card that shows their progress and reflection data in a concise and visual way

Key Questions
  • What are the standard practices when designing for children? 
  • How do students, parents and teachers track progress currently? 
  • How can we show the data in a way that is appealing to students and informative for parents? 
Additional Considerations
  • How can we inform parents of their student’s progress? 
  • How can teachers keep track of their student’s work ?






ResearchWhat are the standard practices when designing for children?
 “Children tend to have an advantage over adults; their curiosity is like a constant beam that highlights and invests with interest anything within range. The object need not be useful attractive or precious; as long as it is mysterious it is worthy of attention.”

UX Design for Children 
Nielson Norman Group  I wanted to look at products and experiences that are designed for children to understand what is successful and engaging. I found bright flat colours, simple text, shapes and illustrations are best.



Clayton Children’s Museum



 
Trunki Suitcases 




Ábécés Könyv by Anna Kövecses





How do students, parents and teachers track progress currently?

The current method of tracking student progress

Problems:
  • Can only look at one subject at a time. No visual comparison.
  • No call to action. 
  • Not very visually appealing or accessible for children.
  • Buried fairly deep within Prenda World portal. 




How can we show the data in a way that is appealing to students and informative for parents?

Goal design:
  • We designed a way to show the progress vs the expected progress through ring diagrams. They were much more visually appealing than the graph. 
  • We cut the word “behind” cause both teachers and parents hated it.
  • We added a “Keep going!” button as a call to action for students to catch up or maintain progress. It brings them to their goals. 
  • We broke it down into overall progress and weekly progress so students can see both goals. 







PrototypingI tested my designs on 4 users of each user group to understand each of their needs and desires for the product.

4 students
4 parents
4 Teachers



Low-Fidelity
Findings:
  • Students were not interested. Thought it looked “boring”
  • Parents thought it was a bit corporate looking
  • Teachers like core idea but felt it needed to look more engaging for students 
Findings:
  • Thought empowerment section was interactive. This was not possible with coding 
  • Too busy, no obvious heirarchy. 
  • Focus section could be represented better  



    MID-Fidelity



    Mid-Fidelity Findings:

    • Split opinions on showing attendance but decided to cut after this test round as many teachers don’t track it
    • Too much colour 
    • Very positive response to sun dial 


    high-fidelity



    High-Fidelity Findings:

    • No call to action. They see that they are behind but no obvious was to get to their work. 
    • Parents and teachers HATED word behind. 
    • Too much info in the goal tracking sections 







    Design ElementsEmpty States I incorporated the Prenda “spark” into the illustrations to make them consistant with the brand.







    THE SUN DIAL 
    The sun dial represents a student’s feelings toward learning that week based on the data from their weekly reflection. The playfullness was effective in engaging students. 









    Reflection Learnings
    • I learned to frequently check in with engineers to see what was viable when designing. 

    • Working with stakeholders can create unexpected challenges. Its good to be able to explain your designs in different terms when speking to different groups.  


    Challenges
    • The teachers at Prenda were on school holidays at the time of testing so it was difficult to get them to commit to a time. 

    • Testing products on students over zoom was challenging. 


    Accomplishments
    • Created a product that satisfied all three user groups. 

    • Coming soon! This product launches in September 2024 and I will be able to measure its impact then.

    Next steps Launching

    I continue to work with engineers after the hand-off to work out any kinks. 
    NEXT

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