Blueprint
A design education application aiming to introduce young students to the world of design
Introduction
This design challenge was proposed by Adobe Creative Jam in association with Amazon. I participated in this challenge with my teammate to address the requirements of the challenge as stated by Amazon -
1. Discover everyday design
2. Understand the impact of good and bad design
3. Explore careers in design
4. Be inspired to start their own career in design
2. Understand the impact of good and bad design
3. Explore careers in design
4. Be inspired to start their own career in design
The end product was stated to be a tablet application and the target population as defined as High School students in the USA between the ages of 13-17. We aimed to combine the principles of design thinking and behavioral science in approaching this problem.
Behavioural Science concepts used:
Goal Creation; Motivation; Social Proof; Feedback Loop
Goal Creation; Motivation; Social Proof; Feedback Loop
Keywords:
UX (user experience), behavioral design, design thinking, EdTech, cognitive psychology
UX (user experience), behavioral design, design thinking, EdTech, cognitive psychology
The Double Diamond Approach
We carried our project through the whole process of the double diamond approach. We start by defining our problem statement based on the instructions of the design challenge. We then diverge and use interviews and research to explore the problem area i.e. a form of contextual inquiry. We then converge on the possible diagnosis of the problem i.e. why the age group may not be engaged in design despite access to technology. We then diverge once again and explore possible solutions by brainstorming ideas for incorporating design education through an app, iterate with wireframes, and finally converge on a working prototype after multiple feedback-based iterations.
How Might We?
We use a who-what-why approach to define a 'How Might We' problem statement. 'Who' lists characteristics of the target audience we aim to address. 'What' lists the potential modes or methods that we can leverage as solutions. 'Why' helps us identify the end goals we hope to achieve through our final solution, including positive changes in the target audience. Putting these together, we get a 'How Might We' problem statement that clearly defines the target audience, the method of solution, and the end goal.
Stakeholder Map
Knowing that the primary stakeholder was the target population i.e. high school students, we used a stakeholder map to define how our primary stakeholder was connected to other stakeholders and influences in the user experience. This helps us identify the reference network of our primary stakeholder and leverage these connections to make our solution effective.
Research and Mapping Analysis
15 high school students between the ages of 14 and 17 were interviewed.
Responses were analyzed using Clustering and Affinity Mapping
Takeaway:
- Boredom, lack of information, and lack of trendy/interesting ways of interacting with design were some of the themes that stood out.
- The problem was the lack of age- and culture-appropriate engagement channel that addresses information and education about design as well as offers a fun, creative, social, or other engaging elements in the process.
- The problem was the lack of age- and culture-appropriate engagement channel that addresses information and education about design as well as offers a fun, creative, social, or other engaging elements in the process.
Interviews were structured as follows:
- Rapport building
- Introduction of the context of design education
- Free-flowing, open-ended questions about the interviewee's exposure to design, familiarity with technology, opinion of EdTech applications, trends in their peer group, etc.
- Introduction of the context of design education
- Free-flowing, open-ended questions about the interviewee's exposure to design, familiarity with technology, opinion of EdTech applications, trends in their peer group, etc.
Behavioral Journey Mapping
Based on the research data, we created a user behavior journey map that combines the elements of empathy mapping, journey mapping, and behavior mapping. An empathy map allows for categorizing the user's responses into action, feelings, thoughts, and words. A journey map is a user's journey in various contexts like product use, non-product experiences, etc. A behavior map helps create a chronological journey of the user's intended behavior and helps identify behavioral and other cognitive barriers that may hinder their target decision at each step. We combine these to create a journey map of our targeted behavioral journey vis a vis the product and the possible barriers that we would have to address with our solution.
Storyboarding
Stemming from the journey map, this storyboard gives a visual representation of the ideal user journey that we aim to create with our product. This guided our process of developing a solution so as to reach the end goal at each touch point.
Information Architecture:
User Flow Diagram
User Flow Diagram
Given the touch points in the user journey, we created this information architecture combined with the idea of user flow so as to bring together the "journey" element of behavioral mapping. This allowed us to clearly state the nature features of our application and establish exactly what we aimed to achieve with each element. We were also able to address the behavioral barriers that we expected the user to face at various touch points in the journey map.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
The following wireframes are created keeping in mind the specific user needs that were identified in the research as well as the structure and flow of the application as we designed it. It aims to create a user experience that uses the digital platform to answer the two goals embedded in our 'How Might We' question - imparting knowledge of design, and satisfying the needs of the user to enjoy and learn with ease.
UI Elements
Final Prototype
Full application walk-through:
Self-Reflection
Method and Justifications
Interviews were the quickest and most direct line of inquiry into our target audience's habits and behaviours. They also allowed for observing non-verbal cues, thus helping understand the natural instincts of the interviewee.
Reason for interviewee selection
The design field is more often a high school and undergrad level when students become introduced to it. Since the application was meant to be EdTech, we decided that a gamification application in this field would be best aimed at high school students. Therefore, interviewees were selected based on their demographic fit and level of interaction with technology.
Limitations
Due to the time restriction and limitation on resources, we were able to interview only 15 high school students. Given more resources, we would have been better equipped with data from a much higher sample size. The data would be richer, giving more generalizable insights into our target audience, making it more reliable. It would also make up for any biases that we may have had in interpreting the limited data from our target audience, given that they are in an age group and social-cultural setting with which we are not completely familiar.
Usability Testing
Next steps that we would ideally have liked to take, given more resources, are usability testing and finalizing a working, potentially marketable, prototype. This would allow us to truly iterate on the fine things in the application, based on actual use by our target audience. This would also have been the ideal "second half" of the Double Diamond approach. The strength of this approach would have been brought out in our wire framing, iterations better if we were able to conduct usability testing.
