UX Design of an EdTech platform- Sidehustle Internship
Background
The idea of traditional education has vastly changed over the years. Due to the pandemic and the rise in economic and social growth, one can agree that being physically present in a classroom is no longer the only option.
As the world keeps advancing with the introduction of a global wide area network that connects computer systems across the world, there is a need to adopt the option of E-Learning, where people can have access to quality education from wherever they are.
Remote learning is widely preferred in recent times and an institution requires an online presence. Research shows that educational organizations aim to maintain active communication with their stakeholders, provide academic services and resources, and also present an image for them on the internet. Sharing information on websites also helps to inform potential investors on the value of the services provided by the institution.
In order to achieve all of these aims, an organization’s educational website must be well improved so as to ensure that users enjoy their experience navigating through the website.
The Problem:
Navigating through abc.com has been very stressful for the users. From inappropriate use of images, to inappropriate choice of colors, to finding old information, grammatical accuracy, empty pages, no search button section, inconsistency in choice of color etc.
The Goal:
The goal of this project is to improve the website of abc.com so as to ensure that their users can easily navigate the website.
The Design Process
Understanding the Users:
In order to understand the users and what their frustrations and expectations are, we prepared a set of user survey questions and implemented them amongst the users of abc.com (Tutors and Learners).
The goal was to evaluate their frustrations and come up with possible solutions that would help them easily use the website.
Research Questions
- Why do you use the website?
- What problem did you encounter using the website?
- How was your experience using the website?
- What can we introduce on the website to improve your experience?
And many more……
The survey questions were answered by 5 users, who sincerely poured out their minds on all the problems and enjoyment experienced whilst using the website.
We also conducted a brief study on the competitors of abc.com to get an idea on how they structure their contents, the color they maintain etc.
The findings from our survey showed that a lot of users have certain needs. The compilation of the facts gotten from the users have been constructed to 5 different user personas which explains in detail the needs and frustrations as peculiar to each user.
Get Folasewa Ogunsola (Shewa)’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
User Persona
Ideation:
At this stage, we came up with ideas on how to meet the needs of the users we’ve identified. We started by looking at other websites that perform similar services as that of the abc.com, so as to understand how websites are being structured in their industry, what to add and what not to, what page to place certain links or information.
After much drafting, we came up with the pattern below for our sitemap and the information architecture.
Site Map
This was the most interesting part of the task. We gathered all our ideas, then we prepared an architecture of what elements to include and how to categorize them hierarchically. This was faster for us as we were able to work with our map.
Card Sorting:
Conclusion:
It was exciting to learn about user patterns and behavior in the educational industry. Some of what we learnt are stated below:
- Users like to have a search opportunity so they can discover their course faster
- Users like to have their course materials provided.
- Users like guidance from well experienced mentors.
It is our belief that if findings we have provided today can be well implemented, abc.com would experience a significant positive result.
Thank You!!
#sidehustleinternship
#uiux
#product design
