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Me + 1 developer
Figma, Miro, Canva
End to end product designer &user researcher.
User research, concept ideation, interaction design, prototyping, user testing
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What did these results tell mean? I organised my notes from the triangulation of studies into an affinity diagram to find commonalities among responses.
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Through my affinity diagram, I established 4 main pain points - areas students found hindered their ability to effectively study:
Students were often overwhelmed by the amount of content and resources (slides, readings and lectures) posted by their tutor and could not keep up with all of this. This makes it hard to be motivated to self - study.
Students found it difficult to catch up when new topics built on old topics, which were rarely revised by their tutors. They often felt better after knowing they at least understood broadly what would be tested.
Many students placed time as a priority in studying. Participants noticed that they mostly used their study time watching lectures and writing notes, and less time organising their notes presentably or self testing.
Students suggested that actively revising, self testing and creating their own notes were helpful for studying, while copying lecture slides, regurgitating information and cramming subjects were less effective.
These insights led me to refine my problem statement, which would inform the rest of my processes:
Refined Problem Statement
Students often find it difficult to begin studying consistently because content seems unapproachable, disorganised and formidable. This causes them to let content build up over the term so that they are stressed, fatigued and overwhelmed by exam periods. They don't have the energy or resources to study effectively with self explanation and practice tests.
How can we develop a tool that:
✦ Helps to organise the plethora of course materials and content so that students feel like studying is less overwhelming?
✦ Encourages various study methods, from traditional note- taking to visualisation, self testing and explanation?
📌 Learnings - Discovery phase
Until now, I had mainly stuck to the double diamond framework. But being my friend's project, I hopped in halfway through and rather than ideating, we just needed to streamline his idea more. I realised we didn't have to follow the rules strictly.
If I'd established a clearer research objective, I feel like it would have been easier to extract my key insights from my research and create a refined problem statement more efficiently. Next time I'll consider my research questions and goals with more detail and clarity.
This was one of my first experiences working directly with a developer, and it was enlightening! Working side by side gave me a deeper understanding of developer processes and what they actually want from a designer, and this helped to drive my research so that I presented what was most necessary to his needs.
I categorized my interviewees based on demographic and study habits, identifying interviewees whose similar traits could be synthesised into a few key personas. They were categorised based on how overwhelmed they feel by study features such as:
✦ Constant studiers vs last minute crammers
✦ Undervalues self explanation and testing vs values self explanation and testing
✦ Can function when overwhelmed vs breaks down when overwhelmed
✦ Lots of time to study throughout the semester vs not much time to study throughout the semester
2nd Year • BArts Student • 19
I just wish I had more time to really take in the content, rather than just studying for the sake of exams.
4th Year • LLB Student • 21
I try my best to keep up with my studies, but sometimes there's just too much to do, I have to cut some corners.
2nd Year • BArts • 19
When I look at a textbook and think about writing notes, I feel so demotivated. I wish there was another way...
Borne from my personas, I created journey maps. In these, I could better understand their goals, motivations, and frustrations. This holistic perspective ensured that every decision we made was aligned with user needs.
My teammate had already coded an early iteration of the note-taking app, which included tools for adding new bubbles and creating notes. I took this existing iteration of the app and began by making lo - fi recreations of these before moving on to create new features. I also conducted further research by investigating the functionality of similar apps and left many notes for him to implement.
I tested my mid fidelity design as static frames, which users 'clicked through' while describing their thoughts, feelings and actions. The user testing involved think aloud interviews, cognitive walkthroughs and system usability scale.
I condensed this data in an Affinity Map that I then transformed into an Insights Table, where I highlighted key issues users had and made some recommendations based on recurring feedback.
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Based on the results (in the table above) from my low fi mockups, I made several iterations to address user feedback. I started with the issues that most detracted from my problem statement (making studying more approachable, offering an opportunity to visually organise information, encouraging self explanation). Here are three iterations I made:
Finally - time for the transformation into interactive prototypes! This process was continuously iterative, as I tested my designs with experts (other design students) to pinpoint deviations from UX/ UI best practices and otherwise refine points that may result in user failure. After that, I conducted 5 unmoderated think- aloud tests using Loop11 software, allowing me to capture data from my target users directly. I made many iterations, including:
LEARNING 1
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LEARNING 2
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LEARNING 3
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60 responses | Age 18 - 25
8 responses | Age 18 - 24
30+ Online forums
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I sorted my insights into a bottom up affinity diagram, which helped me to identify trends arising from the interviews, survey and online forums. Below is a synthesised version of the affinity diagram after grouping common bottom level insights into common points (there were originally 100+ bottom level insights that I summarised into a few key points here).
Through my affinity diagram, I established 4 main themes:
RNT was typically triggered by concerns around exams, work and relationships - and were more common around stressful periods like exam or internship season.
My interviewees had trouble being motivated to change their attitudes or behaviour whilst in the RNT cycle as they did not realise they were engaging in RNT.
My interviewees were generally very open to meditation and CBT as interventions. Most participants did not understand what RNT was and expressed a desire to learn more, but only if it was easy to understand.
Participants were more likely to engage in interventions when they recognised their thoughts as unhelpful and when there was external pressure - i.e. when they had a prior commitment.
So in summary - students were open to mobile methods of targeting their RNT, but found it difficult to remain open to doing so when actually ruminating/ worrying, which mostly happened during stressful periods. The most effective experiences of snapping out of a RNT cycle were when they had extrinsic motivation to stop ruminating/ worrying.
These insights led me to refine my problem statement, which would inform the rest of my processes:
Refined Problem Statement
How can I make university students feel more motivated to change their attitudes while engaging in Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT)?
📌 Learnings - Discovery phase
What are the main ways university students study for an upcoming exam?
What are the key challenges students experience when trying to learn?
What are the key challenges students experience when trying to learn?
Using crazy 8s to rapidly generate possibilities and then reverse thinking to refine these solutions, I narrowed down my solution to 3 possible ideas, which I then analysed using a decision matrix. I ended up choosing option 1 (interactive postbox) because of its resource efficiency, permanency and customisability for people of all social comfiness.
OPTION 1
This ranked highest on accessibility, fun, feasibility and interactiveness.
OPTION 2
While this idea was fun, it was not as accessible or feasible compared to other options.
OPTION 3
This idea was the most feasible but seemed unhuman and was tone deaf to our issue.
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Time - poor students who do not attend lectures or spend time on self - study perform worse in assessments and exams
Method of study may be more important than the time spent studying. Three useful study techniques include:
💡 Our Research Question
To understand the methods and frustrations of students when trying to understand and digest large amounts of course content in preparation for exams and assessments.
BEHAVIOURAL
What are the main ways university students study for an upcoming exam? How do these methods affect their experience of exams?
BEHAVIOURAL & ATTITUDIONAL
What are the key challenges students experience when trying to learn and revise new content?
ATTITUDIONAL
What are university students' perspective on using a mixture of diagrams and notes for studying?
Our research yielded some interesting results. After conducting our research, we used affinity diagramming to reach a few key insights: link to affinity diagram. We noted 3 key points from our research:
CURRENT METHODS OF STUDYING
'I study by taking notes from lectures and readings on Google Docs, Onenote or Notion' - Joanna, 21, Sydney
Students mainly study using note - taking, writing notes in their own words, copying slides and teaching others. To summarise information, they often use Google Docs, Notion and ().
CHALLENGES WHILE STUDYING
'I feel confused by overwhelming amounts of course content to learn in short periods' - Online ethnographic source
Students find understanding overwhelming amounts of content the most challenging part of studying. They have particular difficulties keeping up with lectures, revising and (). This leads to stress, a sense of being overwhelmed, and less desire to study.
ATTITUDES TO DIAGRAMMING
'I find visualisation useful but making diagrams is hard to integrate into my study' - John, 21, Sydney
Many students find diagramming useful even though they don't directly use it in their studying. Students may not use diagramming in their studying because they feel it is too difficult to integrate with their existing notes, there are no good free diagramming software, or they feel that creating diagrams slows them down.
These insights led us to refine our problem statement:
💡 Refined Research Question
How do we integrate a hybrid solution to visual learning and traditional notetaking into students' study experience and encourage generation of own notes and self testing/ presentation?
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We analysed the experiences and demographic data of our interviewees and translated them into three personas characterised by how much time and effort they dedicate to studying. Our target users lay in the range of not studying at all, to studying almost every day. Their reasons for not studying were mostly time poorness, ranging from social events, part time job
Studies ~2 hrs / week
I want to pass but because of my job I just have no time to study often.
2nd Year • BArts • 19
Studies 6+ hrs / week
I try to get HDs but there is often too much content to study for at once!
4th Year • LLB • 21
Studies <1 hr / week
Study isn't a top priority, I guess. I wouldn't stay home for it.
3rd Year • BEng • 22
After narrowing down our concept, it was time to research competitors.
Note taking tool
3rd Year • BEng • 22
Mindmapping tool
2nd Year • BArts • 19
Hybrid tool
4th Year • LLB • 21