Case Study “Smart People”
Understanding the challenge
Let’s start by introducing our client : Today we are going to work for Smart People Inc. a compagny born i 2014 wich currently off in -person language courses for kids and teenagers from 12 to 21 years old. Their main attraction is a summer camp which is conduct in a variety of location each year.
However…
However they have find that a bunch of students couldn’t afford this summer camp by lack of time and money but will join it if they have the opportunity . Based on this statement ,we have starting questioning ourselves about how to proceed on this project : the goal was to create an online platform for the 12–21 years old , that will transform the in-person learning experience lived on the summer camp into a 100% digital experience that can be accessed at a more convenient price than the cam itself.
In fact
Online benchmarquing lead us to those three conclusions :
The already existing languages learning applications are either
- Too academic and not entertaining enough.
- Way too expensive ( with an annual or monthly membership subscription).
- Not socially interactive enough ( no interactions or in-live practicing experiences with other learners).
Let’s do it
First of all , we have schedule our time since we had a very limited amount of time to achieve the project ( 4 days). It was very useful to visualize each steps we are going through , to not loosing time and working more efficiently.
Research Methods
We have starting by create a survey to gather data : I have conducted few job-to-be-done interviews too to learn more about our users habits and behaviors. It’s one of the powerful tool I used on this project : those job to be done interviews allows me to collect information more freely than a survey which is a closed and more driven processus. Instead of focusing on what the problem is or what the users want, I ask myself why the users need it.
By understanding why people might want this app it increased my chances of making a truly valuable product.
All the participants were between 18 years old and 21 years old , they for most of those 5, have a real interest into languages , travels and were students too, so the interviews was really easy to proceed cause they all were really interested in the subject.
Survey
The main goal of the survey was to understand the learning habits of our age range users and how they would be most willing to learn a new language.
As you can see a large portion of them have already tried to learn something using an online and an in-person tool at the same time, they are motivated to dedicate mostly between one and two hour per day to learn something new, but in summer half of them are more attracted by funny activities than any kind of work.
All that substance has allowed us to go further with using an Affinity Diagram, a tool which enables us to highlight the main pain-points delivered by the users, to analyse and synthesize those data in groups with a view to identifying convergence and priorities for problem solving.
By following this procedure , we were just facing the main problematic of our users : it turned that the current language learning applications are not meeting the need of learning actively with the need of practicing by interaction which cause a lack of involvement by the users.
Being aware of this main problematic allowed us to create our user persona based on the surveys results and the severals job-to-be-done’s interviewees profils and criteria.
Quotes from the interviewees
“ During summer camps we are totally immersed into a culture so the learning is easier ! ”
“ I would have more trouble paying for exclusively digital learning content.”
“ The practice above all ! ”
“ I can’t learn without the emulation of a class.”
User Persona
The results of the survey and the job-to-be-done interviews suggested that there were several types of users with diverse needs. The accumulation of the different insights and common patterns that came from the users’ answers helped us to create a persona which is the manifestation of that data in a character since it is based on certain needs of some of the participants.
Therefore, eventually I focused on the more common persona.
Focusing on a specific user helps us to keep her needs in mind and not get distracted whenever an idea for a new feature or demand pops up.
So let’s me introduce Jennifer to you , the enthusiastic high school graduate which needs to learn a new language during summer while keep practicing those she already manage , because she will be enrolling in a university .
Using the User Journey Map tool we have defined Jennifer’s main motivation and final goal :
on a time scale range of one week summer break ,we have looked for the way she could loosed motivation from her first envy. Her final goal is to become bilingual but to achieve it , she has to pass through different stages ; the fact is she is struggling to stay focused on her work.
But why ?
By wondering this , we just realized that our problem statement wasn’t efficient enough to responding Jennifer’s needs cause we couldn’t answer to the WHY, so we just take it back :
Jennifer has planned her summer vacation : she needs to learn another language while socializing because she wants to be bilingual but she’s struggling to stay motivated learning by herself, she feels lonely and bored.
How might we help her stay motivated and entertained while learning?
So from this redefined “pain points”statement which was a more specific one, we have ideated using a Crazy 8 , finding some goods features to use from this emulation .
Then we started sketching a low-fi user flow of the prototype: we need at this moment to understand visualy our project in order to go further .
So we choose to focus ourselves on one feature we have imagined.
Solution
We decided to create an application that combines a language learning platform and a social network . It is a question of realizing challenges in real life: in order to keep the social and community side of a holiday camp, users that have chosen to learn the same language as you in the application are automatically divided into random teams (according to their level) and implement your strategy together. The challenge must be completed and filmed in less than 24 hours by the team and then shared through the application.The app is equipped with a chat that allows students to exchange with each other, by team or with previous teams with whom they have had the opportunity to carry out missions.
The various challenges will be realized in connection with different cultural partners previously chosen by Smart People Inc.
Once the challenge has been validated, students are asked to rate their experience according to different criteria.
Sketches
This was the first step to help us really outline the app and visually imagine it.
Wireframes
This visual guide represents the skeletal framework of the app. It helped us arrange the interface elements while we focused on the functionality rather than what it looks like. Moreover, the simplicity of wireframes allows us to quickly test ideas without diving into the details.
Our user flow introduces Jennifer creating her account on the application, then choosing her first mission, she accesses the profiles of her teammates, then the information directly related to the mission.Once the mission is complete, Jennifer has the possibility to stop the countdown and thus share the video proof of the mission achievement.
She will then be able to write down her experience and choose a new challenge.
The first screens (the home screen- 1/2/3) are the home screen that the user accesses after downloading the application and inviting to register or to identify themselves, the following two screens contain the registration form to be completed.
We assumed that the location was enabled by default as soon as the application was opened.
Always on the third screen the user has the possibility to choose three languages of his choice as well as his level in each of them.
The fourth screen is the main screen, it consists of a video challenge wall as well as the “wheel” button that allows you to search for a mission and a team simultaneously.
The following two screens allow us to visualize the choice of mission: the student has the possibility to accept or refuse the proposed mission.
Students then access the profiles of their teammates, they also have the choice to accept or not accept their team.
Screens 8 and 9 may be the most important as they summarize all the information for the chosen mission. They also provide access through the icons to the course content required for the mission, to the location of the challenge, to the team’s chat, to the countdown, as well as to the end-of-mission button.
Tests & Itération
Once our wireframes were finished, we created a prototype on Marvel before starting our user tests. We sent the prototype to 3 people with a presentation of the concept and instructions on the actions to be carried out. All users liked the concept which seemed “interactive”, “innovative” and “fun”, but they found some criticisms to make. According to our testers, the fact of having to film the challenge is not explicit enough, and almost non-existent in the presentation of the various screens, which was a bit confusing for them .
The prototype
Conclusion
NEXT STEPS
With the realization of the prototype in mid-fi, the application needs to be tested again and push this prototype up to the hi-fi version in order to improve it, because I have to admit that I love this project !
We could also had an historic of the previews team too so the users could stay connected to each other if they feeling it !
Thank you for watching and don’t hesitate to let some comments !
