StudyGroup

Process

Research + Interviews | Ideation | Lo-fi Prototype | User testing | Mid-fidelity Prototype

rESEARCH & iNTERVIEWS

StudyGroup began as a concept for using social interactions to help students build better study habits. After recounting my own experiences and interviewing four college students, 3 graduates and 1 undergraduate, I researched the current online tools a student like that might use, comparing the features of tools like CheggStudy, Quizlet and Slack to see how they were used to help students review knowledge and study with others.

• While students studied alone, those with experience with study groups/partners found them useful

• Students with work commitments outside of school need help scheduling time to study with others

• He would provide the guidance of target goals for users of StudyGroup.

IDEATION

Using the goals and frustrations reflected from the collected experiences, I decided to focus my project on a concept I’ve encountered in the past—video study sessions.

LO-FI Prototyping

I created a lo-fi mobile prototype of a study application with three main features:

• Study packs - Flashcards and notes that could be publicly shared.

• Study Halls - Groups that students could join to share notes and coordinate meeting times

• Study sessions - A place for students to chat, conference and take notes from meetings

A home feed would display the recent notes a user saved as well as information related to their Studygroups like new notes or upcoming meetings. The Axure prototype included only the most basic iconography and interactions to see if the overall layout would be understandable to potential users.

User Testing

According to Jacob Nielsen, 85% of usability problems can be identified by testing 3-5 users (Nielsen, 2000) so a convenience sample of 4 users were recruited for clickable prototype testing. 3 participants were graduate students while one was a recent graduate. Participants were given an interactive Axure Prototype in a naturalistic setting and were asked to walk through 4 tasks under observation; joining a study group, joining study sessions, taking notes during sessions and finding notes to save for personal use. Of the 4 participants, none correctly identified how to find other users’ notes and save them.

One user remarked that while he could see where notes would be taken, a phone wouldn’t be the best tool for taking notes and he would be unlikely to use it. Two users seemed not to notice the bottom navigation bar (one was asked about this after testing and asked “There was a navigation bar?”, then when shown it said she couldn’t see how it would relate to the tasks). Two users also noted that they wished there were tags or filters to sort their content with.

While most  users said the navigation and iconography were usable, (3 out of 4 rated it a 4 out of 5), no participants successfully saved notes from other users outside of their group.

Based on the data collected, I decided to make four major changes:

• Allow users to sort feed posts using their current classes as filters.

• Allow users to see content directly shared with them in a ‘Shared’ section.

• Have clearer labeling indicating the differences between study tools in various settings, i.e. on the homepage ‘Notes can be ‘My Notes’ while in a Study Hall ‘Notes’ can be ‘[This Group]’s Notes’

• StudyGroup’s features when they are on a device more equipped for notetaking and study.

I also decided to mock up a sample of a computer interface, a device more equipped for note-taking and conferencing.

Mid-fi Prototyping

The final Axure prototype included the design changes found in the previous testing and a color scheme with higher contrast. The home page for users needed to have the most relevant content for users sorted in a way that allowed them to clearly understand where they were and how to get to what they need. Since chronological data wasn’t an ideal sorting method for content, as users looking for study tools were more concerned with finding specific content by subject rather than date, implementing a tagging system would allow users to not only sort their own data, but make sure others can find the tools and groups they create. Additionally, the StudyGroup notes and flashcards include descriptions, timestamps, authors and options to comment or annotate content. Even how content is created, searched and bookmarked was chosen to create a community centered around crowd-sourced content for studying which then supports connections and formation of study groups.