Dewey
designing a MVP learning app that re-envisions how busy professionals learn
Dates: June - August 2024
Role: UX/UI Design Lead (team of 2)
Tools: Figma, Figjam
Problem
My client, two co-founders of a social impact consulting firm, wanted to develop an app that helps busy learners easily curate structured learning experiences using digital content.
As part of a 2-person design team, my objectives were to:
Develop an MVP prototype from research to high-fidelity design
Manage the project, guiding the co-founders and my fellow UX/UI designer through the design process
Research and refine the product value proposition
Solution
As the UX/UI design lead, I created the project plan and led an end-to-end design process to create an interactive MVP prototype that could be used for investor presentations.
This included primary and competitor research, two ideation workshops with the company co-founders, and two rounds of usability testing from wireframes to high-fidelity.
Final Designs
No more boring links. Create and save content as visual “cards” that you can tag, write notes on, and organize.
Organize your cards into “stacks” that can be added to your learning lineup for future reference.
Expand your knowledge by discovering and subscribing to content stacks created by thought leaders.
Use your learning lineup to review bite-sized content from your stacks to keep your knowledge fresh!
Process
Discover | COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
We found few direct competitors but many opportunities to combine existing features
We focused our competitor research on different B2C and B2B apps that used creative ways to enable knowledge gathering and creation.
Key takeaways:
Take advantage of spaced repetition to keep fresh and up-to-date
Create a system that allows users to link knowledge elements to each other as part of a cohesive learning set
Provide users with structured ways to customize and organize the knowledge they aggregate for easy reference
Discover | INTERVIEWS
We conducted research on young professionals to understand how they learn
We conducted 8 semi- structured interviews with target users and a survey (n=16) to understand how people gain and apply knowledge.
User demographics:
Tech-savvy working professionals in their 20s-30s
Interested in learning a range of things and applying what they’ve learned
Key Research Q’s:
1. Where & how do people find and organize new ideas?
2. What process do people undergo to learn for the sake of knowledge?
3. What process do people undergo to learn for the sake of action?
4. How do people share that knowledge with others?
Snippets from the interviews:
“When someone else isn’t course planning for you, you have to do it on top of what you’re already doing. If I'm not in school and don’t have the structure of formal class, [learning] can be difficult.”
— Participant 1
“Not all the information out there is useful. It might not be explained in the right way, or writer isn’t the best teacher…It’s hard for me to know what’s real or actually helpful vs. just an opinion.
— Participant 2
“Being able to…keep things I’ve learned all in one place instead of separate places. Sometimes I’m reading a Kindle vs. a physical book, sometimes it’s a library book vs. a book I buy.”
— Participant 3
Define | AFFINITY MAPPING
We discovered that it’s time-consuming to collect knowledge and even harder to “do” something with it
Top Insights:
Individuals want an easier way to aggregate and catalog information that they find from various sources.
People might not consider certain forms of content “learning” (e.g., entertaining videos on Youtube, poetry, etc.).
Individuals need to do a lot of work to figure out the content they trust, but afterwards, they’re loyal to the content creator and source.
Having users understand both potential positive and negative consequences can be useful to provoke action.
Define | PERSONAS
Oscar: the organized, active, and intentional “lifelong learner” who constantly seeks ways to gain knowledge and enhance their learning.
Carol: the “casual but curious” content consumer who prioritizes easy consumption and spontaneity in their learning journey.
Given our limited time frame and overall product vision, we decided to focus on the Oscar persona for the MVP.
From our research, two main user personas emerged: Organized Oscar & Casual Carol
…make it more enjoyable for self-initiated learners to find and curate high-quality content?
How Might We…
…make it easier for self-initiated learners to apply what they’re learning using context-specific strategies?
Develop | IDEATION WORKSHOPS
I led two ideation workshops with the co-founders to brainstorm and prioritize solutions
We invited the company’s two co-founders and two interviewees to join us in reviewing research findings and collaboratively brainstorming solutions via Crazy 8’s.
After voting on the best ideas, I guided the group through a prioritization exercise (Impact vs. Effort matrix) and determine which MVP features to move forward with.
Prioritized flows:
User can save digital content in a visual library via links/text
Users can curate content into “stacks” for easier reference
Users can go through a “learning lineup” to learn content via spaced repetition
Users can subscribe to stacks created by thought leaders
Design | PROTOTYPING & TESTING
Over 2 testing rounds, we refined the app’s UX, visual language, and value proposition
We conducted 2 rounds of usability tests on our wireframes (n=5) and high-fidelity prototypes (n=5) to assess the usability and value proposition of the app.
In doing so, we refined the interactions for creating “cards” vs. “stacks” as visual units of content and updated the “learning lineup” to be more streamlined. We also decided to design the “Discover” feature to emphasize the value proposition of finding high-quality content from trusted experts.
Given our client’s preference on having a “simple, light, and clean” visual direction with a touch of joy, we designed the app’s color palette and UI elements to be minimalist and bright.
Flow 1: Create a “card” from digital content
Flow 2: Create a “stack” from cards in your library
Flow 3: Complete a personalized learning lineup
Flow 4 (added after Test 2): Discover other creators’ “stacks”
Final Interactive Prototype
Big Takeaways:
Competitor research never ends
Given that this was a new problem space with many potential competitors, it was essential to keep in mind what other apps were doing and update existing ideas if needed, all while focusing on the core features.
Clarify the problem, not the solution you’re trying to build
While the client already had a vision of what they wanted to build, we had to help them understand the problem from the users’ perspectives first before we could design.
Consider familiar UI patterns
Users expect certain layouts based on their experiences with other products, both analog and digital. With an app that’s trying to combine both (i.e., digital “cards” and “stacks”), drawing inspiration from the analog can help transform the digital.
Next Steps:
1) Conduct more high-fidelity testing (including A/B)
Conduct usability tests to identify that previous issues were resolved, and A/B tests for elements that received contradictory feedback
2) Conduct additional market research on customer segments
Explore options for a B2C focus (targeting the Oscar persona) or a B2B (targeting employees in an onboarding process
3) Refine the app features’ value proposition
Investigate the of increasing the product’s value proposition by including content from well-known creators