the challenge
Create a math app for students ages 7+ that improves mental math capabilities, is fun and personalizes the math experience.
impact
Pair Wit helps as a supplementary tool because students are allowed to learn harder concepts easier by working on the basics. Students who enjoy PvP and RPG video games will be able to test their skills amongst friends while having the system identify and strengthen problem areas.
The product
Pair Wit, supported by empathy, user research, user journey mapping, low-high fidelity wireframing, prototyping and educational research.
Setting up the sprint
Given 4 weeks to tackle the project, I chose these 4 phases to split my workload. As I kept working, some steps bled into each other but this guide helped to accountable for my process, knowing I had a deadline not far off.
RESEARCH
I started by focusing on gathering insights from the people around me. I originally started with the idea that I wanted to make the app strictly for children who did not learn from the traditional education systems. I based my questions and research process on that while keeping track of any new developments along the way.
class interviews
I started my approaching those within my classroom to find out where they had the most difficulties in math when growing up and why.
student interviews
After my initial phase of gathering from people around me, I had to hear from my target audience themselves. Luckily, I had to chance to ask the kids of an old employer where they had the most difficulty in math. A bonus is that I helped with teaching them math and know they prefer gaming to math homework.
teachers & tutor INterviews
With an idea of what pain problems my target audience has with math, I looked into methodology of teaching to make it understandable. Having the teachers & tutors articulate how to solve problems aided in getting my project moving.
parent interviews
My last touch point of my initial researching phase. Parents were able to articulate new ways that they got their children to be more involved in learning.
Key Insights:
- Basic math is a skill that is continuously used
- Repetition is the key to sharpening math skills
- Having strong fundamentals on addition and multiplication help with understanding subtraction and division
- Students respond better to educational tools that are fun and relative to their interests.
Personas
The personas became a way of understanding how to solve my problems. They offered a way of being easier to empathize with my potential users.
inspirational teaching philosophy
After having a better understanding of who I was making my material for, I had to really figure out what the best teaching methods to use. Based on my initial stage of research, I started exploring different methods and came across Sugata Mitra's philosophies of self learning in younger student.
Main Competitive Analysis
During my time spent analyzing people making changes in this space, I found these three particularly useful in how they get students to learn.
User Flows
My user flow evolved throughout my work process as I continued doing testing but I had given myself a starting point to base my initial stages of my design.
The Lowest of Low Fidelity
By labeling my wireframes with a number system (ie. 3a(i)) I could easily re-organize my testing when going from person to person while testing variations.
Wireframing
I used the wireframes as a starting point for my high fidelity. I did not have to spend a lot of time in this section but it was good to have down so that I could go into my branding phase and then plug and play when I did my high fidelity.
Branding
voice & tone
- Fun but not wacky
- Informal but not infantalizing
- Helpful but not snotty
- Weird but not inappropriate
- Confident but not arrogant
- Instructional but not monotone
first Round MASCOT discovery
With the concept of machine learning, I started researching animals that are used in the educational field.
choosing the right mascot
The parrot became a metaphor for machine learning because of their ability to imitate human language. They also inspired the name "Pair Wit" because it is a play on the word parrot and going with the core concept of pairing the user and the machine learning together. The vibrant colours also helped to inspire my colour palette.
high fidelity
Based on the testing and research, the first iteration focused on getting the logistics and applying the branding.
change of execution
Following my initial presentation there were problem areas that stood out from feedback. These included:
- Users inability to recognize mascot
- No inherent replay value or incentive to play
- Too many question formats for math that is meant to be quick
- Lacking the "feel" of being a video game
Post presentation pivot
I took the the time to go back and make sure that my core methods remained, while adding replay values and a way for the app to make money. Here is the result of my labour.
FEEDBACK LEading to current iteration
After testing with versions 3 and 4, I had come to make changes for my final prototyped version of my application:
- Choosing one style of design system instead of customizing; this would increase customer's trust in the app.
- Call to actions were not clear.
- Difficulty in where the overall hierarchy of the page is.
current iteration
For the current iteraton, I have made changes which can be seen in the PROTOTYPE (linked below).
At this point, I have reached out two fellow Bitmaker alumnus, that took the full-stack development course, to begin building a web app. This way I can have a more robust testing phase to see exactly how my design can solve the problem of increasing mental math skills within my target audience of 7+ students.
final thoughts
The project was a great way for me to start to fine tune my process as a designer. Principles that I will continue using are to always seek feedback, always be ready to reiterate, make a sprint plan and rely on my ability to put it all together. I am still growing as a designer and know the work is never done but it can be deliverable.