When making the User Flow, I started by evaluating the needs of my user by looking at the User Journey Map. I tried to put myself in the shoes of a middle school student and see the learning platform from their perspective. I then developed a hierarchy of levels, starting with the log in screen. I then thought about the student needing a home base within the platform, so I developed a Student Dashboard. From here the student can access all areas of the learning platform, but to keep it streamlined, there are 8 categories (Octo). I broke each main section down into actions that the student can take from that page. The second main page for a student will be the Classroom. From here the student will be "locked in" during class, but will also have access to all they need within the platform for class, again in 8 categories. After my User Testing session I discovered a few navigational concerns as well as naming concerns. I addressed these issues and edited my User flow. This week I looked at it again and added 2 additional categories to the classroom (to total 8). I realized that the User Flow is all about organization and ease of access. The user needs to intuitively understand how to navigate and there should be as little possibility fr confusion or user error as possible. In the case of middle school users, they already have enough to worry about dealing with learning curriculum, their learning platform should be streamlined and easy to use. This week I also continued to refine my logo and word marks. I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate the logo into the word mark and have the octopus interact with the letter forms. I will continue to work on it in the coming week.
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This week I held my user testing session with a parent and two middle school students. While the parent falls outside my user range, I decided to still get feedback from her to round out my data. I thought it would be interesting to get a perspective from someone who is familiar with learning platforms from the parent perspective, knowing the challenges that her child has had. The students both come from different learning models. One student is 100% online, the other was hybrid (50% online/%50 in person) for half the year and has since switched to 100% in person. All students use online learning platforms in our district, whether they are in person or virtual. When introducing each user to the platform I explained how to read the User Flow and what each color meant within the page hierarchy. I walked the students through logging in and landing on the student dashboard. I then gave them scenarios and asked them to navigate to certain pages (ie. missing work, teacher board, email, class video session, etc.) I received the following feedback: • Workspace to Email: How do you get there during class? • Add Agenda link from Class • Add Email link from Class • Options to toggle back and forth between pages • Naming: Notebook & Agenda could be confused as one another • Rename Chat (Messenger?) • Add Missing Work to To-Do • Everything is easy to find and well organized. "Seems easy to use." From the feedback I updated some parts of the user flow and will be brainstorming how to solve some of the navigational issues. This week I also worked out several more logo comps and came up with a design that I am very excited about. I also narrowed down my color palette to an ocean theme and created a rough of my Visual System One-Sheet. I finially feel like I am heading in the right direction! This week I started out by making a computer comp of the User Flow. I had already included top level pages as well and secondary and tertiary. I added new user pages as well as forgot password and reset password pages. Forgotten passwords are common among middle school students. After completing the user flow I decided to update my mood boards and spend some time exploring color. From my new and existing pulls, I explored some color pallet options. I created a color swatch for 3 combinations that I found interesting. I used these to apply color to my logo comps. Using the advice from last weeks critique, I explored computer comps for some of the more geometric and abstracted octopus designs. From there I played with fonts, size, layering, and letterforms. I came up with several versions of each and applied color. I really do not like the 3rd iteration at all, however I continued with explorations just to see if it had and possible successful iterations. I do not feel it did. I also decided to sketch out an idea for "Ed" the octopus as a possible program mascot. I will draw a few more iterations early this coming week and try some computer comps as well. This week I created the user flow for my middle school virtual learning platform. I started off looking at the functionality of various learning platforms and websites to get an idea how they are set up and what works and doesn't work for each screen. I then pulled out the User Journey Map that I created last week for my persona "Makayla". Makayla is the primary user of the platform because she is a middle school student learning virtually. I looked at what actions she was taking to access her classes and in what order. I felt it was important for the student dashboard to be the main hub where everything could be accessed. The other pages that would have to contain a lot are the virtual classrooms and the notebooks. I think that the most interesting thing that I learned through this process is that there is a lot more functionality than you think in each page. Even a page that seems "simple" can contain pathways and links to other pages. Also, I came to realize that there will be several iterations before I get this just right. This week I also spend a lot of time thinking about what name to chose. I also drew more sketches and tight sketches before going into illustrator to create computer comps. I found that there are a lot of colors to chose from in my mood boards that I could potentially use in my visual system. I plan on spending more time narrowing these colors down this week. This week I took the user journey map and I made it digital. I was considering adding drawings to the map, however, most of what the student is doing is on the screen and she would be sitting at a desk the entire time. So I just created a cleaner version on the computer. I think I will also make a teacher user map to go with the student version. I also worked on my names and logos. I thought a lot about more name options but was coming up blank. I decided to revisit some of the ideas from last week. I chose to explore Octoconnect/ Octolink. I like the idea of a company mascot. I also like the idea of creating something fun that interacts on the learning platform. While I do not want to make it too childish, I think it should still be fun. I chose an octopus because they are intelligent and with their many arms, can multitask. I want to continue to work on drawings and digital renditions. What I have this week is very rough. For the User Journey Map, I decided to start with my primary user: the middle school student. This is a student who is accessing the learning platform from home and interacting with teachers, peers, and the classroom. I was initially going to map out an entire school day but decided to narrow it down to one class interaction. I wanted her to have a streamlined experience that didn't leave her with surprises, stress, or worry. The platform needs to be well organized and easy to access. Thinking about it from her perspective allowed me to visualize a desktop that would have all the tools she needs at her fingertips. I also was able to walk, step by step through her experience and have a better understanding of what she might look for or expect. I actually came up with some design ideas and insights as I was writing out her steps and what I thought she might need or expect. It was eye-opening because I always seem to look at it through a teacher lens. So while I will also be designing the teacher side, I think the student perspective needs to come first, because 1st and foremost I want to design an experience that makes virtual learning more accessible and understandable for middle school learners. 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Andrea Tscheschlog
MFA Graphic Design Student at Academy of Art University of San Francisco (on-line) Archives
May 2022
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