Tutoring Platform KNOYO

SCAD collaborated with the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) to assist in the research and develop concepts for a student to student tutoring platform that incorporates UI/UX, branding, marketing and technical development of this new platform.

Team

UX & UI Designers, Design Manager, Developers

My Role

UX Researcher, Strategist & Designer

Opportunity Statement

How might we create an engaging, high performing tutoring platform that connects the society’s excelling members with students in need of help?

Research

For primary research, we conducted a survey targeting 4 user groups to learn about student, tutor, & parent needs and preferences.

4 User Groups & 500+ Responses:
1. Students (24.5%)
2. Mentors (57.5%)
3. Parents (2.5%)
4. Not-Interested (15.5%)

Market Analysis

We analyzed several other digital social tutoring platforms that bring people together to understand the kind of user needs they currently cater to on a scale of 1 to 5. After looking at the brandscape we did in-depth research on 8 of these platforms. The touchstones were selected from our design criteria model as the aim was to explore how other competitors fulfill the criteria that we aim to excel in. We use these research insights as we design our product, which is a tutoring platform, connecting students and mentors alike.

User Personas

We made personas based on our research insights which helped in focusing on the design solutions. The personas we built are an abstract representation of many people with similar characteristics.

Ideation

To make the most of our time, we divided into four groups to ideate and create four distinctly different brands to show the client. The four concepts had different brand archetypes and personalities-

Concept 1- Alfred
The first concept empowers students to explore endless learning realms. Each student is a geode as they enhance their learning and grow as a learner and build a network in their NSHSS community, they’re forming layers that crystallize into something wonderful to look back upon.

Concept 2- Thoughtfolk
The second concept is focused around curiosity, alleviating the anxieties of high school students, and shedding light on the college application process. It uses cool colors to create an immersive, meditative experience, and includes illustrations to bring a friendly human wink to the interface.

Concept 3- Edyna
The third concept is a combination of education and dynamic. This is a solution having a strong emphasis on the social/community aspect of school that students lose not being around others in the academic community. Through the use of friendly competition, it tackles student engagement in education.

Concept 4- Flourish
The last concept is a community platform that enhances interactivity between students, mentors and parents. It is also a safe place for users to plan new connections and move towards their future goals.

Develop

The next steps were to get together as a team and focus on the feedback from the client to create and finalize on one concept.

1. Figure out a catchy and intuitive brand name for the tutoring platform and check the trademark issue and URL availability.

2. Merge and integrate the highlighted features of our four concepts into initial features from the client.

3. Develop the brand guide.

4. Arrange user tests, build user flow and wireframes.

5. Build an integrated clickable prototype.

Naming Process

We began by all ideating separately and then coming together with hundreds of ideas. The names we were creating where in a different category than some of the ideas the client gave to us. To solve this we created a virtual co-creation session so everyone was on the same page about meanings and
styles of name.

The Survey

1. After the co-creation NSHSS chose 4 names: Knoyo, Giggy, Knowent, Learic.

2. We sent out a survey to high school student, college students and parents to get their feedback.

3. We asked which name they think best fits the brand and then which they personally like the best. The overall favourite was...

   knoyo

Mobile App User Tests

The user test is the first time we tried the clickable prototype with students and mentors interested in online tutoring. We asked them specific questions to find key insights about the current state of our product; we focused on the participant’s interaction with the screens, their emotions, frustrations, likes, and dislikes.

After we gathered all the information, we came together as a team to affinitize and find patterns that developed into key insights to continue the development into the final prototype.

User Interface

Student View