Kikori harnesses an online community-driven platform to link educators with social-emotional learning (eSEL) activities and resources, empowering them to cultivate emotional and interpersonal skills in their students adeptly. I learned how to navigate a client relationship where the client's strong vision conflicted with research findings. It was a great learning experience, teaching me the art of adaptability and ensuring we delivered what the client wanted, even when it diverged from our research findings.
Client:
Kikori (SEL)
Role:
UX Consultant
Year:
2023
Discovering The Problem
Our team of three (UX Designer and Project Manager) was responsible for creating an intuitive solution for educators to easily locate, view, search, share, schedule, and complete activities. We captured data for the educator dashboard with streaks, badges, and optional notetaking.
Project Duration: 16 weeks
As a UX Consultant, my responsibilities for this project are the following:
Organize User Research and interview sessions
Conduct Usability Testing
Perform a Heuristics Evaluation
Sketching, Wireframe & Prototyping
Design the "chosen activities page and survey page"
Discovering the Problem
In the discover phase, we invested significant time in understanding educators' experiences and needs through in-depth interviews and platform observations.
Our research objectives were to uncover the following:
How do we encourage educators to provide feedback on their chosen activity and share their results?
Are educators able to navigate the current Kikori platform with ease to access eSEL activities?
Build rapport by understanding users' needs and expectations when engaging on the Kikori platform.
Understanding the Problem
Through in-depth qualitative research and interviewing 6 educators, I uncovered the following critical pain points educators experienced using Kikori's platform to access eSEL activities:
There are 2 types of users on Kikori's platform
User 1: Prints out Kikori's activities calendar from the weekly Kikori emails received in their inbox, without using the mobile or web app.
User 2: Educators use Kikori's web app, printing/downloading the activity of their choice, and logging off
Research findings
Based on qualitative research insights, I understood educators often faced time constraints when using the Kikori platform. They required a fast, user-friendly method to access eSEL activities in 5 minutes or less and be on their way.
In the user interviews, educators also made it clear that they didn't need badges as an incentive to continue using the Kikori web app
I collaborated with my team to synthesize user interview insights into personas and user journey maps for Kikori's 2 distinct user types. Additionally, facilitated an affinity mapping session to identify educators' main pain points, frustrations, motivations, and needs with my team members.
Using these insights, I created a user task flow and sketches depicting educators' interactions with Kikori's platform. Ideating in this design stage.
Design Direction
Our research led our design in the direction of:
Simplify the user experience and significantly reduce the cognitive load on educators using Kikori's platform.
Provide educators an easy way to click/or tap the completed activities button and fill out a survey
Kikori can receive feedback on which activities meet educators' needs and improve their services.
Implementing intuitive navigation and a streamlined activity library to educators who voiced their need for stronger customization options to modify activities and match them to their particular learning environments
In response to our team's synthesized research, Kikori's leaders developed badges and incentive features to enhance platform engagement and retention
Wireframes, Prototyping, Usability Testing
To boost user engagement, I collaborated with my team to create low- and mid-fidelity wireframes for the Kikori web app. I conducted usability testing with 5 users to evaluate if this design was the optimal solution.
I also conducted a heuristics evaluation and an accessibility review of the Kikori web app, iterated the designs throughout these stages, and tested them with users. Observing how educators can navigate the prototype, access the features, and listen to their pain points.
Design Solution
Based on our user feedback, I streamlined the "selected activities page" design by reducing cognitive load and incorporating user-friendly tabs.
A rating system enables educators to rate individual activities, providing Kikori with valuable feedback to continually improve its offerings and ensure a seamless user experience.
Results
Following the completion of our final designs, I worked collaboratively with my team to initiate the developer handoff.
The feedback we received from Kikori executives indicates that our designs will serve as the foundational blueprint for the business to begin implementing badges into its platform.
Kikori Redesign
Although the project had many constraints, I would have designed Kikori's platform this way to meet both user needs and the CEO's business objectives, with a focus on increasing user engagement:
Progress Tracking: Provide educators with the option to track their classroom's monthly progress based on school district requirements.
Calendar Syncing: Integrate calendar syncing to help educators stay organized.
Slack Community: Create a Slack community for educators to collaborate, share ideas, and support each other.
Professional Growth Resources: Offer workshops and yearly events to help educators grow in their profession and stay updated on best practices.
Takeaways
Involve clients early in the research phase to share insights and key findings, building trust.
This helps allow the client to understand the potential design they desire to implement into their product/services may not solve the underlying problem in their business model
Iteration does not end after Usability Testing. Iterating on the designs can come after testing with multiple users to determine if the design solutions are meeting their needs along with the business goals.
Project Restrictions/ Accessibility: If there were fewer constraints, I would have designed a user-friendly platform for educators, with easy navigation and calendar/activity syncing, while ensuring accessibility and UX standards were met.