Engageli Remote Learning Platform

Problem Statement

How can we make remote learning more engaging?

User Research & Interface Design for Educational Technology & Remote Learning

Competitive analysis, heuristic review, task analysis, survey, user personas, wireframing

Role
UX Researcher & Designer

Year
2021

What is Engageli?

Created during quarantine for the first wave of COVID-19, Engageli is a digital learning platform that aims to improve the remote learning experience. Engageli provides higher education institutions with an innovative learning model that capitalizes on already-existing tools and monitors student engagement in real time. 

Problem Framing & Scope

Problem

Engageli is a new platform and is trying to define their space in remote learning. Our team, Humanli, worked to identify room for improvement in the interface and what functions are seen as most valuable by users. 

Scope

In our exploration, Humanli evaluated the Enageli platform with a variety of research methods to provide recommendations for product improvements. We wanted to identify wins, pain points, and opportunities to make the platform satisfactory, intuitive, and efficient. 

Initial Team Challenges

Our Team faced two major challenges as we set off to improve Engageli:

  1. Time Zones - Most of our team was in East coast time, but one member was in Asia, so scheduling made it challenging to collaborate as much as we might have liked. 

  2. Limited Time Constraints - Our work on this project lasted only a few weeks, so we were not able to be as thorough as we might have been with more time. This would have greatly benefited us in the design stage of our project, as we were only able to create low-fidelity wireframes. 

What problem are we trying to solve? For who?

Learning Our Users’ Needs

In order to understand our users, we engaged in a series of research methods:

Literature Review

We conducted initial research to better understand the problem space, specifically what were the most important parts of in-person learning that we would need to translate to a virtual learning experience:

  • The level of challenge of the course

  • Amount of active collaboration

  • Student faculty interaction

  • Supportive environment

  • Enriching experience

Survey

We surveyed both educators and students via Qualtrics to understand how students (8) and educators (10) were already using online platforms. Some top findings included:

  • Most users used Zoom

  • Teachers want more engagement in their classes, which they currently notice more in smaller classes

  • Students perceive their peers’ participation as below medium

  • Break out rooms and screen share had mixed reviews with users noting both likes and dislikes for both as ways to engage with others

Competitive Analysis

Through our competitive analysis, we sought to understand Engageli’s features in comparison to other online platforms.The level of challenge of the course.

Behavioral & Cognitive Task Analysis

We examined how people used Engageli when they had no previous experience using the platform. Through task analysis, we were able to identify specific areas where users struggled, such as screen sharing, pinning a window, and more. 

Heuristic Evaluation

We used Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics to review the Engageli interface and identify user pain points.

Who are the users and what do they need?

User Personas & Defining Requirements

User Personas

Techie Tina

A Tech Savy Teacher

Honest Hal

A Seasoned Teacher Learning Remote Platforms

Darling Daisy

An Empathetic Student

Defining Needs & Requirements

User Needs

  1. User needs to conclude or stop class when they want

  2. User needs to access multiple features to lead effective and engaging classes

  3. User needs to be able to get real-time feedback from students

  4. User needs to manage screen and class while sharing their screen

  5. User needs to troubleshoot and manage breakout rooms

  6. User needs to quickly and easily assign breakout rooms

User Requirements

  1. Interface must have visible, easy to access “End Class” action

  2. Interface must have intuitive features that are easy to access

  3. Interface must allow user to see and encourage questions, comments, etc.

  4. Interface must have visibility of screen and students when screen is shared

  5. Interface should have visibility of students in breakout rooms without user joining

  6. Interface should allow assignment to breakout rooms by parameters or randomly

Initial Low-Fidelity Wireframe

What did we do right? What could we do better?

Usability Tests & Takeaways

Usability Tests

We conducted 6 remote usability tests with our Figma wireframes, where we asked users to complete several tasks, such as sharing their screen, toggling between table and gallery view, using the chat to answer or send questions, join a table, play a video, pin a window, and end the class.

Key Findings

  1. Confusion around galleries and tables

  2. Confusion around timer function

  3. Trouble understanding where and how to pin a window

  4. Confusion around engagement and happiness metrics

Takeaways

Design Recommendations

  1. Remove menu option next to galleries so toggling is more intuitive

  2. Label timer and make it more salient

  3. Make window options bigger and include tutorial of how to use functions prior to use

  4. Use more distinct measurements for engagement and more intuitive icons for happiness

Final Designs

Table View Redesigned

Gallery View Redesigned

Details & Iconography

Concluding Thoughts

With our design recommendations, Engageli could make their interface easier to use, more engaging, and more efficient for students and teachers. In hindsight, most of their usability issues that we identified came from the likelihood that users would be familiar with other remote learning platforms, such as Zoom, which used different iconography and colors. Because Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet are more generic, they also have simpler interfaces, since less functionality (like tables and timers) is needed up front.

Looking Back: Room for Improvement

My biggest regret for this project is that we were not bolder with our designs decisions. We stayed true to Engageli’s interface, and it would have been nice to think more outside of the box and adjust more of the interface. In hindsight, we really limited ourselves to the top toolbar, and I wish that we had thought about other ways to use the screen.