Overview
A NSW-based education provider wanted to provide up-to-the-minute training solutions that address regulatory changes, rapid advancement in industry technologies and niche skill requirements for individuals and teams. However, before investing in a multimillion-dollar project, they wanted to validate their ideas and use lean design methodology.
PROCESS
Our process has been broken up into 5 main areas.
Outcomes
Through a collaborative effort, we were able to transform a basic concept into a fully-realized product. By generating over 50 ideas and utilizing group discussion and voting, we were able to narrow down our options and design a product with an optimum flow. Through prototyping and testing, we were able to validate our hypotheses and identify any usability issues or opportunities. This allowed us to create a well-documented and tested product that was ready for development, ensuring a successful outcome.
200 +
Initial Screens
50
Hi-fi Screens
9
Users Tested
1
Pixel Perfect Prototype
Understanding
Our first step to any project is understanding where to focus and what's important. Here at some steps during our Understanding phase.
Define
The project aimed to address the market shift towards smaller, skill-specific certificates as opposed to traditional degrees and diplomas. The client sought to develop a platform that could offer this capability and integrate with their existing offerings.
Scope
It was necessary for everyone to be on the same page about scope and deliverables so early stage alignment was key.
Immersion
In order to create a unified experience and platform we needed to immerse ourselves in everything that was our client.
Market Research
It was important that we became experts in the field of micro skilled education. We researched what ever information we could leverage to best understand this field.
Research
After we've understood the focus areas, we need to get stuck into the research. Here are some steps taken during our research phase.
Stakeholder Interviews
We conducted stakeholder interviews to gather insights and feedback from key individuals involved in the project. These interviews were crucial in helping us understand the needs, expectations, and pain points of our stakeholders, which in turn informed our design decisions. By listening to their perspectives and incorporating their feedback, we were able to create a more user-centered and effective solution that met the needs of all stakeholders involved
User Interviews
We gathered valuable insights and feedback from the end-users. In this particular case, we interviewed 6 current students of the education service provider to gain a better understanding of their needs, pain points, and expectations. By doing so, we were able to identify areas of improvement and tailor our service to better meet their needs. The insights gathered from the user interviews helped us to create a more user-centric design and improve the overall user experience.
Competitor Benchmarking
We conducted thorough research on the micro education market to determine who the key players were and what they were doing well. By analyzing the best practices of our competitors, we were able to identify elements that we wanted to replicate and adapt to our own strategy. This approach allowed us to stay ahead of the curve and deliver the best possible experience to our customers.
Mapping and Analysis
Making sense of all the research. This is where we collect and group our research and try make sense of it all so we know how best to design and build for the future.
Synthesise Findings
This is where we pieced together all of our findings from interviews, and establish the common threads among customers.
Create a journey map
This is where we created a comprehensive journey map of how a student currently experiences their offerings, and where the issues and opportunities are.
Workshopping
With all of our knowledge combined from research and interviews, we now brought all our heads (ours and our clients) together to brainstorm how we could best address these opportunity areas. The outcomes from this session were a batch of ideas that had been voted on and agreed upon by the wider team, leaving us in a great position to progress with our design sprints.
Understanding tomorrow
We've got the ideas, now it's time to piece them together. What does our ideal journey map of tomorrow look like? We have an idea of the ideal experience and now it's time to map it out.
Design Sprints
We've got an idea of what the research shows, we know what we need to be focusing on. Pixels ready?! Let's sprint!
aWe set up two design sprints across 2 weeks to design, test and iterate.
Design Sprint x 2
User-flows
The path a user takes to complete a specific task on a website or app. It outlines the steps a user takes, the decisions they make, and the actions they perform to achieve their goal. User flows help designers identify potential pain points and improve the user experience.
UI & Prototyping
The team created a tangible representation of their ideas. This involved building a prototype that can be tested and refined based on user feedback. We leaned on the existing UI design system this organisation already had in place, while aligning new elements with the existing style.
User Testing
We conducted user tests with 5 users per sprint to ensure that our product meets the needs of our target audience. By observing how users interact with our product, we can identify pain points and areas for improvement. This allows us to make data-driven decisions and create a better user experience.
Iterate
Based on the results, we iterated our designs and made refinements to enhance the user experience. This process allowed us to create a final product that meets the needs and expectations of our users.