Role: UX, UI
Overview
*Recall is a student memorization app designed for educators, counselors, and other academic professionals. With Recall, teachers can effortlessly connect names to faces in record time through an engaging array of features, including interactive quizzes, a dynamic name generator, and a convenient seating chart maker. Say goodbye to the struggles of memorization and hello to a streamlined and enjoyable experience with Recall!
*Note: This project is based on a fictional brand.
Problem
Every school year, educators encounter the daunting task of memorizing names for a significant number of students. As a designer, I rose to the challenge and crafted an experience to assist educators in effortlessly connecting faces to names, with the goal of expediting the attainment of unwavering accuracy without relying on external aids.
Solution
I revolutionized the classroom landscape by introducing an innovative app that empowers teachers to forge deeper and more meaningful connections with their students. By leveraging technology, this app equips educators with powerful tools to foster a dynamic and engaging learning environment and facilitating stronger teacher-student relationships.
Why
With children going back to school, especially in mask, it can be hard for teachers to remember their students names. It’s already tough remembering students names especially when they just built relationships with students from last year. It’s easy to forget about learning new names until you’re confronted with the problem directly.
How I got started
Brainstorming
I first started brainstorming, drawing upon my own assumptions and reflections from my school days. I wanted to get my assumptions out and early so that I can later validate them through research. Inspired by my personal experiences, I generated a few ideas, including:
Seating arrangements with names of students
Name cards on desk
Notes section within attendance sheet
Discovery
I delved into the problem by seeking insights from online communities such as Reddit and Quora. I wanted a better understanding on how other teachers remember putting faces to the name of their students. Through exploration of teachers' advice to their peers, I gleaned learned some common solutions for this problem were:
Name Tents or cards on desk
Annotate class roster
Seating Chart
Nicknames
Attendance sheet with pictures
Leveraging these findings, I curated a selection of the most popular and effective solutions that could be seamlessly integrated into the app I was designing. This data-driven approach, though unconventional, provided a solid foundation for my design decisions, ensuring that the final product was rooted in real-world teacher experiences and needs.
Meet, Lucy!
User Goals
Learn students names and call on them without referring to their attendance sheet in less than two months
Pain Points
Over 100 students
Short Classes 1 to 2 hours
Doesn’t have a database with student photos
Needs to print roster
With COVID, students wear masks so it’s possible that they can’t see their students' faces and really connect the name to the face as quickly as before.
Designing
Hypothesis
I thought a tool that allows teachers to organize classes, names, and modernize common solutions for name memorization through an app will make learning names fast and easy to learn and more attainable for busy teachers.
Business Opportunities
This app would be the perfect tool to accompany and integrate within existing teacher classroom management apps. Existing classroom apps mostly focus on student behavior, maintaining an online grade-book, and quizzing to name a few. Creating Re-calls features into an existing app can ignite new interest and modernize the classroom that's already being pushed to the digital world.
New Tech | Community | Connection |
Create interest in new ways to build a better classroom | Build a sense of belonging amongst students | Build a sense of belonging amongst students |
The Final Designs
Below are some of the moments I feel would be important based on research. Further research and testing would likely uncover new solutions.
Classroom Variety
To cater to the different class sizes teachers have the option to copy and paste their
roster, enter names manually, or for larger classes, have students use their personal device to be added to the class roster.
Maximization of Personalization
Using features such as pronunciation, nickname, notes,
and tag words lets users create the best frame of reference to their students. Allowing students to share something about themselves through various prompts further lets teachers resonate with their students.
Shuffle It Up
From the research, I learned some teachers like to
call on their students names. To modernize random name calling, Teachers can use the Name Generator tool to quickly call on a student. The generator helps teachers pick both new and old faces, even the ones wearing mask.
Seating Arrangements
Since teachers refer to seating charts to remember their students, a custom seating chart in the app was the solution. I created a drag and drop seating chart marker which allows the teachers to take each students profile and arrange them into groups or rows or however they like to best place the class.
Takeaways
When thinking about applying this to the real world, several things I would test are:
How can we validate that users like/want this add-on to their existing classroom management apps?
Assuming there’s a need for this, How many teachers can remember their entire class without needing to look at the roster?
How long does it take for teachers to memorize the entire class?
How does this compare with using traditional methods?
Does the size of class have an affect on how fast names are remembered?
Future Use Cases
Right now the concept is focused on helping teachers. I focused on the core functionality of the app but with some iteration and more research some other roles I thought of for this app are:
Accessibility
Creating a website version of the app for teachers who don’t have or use smart phones. How might an app like this be created for a website or offline version for teachers who aren’t tech savy and/ or don’t have or use smart phones?
New Markets
How might this app be useful to other types of professionals (Mentors, Coaches, Assistants, etc.)?
Conclusion
Though it feels like the world is going digital, I challenged myself to think outside the digital product space. The project I created gives myself a good base to progress to the usability and feedback stage.
I allowed my curiosity and self motivation to help me better my craft. My two design projects t have taught me about the value of user needs, research, and fine tuning the details that will be applied to my future projects.