Collabor8 Thinkspace
Evaluate and understand the minimum viable product for a market first release hybrid learning tool
TIMELINE
Jul - Sep 2021
PLATFORM
Desktop / Ipad
TEAM
10 UX/UI Designers including me
Project Overview
About Collabor8
Collabor8 Thinkspace is a EdTech start-up formed in early 2021, their mission is to raise the collective intelligence and performance of teams by reengineering the process flow of meetings to give everyone equal opportunities to contribute.
The objective
Collabor8 required an in-depth exploration into the virtual-learning user space, the current tools, needs, issues and pain points. They wanted to identify the minimum viable features for a first-concept virtual-learning tool.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions have had to find tools to adapt in a hybrid learning environment and Collabor8 were looking to develop a solution that addressed that.
Their ideal outcome was a working prototype focused on two core features that was validated by testing and ready to move into development phases.
The team
We worked remotely in two teams of five, located between Brisbane, Adelaide Sydney and Melbourne using an Agile approach. We performed our discovery phases separately and shared our research. We merged our teams in the define phase to work on solutions.
As a highly collaborative team project, each team member contributed across all stages of the project with roles for heading each process designated to suit our strengths. We used collaborative online tools such as Canva, Miro, Google Docs, Slack and Figma.
How did we get the final-solution?
DISCOVERY PHASE
Understand market and target audience
Competitor Analysis
To gain insights into the virtual education space, several competitors and their services were analysed. These included collaborative learning tools, digital whiteboards, brainstorming tools and virtual meeting platforms. Some of competitors were:
Slido's live polling feature allowed facilitators to view results in real time
Miro's whiteboard allowed for brainstorming and ideation and was fairly popular in both the education and corporate space
Canvas(LMS): an existing LMS with zoom integration, live lectures via integrated application and storage within LMS
Kahoot: ability to create gamified learning activities
Google Jamboard served the same purpose as Miro but had the advantage of Google Meet Integration
Microsoft Teams featured live document sharing, note-taking and assignment tracking
We developed a clear understanding of existing tools and the features which could be developed within Collabor8's new learning tool.
Gaps in the market that stood out which would provide Collabor8 opportunities for a point of difference were:
Built-in agenda management
Live discussion boards utilising AI to group answers and enable voting
Participation analytics to track student involvement
Polling and feedback that relied on opinions rather than multiple choice questions
User Survey
We created a combined survey for both facilitators and students on Google Forms. There were 9 facilitators and 3 students participated in the survey. Based on the participant's role selected, survey form diverts the participant to the relevant section. The insights we gained from our competitor analysis were reflected in creating the survey. Some of the competitor analysis insights backed up for survery were:
current collaborating tools being used in the market and
other liked features that were mentioned in the Product Reviews by users
User Interview
2 students, 8 facilitators/learning designers from various institutions were interviewed. To prepare interview questionnaire, we came up with 10-15 questions each and compiled relevant items during disucssions as a team. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we facilitated all the 35-45 minutes long interviews via Zoom. From these one-on-one interviews we learned:
how they adapted changes to online learning caused by the pandemic,
the tools that made this possible,
their struggles,
the features they looking for and the reasons.
Key takeaways from the interview:
There were too many tools to keep track of and switching between programs was frustrating
Student engagement, accountability and motivation were hard to track
Getting feedback from students was vital towards assessing their understanding
Most users wished for a program that encompassed all features
Students were likely to ask questions or participate in discussions under anonymity
The less tech savvy users struggled to adapt
Users believed that emulating a real classroom was the best strategy to increase engagement
DEFINE PHASE
What problems could we solve?
Synthesising and analysing all of the research data provided an opportunity to empathise with our user, gaining a comprehensive understanding of their needs, experiences and expectations. This helped us to create 2 personas for learning facilitators and learning designers.
Persona
Smith Edwards a learning facilitator, wants to ensure all his students receive the same level of learning since the transition to online has forced a change in the classroom environment
Timothy Graham, a learning designer who wants to create courses that encourage students to engage and empower them with confidence and knowledge.
I found that creating a journey map for learning designers would help me to get a clear picture where the problem arises and what are the steps they are taking to manage it. This allowed me to create a refined problem statement.
Journey Map
DEVELOP PHASE
How might we solve the problem?
Refined Problem Statement
Facilitators want a platform that effectively engages students involved in a hybrid learning classroom without reducing their quality of learning.
Brainwriting and crazy 8’s
An intensive crazy 8’s ideation session gave us up to 80 potential design solutions to our key How Might We Statements below.
How Might We:
Enable educators to engage with students in order to assess their understanding in a virtual environment?
Promote student accountability, motivation and engagement in a virtual learning environment?
Enable facilitators to effectively use their tools to provide quality learning experiences?
The minimum viable product
We used dot voting to discover our most valued solutions from the ideation session. Each feature was evaluated on the MVP matrix for value and level of difficulty. We had to consider if the features were suited to an integrated application or a standalone platform. Features that stood out were anonymous participation, document sharing across multiple rooms, polling and feedback.
The difficult features that required further research like AI assistance and interactive whiteboards could be considered in later phases of the product's development.
Building an all-encompassing platform did not seem feasible. Integrating our tool into an existing system like Zoom was the desirable option for live facilitation. We decided to design a back-end tool for management of agendas and activities as the backbone for the information supplied to the front-end integration on Zoom.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding conceptualised the experience for users of Collabor8.
The facilitator storyboard
The student storyboard
DELIVERY PHASE
What does the solution look like?
User Flow
Before design of the interface could begin it was important to understood the flow of the user journey. Mapping out step by step from the point a user begins interacting with the platform to having successfully facilitated or participated in a class using Collabor8.
Taking into consideration how a user(facilitator) interacts with the integration directly within the video platform, how the user(facilitator) could build out their agenda’s or activities outside of the video platform in preparation for class, and how users(students) interact with the integration within the video platform.
Sketching & Wireframes
Similar to the crazy8s ideation session, sketching out individual wireframes based on features and stages of the user flow delivered 10 versions of lo-fi design solutions, using dot voting the solutions or features most suited to achieving the MVP were consolidated.
Leading to a collection of "Screens we build" to guide our first iteration of wireframes developed within Figma.
Prototyping
The back-end platform for agenda creation consisted of a dashboard for easy creation and access to activities and agendas. We also factored in analytics and reporting access that would be introduced in later phases of development.
The detailed agenda screen enables multiple agenda items, speaker notes, activities and documents to be assigned to the agenda. The detailed activity screen allows customisable activity creation and assignment to existing agendas.
The Zoom integration design enables quick-loading and execution of agendas and activities. Rapid activity creation in a session is also possible. Lastly, a live audience assessment feature for the facilitators to gauge collective understanding through emoji feedback and comments.
Facilitator - setting up agenda and activity before class starts
The dashboard allows users to quickly access upcoming agendas and newly created activities. In addition, it also allows users to create agendas or activities with no more than a couple of clicks.
The agenda page gives facilitator the ability to scan crucial agenda details as well as create, access, edit and add more items to their existing agendas.
The agenda view/edit page lets users set agenda items, speaker notes, add or create activities and upload documents used in a session. Users are able to rearrange the order of the contents of their agendas. Users can assign agendas to subjects, modules and set a date to execute the agenda.
The activities page offers similar functions as the Agenda list page for Activities and also allows users to rapidly assign activities to agendas.
The activity view/edit page lets users create discussions, quizzes, polls and surveys. The activities also allow for multiple answer types and the addition of images or video similar to Google Forms. Users can assign the activities to an agenda from this page.
The activity assignment page is where users assign existing activities to existing agendas. They are able to assign multiple activities to multiple agendas simultaneously.
Facilitator - pushes the agenda and activities during the class
The dashboard lets facilitators add existing agendas and activities to a session. Facilitator can also rapidly create new activities mid-session and add it to the agenda in progress. The dashboard has a live assessment function to draw instant feedback from students.
The agendas list allows the facilitators to pick agendas and start a session. Multiple agenda selection is also allows the user to draw from multiple agendas. An expanded view was added in later iterations allowing for better readability.
The current agenda screen lets facilitators view the agenda in progress, they can access speaker notes, agenda items, publish activities and documents. Completed activities are highlighted green and those yet to be executed are highlighted yellow.
When a facilitator pushes for a live assessment they will see live responses on the right hand overlay. In later iterations Collabor8 can look into a method for displaying comments.
The facilitator has also have a option of creating a new activity during the class and include the activity in their current agenda.
Students receives the modules and activities during class
The student dashboard displays the agenda assigned to the session. Students can view agenda items, participate in activities and view shared documents.
The activities like live quizes help the facilitator to know the student level of understanding.
The activities like live discussions allow students to share views in a chat-box. They can expand discussion views to see more answers rather than scroll. They can vote on other answers if they agree or disagree.
When facilitators push the live assessment out to the session, students receive a pop-up overlay to respond and comment to elaborate if they choose.
Testing two iterations of our prototype with facilitators provided valuable insights into their experiences, expectations and perceptions. Overall their experience's were mostly positive with feedback on where we could improve our designs. Testing was conducted remotely via Zoom.
User testing
Pros
Users viewed the instant audience assessment feature as extremely useful
The integration design as part of the Zoom toolbar was well liked overall, with the subtle contrast in colour palette enough to draw user attention
User flow on both platforms was straightforward and easy to navigate
Users found the back-end to be intuitive and user friendly
Cons
Few users disliked/had difficulty in understanding the terminology used
The first iteration had readability issues when displaying large amounts of text within the side toolbar
A red colour used in previous iteration on interactive agenda items in the front-end triggered negative reactions
We took an idea and a concept and brought them into reality, using UX structures and processes we set out to understand, evaluate, design, and deliver a minimum viable product Collabor8 Thinkspace could bring to market. Through extensive team collaboration, in-depth research, intensive analysis and rounds of ideation we delivered a final product that went far beyond the expectations of the client, they expressed that they would be developing the product based on our designs and research. They also saw potential use-cases for the product within business consultancies as well as corporate and community workshops.
What did the client say?
“I am so impressed and grateful, I want to build your product to take it to market. It’s exciting and definitely does address the needs”
— Anna McDonald - Founder @ Collabor8 Thinkspace“It certainly takes it a lot further than hybrid learning, I would be interested to see it’s applications in consulting and workshops. Some of the ideas you have introduced are very malleable for that”
— Max Dumais - Founder @ Collabor8 ThinkspaceCONCLUSION
Final thoughts & takeaways
What I have learned from this project?
This project helped me gaining experience to work in groups. We had a lot of brain storming meetings where we shared thoughts from diffrent point of views. We also got a few dumb questions before reaching out the insight and we tested all ideas without rejecting any of them.
It was challenging for the group to come up with a decision in such a short time line to build an all-encompassing platform when evaluating the features on MVP matrix. To reduce the development cost and to introduce the product to the market in shorter time line, we suggested the Collabor8 to integrating our features into an existing system like Zoom was the desirable option for live facilitation.