Socrative Student Redesign
Socrative Student Redesign
Socrative Student Redesign
In a 5-person team, we were working on redesigning the Socrative Student app with the integration of 5 distinct features to help bridge language inequalities for ESL students.
Background
Socrative Student
The Socrative Student app is a mobile and web-based tool designed for enhancing classroom engagement and assessment. It supports real-time feedback and a variety of question types such as multiple-choice and short answers, which helps students immediately understand material and identify areas for improvement. Accessible on various devices, Socrative allows teachers to create, manage, and analyze activities through a central dashboard, making it a valuable resource for dynamic and data-driven education in both classroom and remote settings.
My Role
Contributed to initial background research and collective affinity mapping
Defined and set up the design system/style guide
Designed the "Reflection Journal" feature, from idea conception to final prototype
Conducted several user testing sessions throughout the project, primarily testing the "Reflection Journal" feature
Initial Research Findings
Contextual Inquiry
For our initial contextual inquiry, we recruited 3 users in our target demographic (ESL college students) and asked them to test out the existing Socrative Student app using some common tasks. We asked them for suggestions on how to improve the app, though the lens of tackling language inequalities for students and learners. We also asked them for feedback on our own feature ideas. From their suggestions we refined our ideas until we decided on the five final features we eventually designed.
AFFINITY MAP
Background
Context
After doing our initial background research and interviews, we identified user goals that will allow student activists to create the type of change they want to see. These goals include being able to have a wider reach for spreading awareness, educating more individuals, and creating a safe space for engagement in activism.
Our objective was to create a stress-free product that seamlessly integrates into college life. Guided by user goals and observed practices, we explored design possibilities to empower student activists in creating meaningful change in the community.
My Role
Contributed to background research and planning
Drafted questions and took notes for 3 user interviews, and analyzed results from 20 respondents to a Qualtrics survey
Created the information architecture for the email-sending feature of our design
Sketched storyboard for the design concept
Sketched & prototyped the user interaction (touch & display) screens
Research Findings
Semi-structured Interviews
We interviewed 3 student activist leaders on Georgia Tech’s campus, which took about 30 minutes each. From these interviews, we conducted interpretation sessions. We then created an affinity map to organize our interview findings.
In our interviews, our goal was to gain a better understanding of how student activist leaders run their organizations as well as the problems facing student activism on campus. Some common questions included, “What is your definition of activism”, “How do people hear about your organization”, and “What problems does your organization face”.
AFFINITY MAP
Background
Context
After doing our initial background research and interviews, we identified user goals that will allow student activists to create the type of change they want to see. These goals include being able to have a wider reach for spreading awareness, educating more individuals, and creating a safe space for engagement in activism.
Our objective was to create a stress-free product that seamlessly integrates into college life. Guided by user goals and observed practices, we explored design possibilities to empower student activists in creating meaningful change in the community.
My Role
Contributed to background research and planning
Drafted questions and took notes for 3 user interviews, and analyzed results from 20 respondents to a Qualtrics survey
Created the information architecture for the email-sending feature of our design
Sketched storyboard for the design concept
Sketched & prototyped the user interaction (touch & display) screens
Research Findings
Semi-structured Interviews
We interviewed 3 student activist leaders on Georgia Tech’s campus, which took about 30 minutes each. From these interviews, we conducted interpretation sessions. We then created an affinity map to organize our interview findings.
In our interviews, our goal was to gain a better understanding of how student activist leaders run their organizations as well as the problems facing student activism on campus. Some common questions included, “What is your definition of activism”, “How do people hear about your organization”, and “What problems does your organization face”.
AFFINITY MAP
Problem
Based on our primary readings, contextual inquiry results and affinity diagramming, we have focused our redesign on helping to bridge language inequalities for students. We synthesized our findings to identify 5 major problems with the existing Socrative Student app.
Existing problems
Language
Socrative is entirely in English with no features or settings to supplement English learners.
Content
Socrative quizzes tend to rely on text heavy questions with little to no visual aids.
Interaction
Socrative offers limited flexibility in response formats.
User Interface
Socrative could benefit from a more visually appealing interface where available menu options that could enhance user experience stand out.
Community
Socrative currently has no community features and no way to help students feel like they belong in the learning environment
Target Demographic
We identified our target user demographic as English as a Second Language (ESL) college and graduate students, who are relatively profficeinty with technology and education applications. These students are pursuing education in a place where English is not their native language, and so are looking for resources and tools to help them navigate learning English more easily to help them with their studies.
Survey Findings
We conducted a Qualtrics survey which we sent to students across campus. The survey had three paths for participants: current activists at Georgia Tech, those previously involved but not currently, and students who have never been engaged in activism. We used the built-in Qualtrics analytics tools to interpret our findings.
Barriers to Participation: "Lack of time" ranked first, emphasizing the need for low-commitment activities
Obstacles in Student Activism: "Lack of time" was ranked first and "Fear of backlash" ranked second, emphasizing the need for a balanced and considerate design approach
Tech-Specific Participation Challenges: "Lack of time" was a key obstacle for activists not engaging at Tech, suggesting a focus on time commitment in design
Definitions of Activism: Varied definitions, with "Taking action" and "Making changes" as central themes
Motivations to Participate: Top motivations were "belief in cause," "past experience," and "internal desire," indicating intrinsic motivation as the primary driver
2 Task Analyses
Event Planning Process
To break down the event planning process, and identify key steps
Current organizational methods and explore opportunities for improvement
Student Activism Engagement on Liberal Arts Campuses
To dissect how students engage in activism on liberal arts campuses
Discovered multiple pathways, including raising awareness, finding supportive communities, and demonstrating initiative
Survey Findings
We conducted a Qualtrics survey which we sent to students across campus. The survey had three paths for participants: current activists at Georgia Tech, those previously involved but not currently, and students who have never been engaged in activism. We used the built-in Qualtrics analytics tools to interpret our findings.
Barriers to Participation: "Lack of time" ranked first, emphasizing the need for low-commitment activities
Obstacles in Student Activism: "Lack of time" was ranked first and "Fear of backlash" ranked second, emphasizing the need for a balanced and considerate design approach
Tech-Specific Participation Challenges: "Lack of time" was a key obstacle for activists not engaging at Tech, suggesting a focus on time commitment in design
Definitions of Activism: Varied definitions, with "Taking action" and "Making changes" as central themes
Motivations to Participate: Top motivations were "belief in cause," "past experience," and "internal desire," indicating intrinsic motivation as the primary driver
2 Task Analyses
Event Planning Process
To break down the event planning process, and identify key steps
Current organizational methods and explore opportunities for improvement
Student Activism Engagement on Liberal Arts Campuses
To dissect how students engage in activism on liberal arts campuses
Discovered multiple pathways, including raising awareness, finding supportive communities, and demonstrating initiative
USER PERSONA
App Improvement Features
From our initial research findings, user personas and synthesis of the existing problems on the Socrative Student app, we have identified 5 features to add to the app. Three of these features are tools to navigate and make the existing Student Quiz more accessible and intuitive, while the other two are new features for enhancing the overall user experience.
5 Features
Text-to-Speech
Question and Quiz Feedback
Visual Aids
Online Forum
Reflection Journal (the feature I designed)
Survey Findings
We conducted a Qualtrics survey which we sent to students across campus. The survey had three paths for participants: current activists at Georgia Tech, those previously involved but not currently, and students who have never been engaged in activism. We used the built-in Qualtrics analytics tools to interpret our findings.
Barriers to Participation: "Lack of time" ranked first, emphasizing the need for low-commitment activities
Obstacles in Student Activism: "Lack of time" was ranked first and "Fear of backlash" ranked second, emphasizing the need for a balanced and considerate design approach
Tech-Specific Participation Challenges: "Lack of time" was a key obstacle for activists not engaging at Tech, suggesting a focus on time commitment in design
Definitions of Activism: Varied definitions, with "Taking action" and "Making changes" as central themes
Motivations to Participate: Top motivations were "belief in cause," "past experience," and "internal desire," indicating intrinsic motivation as the primary driver
2 Task Analyses
Event Planning Process
To break down the event planning process, and identify key steps
Current organizational methods and explore opportunities for improvement
Student Activism Engagement on Liberal Arts Campuses
To dissect how students engage in activism on liberal arts campuses
Discovered multiple pathways, including raising awareness, finding supportive communities, and demonstrating initiative
Survey Findings
We conducted a Qualtrics survey which we sent to students across campus. The survey had three paths for participants: current activists at Georgia Tech, those previously involved but not currently, and students who have never been engaged in activism. We used the built-in Qualtrics analytics tools to interpret our findings.
Barriers to Participation: "Lack of time" ranked first, emphasizing the need for low-commitment activities
Obstacles in Student Activism: "Lack of time" was ranked first and "Fear of backlash" ranked second, emphasizing the need for a balanced and considerate design approach
Tech-Specific Participation Challenges: "Lack of time" was a key obstacle for activists not engaging at Tech, suggesting a focus on time commitment in design
Definitions of Activism: Varied definitions, with "Taking action" and "Making changes" as central themes
Motivations to Participate: Top motivations were "belief in cause," "past experience," and "internal desire," indicating intrinsic motivation as the primary driver
2 Task Analyses
Event Planning Process
To break down the event planning process, and identify key steps
Current organizational methods and explore opportunities for improvement
Student Activism Engagement on Liberal Arts Campuses
To dissect how students engage in activism on liberal arts campuses
Discovered multiple pathways, including raising awareness, finding supportive communities, and demonstrating initiative
Reflection Journal Design
Concept
The "Reflection Journal" is a feature where ESL students can reflect on their learning experiences, challenges, and insights. This could promote self-awareness and provide insights to educators about the diverse learning needs and preferences in their classrooms. Ideally, this feature would be prompted by completing an activity (e.g. quiz) within the Socrative Student app.
Why include a reflection journal for learning?
Engagement through Reflection
Provide personalized learning paths that cater to the individual learning styles of students, enhancing engagement (Diversity by Design: Female Students' Perception of a Spanish Language Learning Game)
The reflection journal allows students to express how their cultural background influences their learning process
Motivation Directed Learning
Students’ motivation directs what they do to learn. The reflection journal allows them to use metacognitive awareness, to understand their motivations for learning.
ESL students can digitally note down their thoughts on a class, and track their progress within a private space
Design Goals
The Reflection Journal has the following functions and goals. They informed the design and functionality of the prototypes.
Be a private space for students or can be shared with educators
A place for students can add/edit journal entries, look at past entries, filter entries by class or custom tags, and have the option to share with mentors
Allow students to add other elements to the entry besides text such as voice recordings (in any language), images, and emojis to express their feelings
Design Goals
The Reflection Journal has the following functions and goals. They informed the design and functionality of the prototypes.
Be a private space for students or can be shared with educators
A place for students can add/edit journal entries, look at past entries, filter entries by class or custom tags, and have the option to share with mentors
Allow students to add other elements to the entry besides text such as voice recordings (in any language), images, and emojis to express their feelings
Design Goals
The Reflection Journal has the following functions and goals. They informed the design and functionality of the prototypes.
Be a private space for students or can be shared with educators
A place for students can add/edit journal entries, look at past entries, filter entries by class or custom tags, and have the option to share with mentors
Allow students to add other elements to the entry besides text such as voice recordings (in any language), images, and emojis to express their feelings
INTERFACE STORYBOARD
This was the inital series of screens, based on the design goals outlined above, with 3 main functions: viewing past journal entries, interacting with a calendar, and adding a new entry.
Lo-Fi Prototype
This lo-fi prototype was made using the Balsamiq software. The purpose of this prototype was to lay out all of the main screens, and define the content on each screen, using minimal visual elements. The simple clickable buttons show how a user might navigate from one screen to the next using basic interactions to help establish the reflection journal user flow.
USER TESTING
USER TESTING
Through a series of user testing sessions throughout the design, I was able to gain insight on what users expected when interacting with the reflection journal prototypes, and the kind of content that would be most beneficial towards improving the ESL experience on Socrative Student through this feature. I conducted three user testing sessions, from which I mapped my findings and observations directly to design implications that I could implement in the next iteration of design.
Wireframes
This is a series of clickable wireframes, a basic Figma prototype. It demonstrates the interactivity with basic animations included to show how the user would navigate the Reflection Journal feature within the Socrative Student app.
USER TESTING
At this point, as a team, we decided to add a "main dashboard" screen after the existing student login screens to make navigating easier with the new added features. This would provide a general dashboard home with 3 navigation path options: Student Quiz (existing in the app), Community Forum (new feature), and Reflection Journal (new feature). Users can come back to this screen to explore other acitivies/features, giving them more flexibility over their experience. Also, this way, users would only have to login in one time.
Design System
Our design system for this redesign was based on Socrative Student's existing UI components, typography, icons and colors.
Initial Hi-Fi Prototype
In this hi-fi prototype, I added the appropriate visual elements and implemented the design system based on UI Design principles, to make the feature feel more integrated, in terms of both visual language and functionality, with the existing app.
USER TESTING
USER TESTING
Improved Hi-Fi Prototype
In this improved hi-fi prototype, I implemented feedback from user testing of the previous design to make make it more interactive and engaging.
USER TESTING
USER TESTING
USER TESTING
Other Features
Text-to-Speech
The text-to-speech feature would be available for all instructions, questions, and answers, either in English or other languages. For some English learners, hearing and understanding English is easier than reading it.
Question and Quiz Feedback
Feedback systems (like short surveys) for students to easily give feedback on how they think they did, if they struggled with the concepts, if they struggled with the language, and so on. This gives students a chance to tell the instrutor if they’re struggling more with the concepts of the class or with understanding the instruction.
Visual Aids
Incorporate visual aids such as images and videos as a way of providing instructions and feedback on Socrative assessments. Visual cues are particularly helpful for students with language barriers by enabling them to better understand content and navigate through polls and other activities.
Online Forum
An online forum in Socrative for students with diverse backgrounds and varying levels of English to communicate and share foreign resources on various topics, aimed at promoting awareness of the cultural disparities between native English speakers and EL students. Foster a shared cultural background between EL students and native communities to facilitate smoother communication and integration within local communities.
Other Features
Text-to-Speech
The text-to-speech feature would be available for all instructions, questions, and answers, either in English or other languages. For some English learners, hearing and understanding English is easier than reading it.
Question and Quiz Feedback
Feedback systems (like short surveys) for students to easily give feedback on how they think they did, if they struggled with the concepts, if they struggled with the language, and so on. This gives students a chance to tell the instrutor if they’re struggling more with the concepts of the class or with understanding the instruction.
Visual Aids
Incorporate visual aids such as images and videos as a way of providing instructions and feedback on Socrative assessments. Visual cues are particularly helpful for students with language barriers by enabling them to better understand content and navigate through polls and other activities.
Online Forum
An online forum in Socrative for students with diverse backgrounds and varying levels of English to communicate and share foreign resources on various topics, aimed at promoting awareness of the cultural disparities between native English speakers and EL students. Foster a shared cultural background between EL students and native communities to facilitate smoother communication and integration within local communities.
Other Features
Text-to-Speech
The text-to-speech feature would be available for all instructions, questions, and answers, either in English or other languages. For some English learners, hearing and understanding English is easier than reading it.
Question and Quiz Feedback
Feedback systems (like short surveys) for students to easily give feedback on how they think they did, if they struggled with the concepts, if they struggled with the language, and so on. This gives students a chance to tell the instrutor if they’re struggling more with the concepts of the class or with understanding the instruction.
Visual Aids
Incorporate visual aids such as images and videos as a way of providing instructions and feedback on Socrative assessments. Visual cues are particularly helpful for students with language barriers by enabling them to better understand content and navigate through polls and other activities.
Online Forum
An online forum in Socrative for students with diverse backgrounds and varying levels of English to communicate and share foreign resources on various topics, aimed at promoting awareness of the cultural disparities between native English speakers and EL students. Foster a shared cultural background between EL students and native communities to facilitate smoother communication and integration within local communities.
USER INTERACTION SCREENS
CS 6460 - Education Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology | Spring 2024
Professor Judith Uchidiuno
CS 6460 - Education Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology | Spring 2024
Professor Judith Uchidiuno
CS 6460 - Education Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology | Spring 2024
Professor Judith Uchidiuno
