Project Leader
Client location US
Status Launched successful project
Responsibilities Complex UX/UI design, Design system, Hand-made illustrations, Animation
Our client had a successful business of teaching people how to overcome crises and develop leadership skills. But after the pandemic, he cannot continue his offline studies. So he was left without clients and the work of his life. He created a simple online course on his own, but with such a product he could not compete in the online space due to the saturation of the market with competitors
My task was to think about how to make his online product amazing and come up with functionality that allows our client to stand out from his competitors and increase his income
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Top 5 features implemented
Conversational Learning The “teacher” provides expert knowledge in taking on the role of a coach in question-and-answer dialogues
Interactivity The program includes various types of content that favor creating an immersive and engaging learning experience
Gamification To increase learners' engagement and add fun, game-design elements are used throughout the training process
Social Learning In this project we have embedded the possibility to message friends to get feedback about the learner's unique strengths
Chatbot The chatbot is mostly used for organisational moments during the training, such as granting achievement badges
Information architecture
The business analyst has digitised the existing program and provided it to the team. I studied the content, program features and plunged into business logic. After that, I draw up an information architecture and started to look for a solution to help the client
Business audience analysis
I analysed the business audience and its needs in order to understand who will use the product and take into account the interests of users
After communicating with the client, we decided to focus on high school students, since our client had already received a request from US schools for this product online
Core target audience for MVP version
Age 16-25 years old
Role Recent college graduate, entry level in her career
Conditions Internet savvy, has a cell phone, used to using a computer. In a state of information overload
Problems/fears Sense of fear/uncertainty/overwhelmed
Motivation Get to their goals, find direction in life
Perceived barriers Time investment, financial cost
User stories
I was working on the main interface scenarios and building the user's path
As a result, the material was divided into 2 parts: the course itself and independent work. I tried different solutions how to make it, created prototypes, discussed with the team and the client, looking for the best concept
I prepared the first version of the prototype, which we discussed with the customer and the team. To create the final prototype, I compiled User stories based on the results of these discussions
User stories for Course
The course contains 9 parts with different types of tasks. During the course, we don’t load users with a lot of functionality, we reveal an Independent work after completing the course, when the user understood how this program works and how it affects his life
— As a user, I want to learn from fun so as not to switch to more entertaining content
— As a user, I want to be able to stop course at any time and continue from there so that I can study at any time I have
— As a user, I want to be able to quickly look at the studied material in order to remember the main points
— As a user, I want to see my progress to stay motivated
— As a user, I want the modules to be broken into small parts so as not to overload myself with information in one lesson
User stories for Independent work
— As a graduate of the course, I want to keep working on long-term goals in order to consolidate what I learned
— As a graduate of the course, I want to keep working on my habits and daily plan to get closer to my long-term goal every day
— As a graduate of the course, I want to remember my strengths and receive support from those close to me
— As a user, I want to be focused on a daily basis in order to stay focused on the positive and change my mindset for the better
— As a graduate of the course, I want to write motivational quotes to cheer myself up in difficult times
— As a user, I want to receive support at all stages so as not to feel confused and to continue to enjoy the process of working on goals
Result A clearer understanding of what the product should be. Ability to transition to wireframing and searching visual style
Colours and Gamification
We use the customer's color palette, which is already well known to the audience and which is used for their website and marketing materials, in order not to lose an already loyal audience
In addition I draw badges and determine the mechanics of their delivery to the user with the client and PM. Then we tested the intelligibility of the meaning on the team
Key solutions
1. A chat bot to standout from competitors
The virtual “teacher” explains key concepts in the form of an interactive dialogue featuring videos (with transcripts) and infographics. After explaining every notion, the system asks a user a series of questions and asks a user to input transformative moments of their life one by one
2. Practise and prompts to increase customers’ satisfaction
The post-training phase increases the effectiveness of the training program, ensuring the expected results. This is a unique part of the project that other leadership training programs lack and ignore
When a user completes the training, the system redirects them to a post-training interface with a summary of all learned lessons & personal data. Users can also edit, update, re-plan, mark things complete, and keep themselves optimally organised. To maintain a user's level of optimism and stimulate them to move forward, the system offers an opportunity to fill in and see motivational resources
Prompts added at each step so that users feels that there is always a friend nearby who leads them
3. Post-training phase and adaptive versions to increase individual Customer Lifetime Value
During the course the system asks a user a series of questions. Then the system uses all the gathered data to build a personal Roadmap — a user's plan to achieve a final goal (Roadmap=post-training phase)
When a user is passing the training, the current progress in the module is automatically calculated and shown to a user. Together with the current progress in a module, the system automatically tracks the overall progress in building the Roadmap. Each user is constantly engaged in a dialogue to motivate them for quick and successful course completion. The admin, curator, or L&D team lead can download detailed reports to see and analyse the current learners' progress
The result
What was done by me for MVP:
– information architecture was built based on the information provided
— a brainstorm of ideas was held (together with the development team and PM) and the final version was approved with the client
— the functionality was thought out, prototypes, wireframes were created
— search, creation and approval of the visual style of the future application (including self-drawn illustrations and badges)
— creation and animation of the logo
– creating a design system to facilitate the work of developers and future versions of the product
— creating an adaptive version (tablet, mobile)
— transfer to developers and control of the result
After 8 months of intensive cooperation with the client and dev team, MVP is launched. Inspired by the possibilities of new leadership training software, our client is currently looking into further development of a training program.
Next development steps include:
— mobile version of the app for a better user experience
— AI implementation to provide students with personalized learning experiences that fit their plan
— proactive alerts for a friendly reminder to come back and continue the process
— enhanced progress tracking. Let the community, as well as mentors or the L&D team, track the student's progress for support, praise, and encouragement. The student will also be able to mark steps where help is needed.
