Happy Learning Africa
EdTech Web Platform
Role:
Team:
Founder, 1 Designer, 2 Engineers
Timeline:
overview
Background
Research indicates that between 2018 and 2022, approximately 84% of children completed primary education in Kenya. However, only around 53% were enrolled in secondary school. Approximately 47% of children who completed primary did not continue into secondary education. While multiple factors contribute to this challenge, regional accessibility to education is a key barrier. (source)
Happy Learning Africa is an educational platform for the non-profit organization SASA International. Its mission is to make education accessible for children in rural communities through a hybrid school web platform. Currently in development, the platform will undergo beta testing with two early education classes in Kenya, followed by iteration and official launch.
USER Groups
Students
Teachers
Content Creators
Content Librarians
Curriculum Developers
Administrators
Non-Profit GOAL
An EdTech platform that provides rural students access to education and connects teachers with the resources to help students successfully complete their schooling.
User Problem
One of the major reasons EdTech platforms have struggled to gain adoption in the past, is the challenge teachers face in integrating technology into the classroom.
solution
One platform & Six user groups = Role specific interfaces
School Interface
School personnel are displayed information and actions relevant to their role through permissions assigned to their user group.
Why
The desktop format allows school personnel to see a lot of information at once on the screen, such as viewing all students and curriculum, or adding new content.
Classroom Interface
Students and teachers can engage with curriculum, track grades, and communicate with one another.
why
The responsive format enables students to complete assignments with the technology they have access to and teachers stay mobile while assisting students in the classroom.
outcomes
Impact
Non-Profit
End-to-end design of MVP, collaborating with engineers to align implementation with user and non-profit needs.
Users
Designed context and role specific experiences for 6 user types to drive successful adoption and integration
Scalability
Built a design system, to ensure consistent, efficient, and sustainable growth into the future
Beta Testing Success Metrics
Task Completion
Track task completion rates by each user group, to assess if they are able to complete their goals within context
Intervention Rate
Track both success and friction in teacher interventions if a student is failing an assignment
Tech Integration
Feedback from teachers on the successes and challenges of integrating the platform into the classroom
design process
highlights
I established deep understanding of my users to design user-centered and culturally appropriate solutions for all 6 user groups.
Research Insights
Africa's educational structure and terminology differed from my own
Most people have mobile phones but have limited access to other technology
People have highly varied levels of technical literacy
Each user had extremely different but interrelated goals and needs
Why it's important
Clarified the educational structure, to define copy and inform information architecture
Validated use cases led to clear user flows, helping users successfully navigate and complete their unique goals
Led to formats that would align with users' technical context, needs, and constraints
Student Use Cases
Information Architecture for the School Platform
User Flow for Administrators
A surprising research insight led me to pivot, resulting in a much needed user experience improvement for teachers.
Teacher Quote
“There is plenty of technology available for schools (both hard and software). They are designed really well for the students, but the issue is that some teachers do not have the technical ability or familiarity using digital technology. So they end up going unused!”
Before
In initial lo-fi wireframes, I planned to host teachers on the school platform with the other school personnel and a separate, interface for students with child friendly patterns.
School Desktop Wireframe
After
The insight made me realize that the solution must be teacher friendly as well for successful adoption to occur, so I decided to have teachers use the same simple interface as students.
Student & Teacher Hi-Fi
WHY IT WAS SUCCESSFUL
Simplified navigation and reduced the potential for error through minimal choice
An unexpected benefit was that teachers could also better understand and assist the student experience because of the mirrored experience
By facilitating communication and collaboration between stakeholders, I defined a strong product strategy that aligned cross-functional teams
MVP Priorities
Log on to the platform
Create & assign curriculum
Complete & submit curriculum
My Approach
Validate use cases and functionality
Prioritize features for the MVP
Collaborate on solutions with developers to assess fesability and determine scope
why trades off were beneficial
Strategy: Instead of creating the 6 separate dashboards the founder initially envisioned, I determined we only needed 2 interfaces to start, one for the school personnel and one for students. The school platform would host all school personnel for the MVP and simply give them different access based on their role, making it much more efficient to develop while easy to separate into distinct platforms if necessary in the future
Scalability: The founder envisioned an interactive quiz directly on the platform, however, I advocated for using Google forms. It is an existing product that already works for teachers and hosts all information on external databases. It reduced risk of error as well in design and development time, and costs to host content that would only increase over time.
A fun challenge to solve was preventing students from continuing to take assessments after 3 failed attempts and alerting teachers that they need help
Solution 1
The founder hoped the curriculum could auto pause through the system
Concept Illustration
Solution 2
Teachers manually "pause" and reinitiate student progress
Teacher Interface Wireframe
Why Not: During usability testing, teachers found it unclear and were confused about how to interact with it
Solution 3
Color and CTAs to capture user attention and encourage action via visual feedback
Student Interface Hi-Fi
Teacher Interface Hi-Fi
WHY: Reduced development complexity while successfully solving the problem for both students and teachers!
See a sample of my designs for Happy Learning Africa below, please contact me to see the full project or Figma file link!
next steps
As the platform is still being built, I would measure the following success metrics during beta testing:
Task Completion
Track task completion rates by each user group, to assess if they are able to complete their goals within context
Intervention Rate
Track both success and friction in teacher interventions if a student is failing an assignment
Tech Integration
Feedback from teachers on the successes and challenges of integrating the platform into the classroom
Contact Me:
Linked In
Mirriechoi@gmail.com