PandaTree:
Mobile Language Lessons
Connecting Kids Through Remote Language Learning!
PandaTree provides 1:1 remote language lessons for kids ages 2-17. Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, they want to expand lessons to groups of 2-4 students to decrease cost for parents & increase customer conversion. Our team of 3 UX designers designed a minimum viable product (MVP) to meet this need.
Overview
UX Team
Katie Yarnold
Lead User Researcher | Lead Visual DesignerZ. Fleisher
UX DesignerKimberly Bombita
Lead Business Researcher
Duration
3 weeks
My Role
While I contributed to every phase of the design process, I was solely responsible for all user research, usability testing and client management. I was also the project manager, ensuring that my team members were meeting all deadlines and producing quality work. I was also responsible for recording and organizing all of the team’s research documentation, artifacts and deliverables.
Methods
Heuristic Evaluation
C & C Analysis
User Surveys
User Interviews
User Flows
Research Synthesis
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Design Iteration
Tools
Figma
Miro
Google Suite
Step 1: Discover
User Research
We started off by doing extensive user research. We were posed with the unique opportunity of having 3 target users for this product: tutors, kids, and parents.
Researching Kids’ Online Education Habits
First, we gathered information about online education platforms and usage habits for for kids by conducting user surveys with 2 types of users:
Potential users: parents with kids ages 2-17
Current PandaTree parents & kids
“If a kid is engaged and smiling and having fun and speaking as much Mandarin as possible, it's a successful lesson.”
— Tutor
Getting to Know Our Users
Next, we conducted 15 in-depth user interviews with 3 types of users: PandaTree tutors, potential users and current users. From each of these interviews, we collected insights about users’ needs from an online language learning platform as well as pain points that parents & kids are experiencing on the current platform.
Tutor Insights:
PandaTree’s tutors are passionate, highly educated & experienced.
They like to personalize lessons for each child’s needs.
Students disengage if lessons are repetitive.
Potential User Insights:
Due to Covid-19, children are learning remotely now.
Parents are worried about keeping their children on track with online education & social development.
Parents want to nurture their children’s interests rather than pressure them into particular hobbies.
Current User Insights:
Kids love their PandaTree tutors.
Many parents use PandaTree instead of regular foreign language classes.
Parents want more post-lesson study materials for their kids.
Parents want more information about their kids’ progress.
“I would like to know what my daughter is working on, what’s coming up, and what she’s already learned.”
— Current User
“We don’t want to force [our child] to learn another language, we want her to pursue things she genuinely enjoys.”
— Potential User
Business Analysis
In the next phase of our research process, we conducted business analysis consisting of usability testing of the PandaTree’s current mobile site, a heuristic evaluation of the current site and competitive & comparative analyses of other online language education platforms.
Evaluation of the Current Mobile Experience
We analyzed the user experience of the current mobile website through two primary methods: usability testing & heuristic evaluation. We conducted usability tests with several 5 parent & kids ages 2-17. Then, we conducted a heuristic evaluation of the site using Jakob Nielsen's 10 principles of web usability. Utilizing these two methods, we uncovered major points of friction in several key areas:
Efficiency
Long sign up forms & unclear call-to-action deter potential new users.
Signing in & out of the ParentHub and KidHub can be confusing for new users.
2. Delight
Lack of images in the KidHub menu is uninteresting for kids.
It can be a barrier for younger kids who are not able to read the options.
When taking a lesson on mobile, elements shift and overlap, causing frustration for kids.
3. Security
Lack of security features allows kids to access their guardians’ ParentHub which poses safety concerns.
Analyzing the Competition
In order to better understand what features might be useful in our MVP, we analyzed our client’s top competitors & comparators in the online language education industry, including direct competitors that also provide 1:1 language lessons for English-speaking kids, comparators that provide group language lessons to English-learners and mobile apps for language learning. We gained insights into what those platforms are doing well and opportunities for improvement.
1:1 Language Lessons
Competitors had a clear call-to-action & streamlined sign up process allowing new users to sign up quickly.
Other tutors have less qualifications than PandaTree’s tutors.
Group Language Lessons
Safety is prioritized by giving tutors the ability to disable or enable kids’ audio/video in a group setting.
Kids are more engaged when they can talk with their peers.
Accommodating multiple kids means less opportunity to personalize lessons.
Language Learning Apps
Bright colors, illustrations, and seamless screens keep kids engaged.
Using images & icons for menu options improves usability for younger kids.
Security features such as password prompts before entering parent portals keeps kids safe.
Step 2: Define
Research Synthesis
Utilizing affinity mapping, we synthesized our research into personas and user journey maps in order to guide our design process. We then used those artifacts to prioritize features and craft a design hypothesis which served as blueprints for our MVP.
Remote Affinity Mapping
Defining the User
Taking into account the time constraints of this design sprint and our client’s goal of increasing customer conversion, we prioritized our designs to meet the needs & pain points of 2 user target users: parents & students. Using the data we collected from user surveys, interviews and usability testing, we created a persona for each target user and a user journey map detailing their current experience with PandaTree’s mobile platform.
Student Persona
Student User Journey
Parent Persona
Parent User Journey
Feature Prioritization
In order to decide on which features to concentrate on for the MVP we created a feature prioritization matrix that allowed us to visualize which features would make the highest impact at the lowest effort to produce. In the end, our MVP focused on these key features: Streamlined Sign-up Process, Illustrated KidHub Menus, Child’s Learning Progress Info, ParentHub Security Pin, and Games (in-lesson & post-lesson).
Design Hypothesis
We believe by designing a safe and engaging mobile group lesson experience, we can prioritize tutor interaction with students as well as create an easy to use platform for parents. This will make the online learning experience more enjoyable and economical. We will know this to be true when we see an increase in conversion rate of free trial users to paid users from 30% to 50%.
Step 3: Design
Sketching & Wireframing
Through a collaborative rapid ideation & sketching activity called design studio, my team and I began some to roughly block out our MVP. We then iterated on those sketches until our design fully took shape int the form of low-fidelity wireframes. We used these wireframes to create a digital prototype of our product.
Design Studio Sketching
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Step 4: Develop
Testing & Iteration
In order to improve the usability testing of our designs, we conducted several rounds of usability testing. Using the feedback gathered from those tests, we then iterated on our design until we created the final high fidelity mockup of our MVP.
Usability Testing
For the first round of usability testing, we tested our low fidelity digital prototypes with several pairs of parents & kids. We asked them to complete the series of tasks we outlined in the user scenarios and observed any points of friction they experienced while testing the prototype. For the second round of usability testing, we tested with a group of adults. They completed a shortened version of our list of tasks on both the existing mobile site and then again on our high fidelity prototype. Facilitators took note of usability and time on task in the current site versus the prototype. We uncovered these key insights:
Due to technical constraints, it was difficult to prototype the
in-lesson experience.
It was easier for kids to find post-lesson games to play in the prototype.
Users were less frustrated during the sign up & booking lesson task
when using the prototype.
There were significant improvements in time on task.
High Fidelity Mockups
We incorporated feedback from usability testing and iterated on our designs to emphasize the key design decisions which support our MVP features. We then increased the fidelity of our designs by adding imagery and branding elements to align with our client’s brand.
Sign Up Flow
Streamlined the sign up flow by adding the option to sign up with Google & Facebook.
Added avatars to child profiles to increase delight through gamification.
Avatars provide additional safety by giving kids the option to turn off their camera & show only their avatar during lessons.
In-Lesson Experience
Resized tutor screen & game elements to be optimized for mobile use.
Increased the size of tutors’ video screen to emphasize tutor & allow for more personal interactions.
Gave tutors the option to turn on/off students’ video/audio to increase safety for kids.
Kid Hub Features
Added password protection to prevent kids from entering into their guardians’ ParentHub accidentally.
Added a “panda points” feature to gamify the learning experience.
Illustrations for menu options create more delight & allow younger kids to navigate the site on their own.
Parent Hub Features
Added a “Progress” feature to show parents how their child is progressing & what areas need more focus.
Sequential curriculum allows parents to know where their child is in their learning journey.
High Fidelity Prototype
Next Steps
Due to shelter in place orders, usability testing proved to be a challenge as it had to be conducted remotely. I’d like to conduct further usability testing to find opportunities to add more delight to the mobile group lesson experience.
Considering how to set up group lessons so that kids could select their tutor would be another important next step based on our user research findings.