WritingWay
Embark on the adventure down the Writing Road
Duration:
5 weeks
Role:
UX/UI Designer
Type:
DesignLab UX Academy
Capstone 2: Add a Feature
OVERVIEW
An engaging app that to learn and practice writing skills.
WritingWay is an app that utilizes evidence based writing interventions to help supplement student learning.
Students can:
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Review skills taught in class.
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Practice skills they have yet to master.
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Target a specific skill to learn.
THE PROBLEM
More students are in need of academic support post-pandemic.
Students face many learning challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. I work in elementary schools and there are more students in need of academic support to meet grade level standards compared to pre-2020. Writing has been especially one of the challenges I noticed students face within the whole group classroom setting.
RESEARCH: LITERATURE REVIEW
Evidence based writing interventions and strategies.
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Graphic organizers
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Writing routines
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Self-regulated strategy development
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Goal setting
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Teaching and reviewing the writing process (planning, drafting, sharing, evaluating, revising and editing)
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There are many evidence based strategies that can be used for each step of the writing process.
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Gradually release writing responsibility from the teacher to the student.
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Make sure students have a good foundation (e.g. letter writing, spelling proficiency, etc.
RESEARCH: SURVEY
Teachers reported decrease in student confidence and motivation.
✏
8/15 teachers rated their students’ writing skills as either a 1 or a 2 (1=poor to 5=excellent).
📝
Students struggle the most with grammar, sentence structure, and writing conventions.
🏫
Majority of teachers provide some degree of support to their students each week.
Main question to answer from research results:
How might I help struggling students make progress in their writing skills while also making it engaging and motivating?
THE SOLUTION
WritingWay
A supplemental intervention for struggling K-5 writers.
Goals:
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Improve student writing skills in an engaging way.
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Support teachers
FEATURE ROADMAP
USER FLOW
Teacher View: Creating an intervention plan for a small group.
WIREFRAMES
Student dashboard and creating an intervention wireframes
Iteration: - I changed the Writing Road design from a dotted line to a road.
Student Dashboard: Sketches and wireframe iterations
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Students are able to access their lessons and view their progress.
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They are able to see their tasks, progress charts, class leaderboard, etc. all on one page
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They also can view each section in more detail on a separate page.
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Create an intervention plan (Teacher View)
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Intervention providers can customize intervention plans to meet the needs of their students.
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The aim of this design was to make the task seamless in order to make intervention groups efficiently.
BRANDING
WritingWay values learning, fun, growth mindset, empowerment, and collaboration.
Branding:
I aimed for the branding to be bright and fun and appealing to children but not too childish for adults to enjoy. I thought a worm is a classic and easily recognizable mascot for a learning app. Adding a pencil helps indicate that the focus is writing.
The theme is centered around journey and progress.
Images
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Buttons
Navigation Bars
Student
Teacher
The Writing Road:
The Writing Road helps students view their progress on the lesson and help them stay motivated to continue learning.
Writing Road Lesson Icons:
I wanted to create icons that are easily recognizable to children.
Completed
Available
Review
Final
Future
USER TESTING
All users were able to complete the tasks successfully.
Participants were either teachers or have experience working in an elementary school
Task:
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Create an intervention plan when given specific parameters.
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Review and provide feedback on the student dashboard and find a way to navigate to the Writing Road.
All users thought the tasks were straightforward.
2/3
had difficulty finding where to enter the Writing Road.
Users thought the branding is appealing to children.
REVISIONS
Button for Writing Road needs a clearer indication.
FINAL DESIGN
Student Dashboard
Create an intervention plan
REFLECTION
I enjoyed working on this project since this is something I always wanted to create. I have seen firsthand students struggle with not only writing but in general academics and classroom functioning. It is also difficult seeing teachers struggle with supporting students of all levels. If I were to do this project again, I would want more time to explore different UI patterns that will help streamline intervention creation so teachers can easily create a plan to support their students.
PROTOTYPES
Student Dashboard
Create an Intervention Plan
