Making the Prototype:
The login screens were easy to construct. I downloaded other applications and went through the login process to gain an idea of what was required. I used the Student ID and Tutor ID to link accounts to both a tutor and an educational institution.
When creating a new project, the user would fill out the Title, Module, Weekly Commitment and Submission date. I also added an option to link the submission date to the calendar. I created a framework based on repeatable tasks that occur in most academic assignments where the time estimates for each task could be recorded. Once finalised the user would open the tasks and record the time whilst working. On completion, the user will be asked to provide additional information on difficulty level, enjoyment, and external factors. This data is then used to create a dashboard, provide insights, and offer hints and tips to improve their future studies.
Changes to the concept and design:
Initially, the App was going to be designed for student users but after discussing the concept with family it the idea emerged that educational bodies could benefit from the detailed information. For example, if there was a module that was universally disliked the tutors could have an opportunity to push out a questionnaire to gain more detailed feedback and then potentially adjust the course content for the next cohort of students. It would also give educational bodies an opportunity to reflect on Modules that were well received and see if they could use this to influence how they teach other modules or courses.
Something that wasn’t included in my design but I would include in the next iterations would be a link to progress with a feature that could track results. With this additional information, the user could look back and find out if how they were apportioning their time was affecting their results or what other factors influenced their results.
The application would therefore have a Student Login and a Tutor Login. As the data provided by the students is emotive the data shared with the tutor would be anonymised.
My original idea was that the user would provide estimates for the time they intended to commit to each task. Then they would receive feedback on the app for forecast vs actual and be able to improve their own estimating. However, this would still require a lot of effort for the user so I added an auto-calculate button that would calculate a percentage and apportion the time to the tasks. The idea would be that the app would learn from past behaviour so the more iterations the more accurate the estimates would become.
User Interface Changes
Initially the colour pallet I used mixed brights and pastel colours but I felt it jarred so I looked at other designs and moved to pastel shades which made the theme feel more cohesive.
When I started the design I used a photo for the login page, however, I was keen to try out digital art so I used the photo as a template to draw a picture using a stylus in Procreate. I think that my technique may need to be refined but I was happy with the overall look. I think it is cool to have something quite painterly when creating digital images.
Conclusion:
Goal: My goal was to create an application that would help individual students improve estimating and gain a deeper understanding of what other factors were driving the way they managed their time.
In my opinion, the application meets the objectives that I set out in the goal statement. I think that how information about emotional and external factors is incorporated requires enhancement at the moment this is just surfaced on the insights but it could be included in the dashboards.
Scope: Next time I approach rapid ideation I will put more emphasis on defining the scope. I found the scope grew as I went through the design process.
Data: I think that to help me further develop this prototype it would have been helpful to build up a dummy data set. Figma may not be the best application for working with data, so if I worked on another data-driven application, I will try to use Axure which is designed for data-driven prototyping.
Look and Feel: I am happy with the look and feel overall as it is the first prototype I have ever designed. The design is fairly paired back as it is difficult to make easy visual representations of time management without them becoming cliché.
On reflection, some of the frames may have been overcrowded so going forward I when I design will consider making the content scrollable to avoid this issue.
I would like to learn how to make elements of the design more interactive for future prototypes.
Videos: This is the first time I have recorded a video on my laptop. I think that it would be helpful to learn some video editing techniques to make the video more polished.
Time Management: I hoped to complete both the student user journey and the tutor user journey, but I ran out of time.
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