Assignment Ace
This was a group project of four people assigned to us for a Mobile App Design Module in college. The brief was to create a problem statement and design an app that would combat this problem.
The app we created was an assignment alert app called ‘Assignment Ace’. The goal was to create an app that would help students in college by laying out and encouraging assignment submission up until the due date through notifications, an assignment submission date timeline, a feature that tracks the submission of other students in the module, and a chat feature.
Our idea was heavily inspired by our own negative experiences with the University of Limerick’s current Learning Management System ‘Sulis’. We felt the current design was out-dated and we wanted to create an app to motivate students with their work.
The Problem
While brainstorming for this design space we explored the relationship between:
Motivation
The good feeling of getting work accomplished
Procrastination
We focused on college work and how the build-up of tasks due to procrastination can lead to incomplete and late assignments - all of which in turn can lead to an endless cycle of procrastinating, getting nothing done, and then feeling terrible. While if you’re motivated, the work gets done, and you feel good.
Research
Competitor Benchmarking
Habatica: An app that both rewards and has a social component. Habitica is a free habit-building and productivity app that treats your real life like a game. With in-game rewards and punishments to motivate you and a strong social network to inspire you. But it relies on the user being dedicated enough to spend time inputting data. Best used for smaller daily tasks and reminders. Having a points system based on habits, daily to-dos and once-off goals. The points system is based on an R.P.G with rewards, a shop, guilds (communities) and health & experience bars.
KanbanFlow: KanbanFlow is a project management tool it’s based on the Japanese Kanban (board) method, the theory behind which is that visualizing work (on a board) simplifies communication and leads to improved productivity. It relies on the user inputting data and following notifications.
Google Calendar: A time-management and scheduling calendar service. A simple interface that helps you put timetables together, organise meetings, due dates for work and can remind you about more personal objectives like travel and birthdays. Students can use this to set up their own dedicated assignments calendar. Again it relies heavily on the student to gather the details from Sulis, Lecturers emails, Websites and Dropboxes, and inputs them into the calendar. There is a risk it will not stand out among the multiple calendars a student might have. Or that they might forget to update it.
To-Do-ist: A todo list app that syncs on all platforms and devices, helping to keep track of tasks, lists, chores and other events and items needing reminding. A simple interface, breaking up tasks and items into different projects, such as work, personal, errands etc. with due dates, labels and Reminders.
Freedom/Cold Turkey/Crackbook: All distraction blocking apps or extensions that will either block you on a timer or permanently, reducing the ease to get distracted.
Google Drive: An easy way to organise files of all sorts used by both student, teacher and worker. Easy access to your own files, teachers files and friends files. It allows for access to multiple applications such as word documents, excels, powerpoints, photos, videos and many more.
Evernote/Google Keep: These are two of the best places to store notes for class, how to dos/use, lists, essays as they are multi-platform accessible, online and offline. They are easy to organise, search for and keeping track of important notes, but again can be time-consuming in organising.
SULIS: UL's Learning Management System. It is run by UL's IT Division. Some lecturers (but not all) are currently using SULIS to communicate with their students. SULIS facilitates communication and assessment with students of a particular module.
Interviews
To recruit people to take part in our interviews, we asked UL students, non-UL students and the UL lecturers, by word of mouth and text. We scheduled interviews with each person who agreed to be interviewed and had questions pre-made before the interviews. For the non-UL students, we had to email the questions to them as we were not able to meet in person.
We asked the students and lecturers of UL questions about their current Learning Management System ‘Sulis’ as well as how they organise different aspects of their life and if they could improve their organisational skills.
We asked students outside UL about how they would access information about assignments and if they think it is effective as well as questions on if they think it could be improved and how.
Everyone in the group Interviewed 3 people each.
Usability Testing
One group member carried out a walkthrough task to time how long it takes for a student to set up a personal google calendar. Collect 5 different assignments details from 4 different places and insert them into the calendar and add notifications. Time taken was 17 minutes. A student could possibly have up to fifty assignment submissions per academic term so we felt this was too time consuming,
Affinity Mapping
We went through all the interview transcripts and identified everything that was said about Sulis and put them on post-it notes, before identifying the main points made and marking them with an asterisk.
We accumulated all the other platforms that are used by lecturers in UL and in other colleges
together. We looked at the positive traits that these platforms have that we could use.
We then re-sorted the notes between Lecturers’ experience and Students’ experience. And
divided the experiences into good and bad. We looked for the most important needs of both student and lecturers.
Proto-Personas
Two group members created a proto-persona each.
One persona needs connection and engagement with peers and teaching staff within the field of interest
The other persona needs organisation and help from others on the course.
Story Boards
I created one persona, while another group member created another.
The storyboard I created was a user procrastinating while watching TV. they get a notification on their phone and realise how close a deadline is the next day. The user then starts working and in the end submits their assignment on time.
The other storyboard is a user hanging out with friends, they receive a notification saying that the assignment is due in 8 weeks, they ignore the message and continues hanging out with friends. A few weeks later, they receive another notification, they then start the assignment and have it in on time without stress.
Design Principles
We then identified the design principles for the project
Limiting: Don’t try to fix all problems or all findings, even if easily do-able.
Design for all: Design for all people in the learning system, not just for UL students.
Predictability: Being predictable in early stages makes the system easy to design.
Balance: Designing an app that will solve similar, key problems equally.
Human Scale: Designing an app that can be used with one hand.
Repetition & Rhythm: Using the same elements of design throughout the app.
Movement: Using movement to create flow in the design.
Contrast: Creating contrast to make important features & aspects stand out.
Fit for Purpose: Creating an app that achieves functional requirements above all else.
No Unnecessary information, content, menus or access.
Visuals: Use visual cues along with as well as keywords.
Less is more: Design interactions between the student and the lecturer. Minimalist design of User Interface
The core functionality of Assignment Ace
This Mobile Android App is the go to place to
Find out immediately:
1. Which assignment is due next
2. Which assignment is due second next
3. Be reminded which assignment needs your attention according your own priority setting.Timer countdown to assignment submission times
View of real time total class submission uptake on assignments
Access a dedicated Class forum - only course material and course related topics. Find out what classmates & lectures are discussing about assignments in a distraction free place (this encourages and stimulates engagement in the assignments and fosters a sense of belonging to class group.)
Get a direct link to your own dedicated course Google calendar
Design Process
Sketched Wireframes
Digital Wireframes
A diagram of navigation between wireframes (annotated) of each page of the app.
Lo-Fi Prototype and user testing
We created our Lo-Fi prototype on Marvel.
The screens you see here are the five main screens of the application - Home; Modules; Forum; Calendar; and Account.
We user tested it on UL students by allowing them to use it freely, and asking them to comment where they think they should. We took notes while watching them interact with the prototype.
We used these notes as feedback we could use for the next prototype.
Hi-Fi Prototype
We created our Hi-Fi prototype on Sketch.
The screens you see here are updated versions of the previous prototype screens. For ‘Home’ we added in an image and updated the visuals that show the user up to how far they have completed the assignment. The first graphic is the assignment the user has prioritised the most, you can choose to prioritise an assignment by in ‘Module’ and selecting the assignment. The second graphic would be the assignment that the user has put as their second priority etc…
The second image is a list of the modules, when one of these modules is clicked on, you are shown the list of assignments for that module. The third image is a chat screen, this was originally a forum, but based on our user testing, we changed it to a chat feature.
The first image is the updated calendar screen. This gives a list of the assignment circled on the calendar, so you know what assignment you are seeing. The second image is the updated app screen, we added an image element, and made it look more link an account than the previous prototype.
User Testing the Hi-Fi Prototype
For this user testing we gave the users tasks to complete:
Find the assignment you want to set as a priority and set it as priority.
Find out what your very next assignment is and how long is left for you to work on it before the submitting date.
We then followed up with a short interview where we asked the participants:
What stands out or appeals to you?
Did anything stand in your way or complicate your usage of the app?
Did any text, logos, icons or anything else confuse you?
Was anything missing from the app? Is there something in it that shouldn’t be there?
Using this feedback as a guide, we then updated the prototype to create our final design.
Final Design
Home Screen
The home screen was also redesigned to have a ‘traffic light’ effect to it. This was to make the
interface look cleaner and organised than the low-fi design, which used a purple colour. The most important assignment would now be a red colour to signal that it was the highest priority and was due next. Orange was designated to the second assignment to mimic a traffic light. Lastly, green was used as the least prioritised assignment.
The assignments pop-up was also redesigned to incorporate the new traffic light motif. The link to the assignment page was removed for simplicity. And the ‘Submit’ button was replaced with the word ‘Done’.
The navigation bar was changed to have 5 icons instead of 4.
Assignments
The first image shows the module page, once the user has picked the module they want to look at in more detail a drop-down was designed to show all the assignments for that particular module, this is seen in the second image.
The third image shows a pop-up. This pop-up shows when a user clicks on one of the assignments in the module, it gives the user details of the assignment as well as gives the user the option to prioritise it, or click that it’s done.
If the user says it’s done, the assignment will appear with the word ‘completed’ next to it in green. You can see this in the second image. Also, if an assignment is incomplete, the assignment appears with the word ‘incomplete’ next to it in red this is on-brand with the traffic lights on the front page. If the user clicks the bell to prioritise an assignment, the assignment will be moved to the home page, this is seen in the fourth image.
Chat
These are the screens i made specifically.
The idea for theses chats is to allow students to interact with each other by asking and answering questions posed by peers. Each member of the module is added to these chats.
Since the last user testing session, I added a customisable chat option in the form of ‘Groups’. The users can create new chats specifically for group projects.
Calendar/Account
Calendar: The calendar was updated with the new colour scheme also and was designed to show the different assignments due date. The traffic light effect was implemented here again to keep the design connected at each step of the user experience.
Account: The account was changed since the lo-fi prototype to be more like screens seen on other apps e.g. Instagram, the user can update their profile picture, name, email and password on this screen. They can also set their own preference for the reminders of their prioritised assignment.