LET'S CREATE!
Indus Space Kids-Banner

INDUS SPACE KIDS

INDUSTRY
Education

COMPANY
School Project x Indus Space

PLATFORM
Mobile App

DELIVERABLES
User Research
UX Design
UI Design
Prototype

DATE
March 2022

DURATION
4 Months

TEAM
Me, Derrik C., Timothy O. & Sara V.

TOOLS
Design – Figma | Photoshop | Illustrator | Google Suite | Usertesting.com
Collaboration – Mural | Notion | Discord

Engaging gamified educational app that sparks children's curiosity about space.

Indus Space Kids is a self-paced educational app about Space that targets students from grades 1-5 (or ages 6-10). This is a school project partner with Indus Space, an educational institution that offers space & STEAM (Space, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math)-related programs for youth ages  6-18 years old.

The team designed these interactive activities, where students are guided and learn about space-related topics through an enjoyable journey. Students can explore at their own pace, and engage with the activities that will inspire a lifetime of learning and evoke curiosity.

PROJECT OUTLINE

01 Understanding the Problem

• Stakeholders’ Challenges
• Design Challenge

02 Research & Discovery

• Research
• Qualitative Survey
• Affinity Mapping
• How Might We
• User Needs Statement

03 Design & Develop

Sketches + Brainstorming
Competitive Analysis
Mid-Fidelity
User Test
User Flow

04 FINAL RESULT

• High-Fidelity
• Design System
• Prototype

01 Understanding the Problem​

PROBLEM SUMMARY:

Our industry partner, Indus Space, has been exploring ways to make its self-paced courses more engaging for young users (under 18 years), and would like to have a virtual platform to offer their program, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

LIMITATIONS
Because Indus Space has a wide range of target audiences, we primarily focused on researching and designing the product for elementary students or ages 6-10.

DESIGN CHALLENGE

How can we make courses about Space more engaging for young users?​

02 THE RESEARCH

QUALITATIVE SURVEY

We conducted a qualitative survey using Microsoft Forms to 10 participants, and gain insights to their experiences during their elementary years, and what could be the factors to have a better learning experience.

We recruited these two types of participants through referrals and recommendations who fit the ‘criteria’ :

(1) Students who are ages 19-30, living in Canada, and attended Space and STEAM-related courses or programs.

(2) Educators who are currently teaching, and can share their teaching experiences with students.

Survey on Educational Experiences During Elementary

Thank you for your time and participation in our class research project, for Sheridan College’s Digital Product Design Workshop course. 

The survey will focus on promoting continuous early learning of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education; By utilizing interactive media for space education. You will be asked a series of questions reflecting on your elementary school education, and the involvement of STEAM/Space-related education.

By request, we can make the final findings. The survey questions will focus on the topic of interactive learning experience and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Information collected will only be used for this class project. 

PRIMARY RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The survey questions were designed and centralized with our primary questions, where we are able to collect diverse perspectives of individuals’ experiences about space education.

How can an online interactive learning experience further help students in grades 1-5?

What do teachers want students to achieve after engaging in online interactive activities?

What would be the best imagery to showcase to children when learning?

RESEARCH GOALS

The test was conducted among peers, and the key insights that needs to improved on were:

Provide an online solution to teach self-paced space related topics to students (grades 1-5).

Create an interactive prototype to showcase STEAM learning through games online.

Promote continuous early learning of space education amongst children

AFFINITY MAPPING

10 participants, 9 insights, & 3 main themes…

Through affinity mapping, we were able to discover patterns within our survey. We used these insights to develop clear perspectives and meet user needs.

Overall, the key focus area based on the synthesis is:
(1) Students want to learn about Astronomy through self-paced games and be rewarded to encourage learning.
(2) Teachers want an activity-based learning process for the students and a way to have a teacher know if a student needs help or understands the content provided. 

Making learning about space exploration enjoyable by utilizing interactive and engaging media.

Creating aesthetical content and reward system.

Informative animated videos and games increase motivation to learn.

3 MAIN THEMES

HOW MIGHT WE

How can we make courses more engaging for young users (ages 6-10) while promote continuous early learning of space education ?

Through this process, we discovered ways to add more features and integration. We also explored how we can integrate the idea of promoting activeness while learning and having fun.

HMW use space activities/games to promote being active

HMW design the content to make it challenging

HMW make the space related information easy to understand

HMW making learning as fun as watching a cartoon

HMW create a activity based learning process visually appealing to grades 1-5

HMW create fun game for leaning purposes

HMW teachers view if students are fatigued

HMW utilize a reward or point based grading system to enagage our audience

USER NEEDS STATEMENT

After synthesizing using an affinity mapping and forming how might we, we then were able to formulate user needs to have a better understanding and guidance in making the digital product.

– As a student, I want to be introduced to space education so that can start learning about space

– As a student, I want have challenging interactive content so that learn and have a growth mindset.

– As a student, I want to be more active/hands-on so that I can be more engaged with learning

– As a student, I need to be awarded with my accomplishments so that I can feel validated for the progress I am making 

03 THE SOLUTION

SKETCHES + BRAINSTORMING

After solidifying our research and understanding our user’s needs, we then proceed to the design process using the 5-day design sprint. We created a moodboard that would convey the message on space education and the brand, Indus Space while still appropriate enough for children.

Furthermore, to translate research and ideas, when then did a quick wireframing where we took some inspiration from the competitors, (e.g. Duolingo Kids and Khan Academy) to help the team understand the user flow and how it would look.

Because our primary design challenge is how we can make courses engaging to young students, we did the Crazy 8’s activity where we focus on how we can integrate Indus Space’s curriculum in making a gamified experience.

 

MOODBOARD
CRAZY 8'S FOR THE GAME ACTIVITY
WIREFRAMING
OTHER REFERENCES

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

We explored and studied our potential competitors  on how they strategized their features and design their app that would appeal to children. 

The digital app is solely focusing on offering space-related courses and activities. These games would have a structured story mode, where every level connects and completes a story.

COMPETITORS

Khan Academy Kids, Duolingo Kids & Starwalk Kids

MID-FIDELITY DESIGN

We started making mid-fidelity design using Figma. Because the app is designed for children, we wanted to have an appealing use of elements and illustrations with the use of simplicity and cleanliness in order for the user to focus on the tasks and interactions.

Below are the screen that I was assigned to in building the app. I designed these games that tells a narrative and where each level connects to the next one. 

LOGIN SCREEN

simple and intuitive layout

PICK A TOPIC / CATEGORY

Open-book concept of design for the topics to symbolize lessons/lecture.

MODULE SCREEN (ASTRONOMY)

Progress-tracking level containing sub-topics off the chosen topic

GAME ACTIVITY LEVEL 1

a drag-and-drop type of interaction to match the solar system’s arrangement where users also known some facts about it

GAME ACTIVITY LEVEL 2 (PRE-GAME)

Exploring type of game where users navigate through the screen to find the celestial objects

GAME ACTIVITY LEVEL 2 (GAMEPLAY)

A multiple choice type of game determining what is the floating object

These are screens my team has designed.

SIGN UP SCREEN (PROFILE)

Users can choose their grade and avatar

DASHBOARD

Letting students know their progress and summary of their accomplishments

CHAT FUNCTION WITH TEACHER

A feature that allows students to talk with teachers

LIBRARY

Side games/activities that would let users know more about space

REWARDS SCREEN (POINTS/SCORE)

The reward screen when users completed the game whether they fail or be sucessful

REWARDS SCREEN (BADGE)

Earn a unique badge for their adventures and will be displayed to their achievements

USER TESTING

We conducted 2 rounds of user tests using usertesting.com, and the user testers were aged 30-40 and parents, who have children (ages 6-10) and are interested in Art, Space, and STEAM-related topics.

Key insights were that most users wanted more visual details like elements, colour & animation. Moreover, the games created were challenging enough, and they would recommend their child to play the game.

User test are unable to find the help feature during the game

Ability to change avatars and redeem points and rewards

More teaching materials to learn before they can play game

Users would want audio or voice overs when playing the game

USER FLOW

The objective for this user flow was to define our main features and make changes on:

  1. The narrative of the game
  2. Additional features like redeeming points and rewards to promote motivation
  3. Avatar Customization
INITIAL USER FLOW
REVISED USER FLOW

04 THE RESULT (FINAL PRODUCT)

Dark mode aesthetics depict space while fusing the brand of Indus Space. In addition, we used playful elements that are easy to understand for children.

ACCOUNT CREATION

We used playful elements that are easy to understand for children when creating accounts.

LANDING
PROFILE CREATION
DASHBOARD

DASHBOARD

Users are greeted by Laika, who will guide them throughout the game. They can track their progress, and achievements, and access their profile.

TOPIC + LEVEL

Its own unique illustrations represent each topic and course. 

PICK A TOPIC
ASTRONOMY MODULES
GAME LEVEL-1
GAME LEVEL-2

GAME LEVELS

Obvious filter & sort, option to view as 1 or 2 products per row, adding to wishlist label, as well as clear visual hierarchy will get the information user need. 

Adding fixed bottom add-to-cart button allows users to focus each tasks, and will still be visible when scrolling back and forth in the product page

POINTS + REWARDS

Obvious filter & sort, option to view as 1 or 2 products per row, adding to wishlist label, as well as clear visual hierarchy will get the information user need. 

Adding fixed bottom add-to-cart button allows users to focus each tasks, and will still be visible when scrolling back and forth in the product page

DAILY LOGIN
LEVEL COMPLETION - POINTS
AVATAR CUSTOMIZATION
BADGE EARNED
LIBRARY / SIDE GAMES

SIDE GAMES + MORE ACTIVITIES

Obvious filter & sort, option to view as 1 or 2 products per row, adding to wishlist label, as well as clear visual hierarchy will get the information user need. 

Adding fixed bottom add-to-cart button allows users to focus each tasks, and will still be visible when scrolling back and forth in the product page

DESIGN SYSTEM

ELEMENTS & ILLUSTRATIONS
BUTTONS, ICONS & LABELS
COLOR SCHEME & TYPOGRAPHY
COMPONENTS
NAVIGATION
TEXT FIELDS
*PLANETS & FULL-IMAGE VECTOR ILLUSTRATIONS ARE FROM VECTEEZY.COM
CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT
CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT
LINK TO PROTOTYPE HERE
CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT
CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT CHECK IT OUT

TAKEAWAY

Having completed my capstone project, I had two key takeaways:
1. Team Collaboration and Communication
2. The challenge of building an app for children or any target audience

If given more opportunities and the possibility:
We could have tested our digital product with the children to assess if they would really love the app, and improve the overall visual design and interaction implementing the best practices fit for children. The major drawback of this project was the limitations of being able to survey and test with children due to ethical reasons and time given.

 

LET’S CREATE
SOMETHING AMAZING.

Whether it’s a logo, collateral design, website, or a full branding, I’m here to bring ideas to life, and make your brand stand out.

EMAIL
edoardbianchi.lu@gmail.com

LINKEDLIN linkedin.com/in/edoardbianchilu  

LOCATION
TORONTO,CANADA

Facebook Instagram Youtube

@bianchicreatives