Let's start
A new collaborative way to exchange knowledge — Wollibrary
We were challenged by the teacher to build a digital solution for a problem we identified in the institution.
It is very common in a classroom for there to be students who end up not absorbing knowledge like the others. Based on prior research, when this happens, they resort to tutoring, the friend sitting next to them, Google, or most often YouTube.
So how can we help people with this problem?
My Role
Understanding the User
After having a bad experience at my college, where I couldn’t understand what the teacher was saying, I asked myself:
This Isn’t Going Very Well, Is Anyone Else Going Through This?
In view of this issue, and a challenge proposed by the professor to build an application to solve problems for students in the course, I created an online questionnaire and shared the link with colleagues from the institution, from the same class and others, so that they could respond with their own opinions, confirming the assumptions I had made and thus proposing a solution.
This is the number of people who feel some type of difficulty in absorbing knowledge.
This is the number of people willing to help their classmates.
In addition to helping, these users prefer consolidation exercises.
buisness
Some reports from interviewees:
“I can’t understand some teachers very well, they say some formal words that I have to look up in the dictionary to know what they mean”
“It’s a bit complicated when we don’t understand, last term I had to take a final exam because I couldn’t understand the teacher”
“I know we have to study outside of college, but I can’t seem to get interested in what the teacher says, I prefer to study on YouTube, which isn’t great either, because I end up watching some random video that distracts me from my focus”
process
Persons
However, several ideas emerged in a single Brainstorm, but only a few are tangible enough to be included in the guiding criteria board, namely:
Mobile app: Analyzing the research, a trend towards video classes and reciprocal help was noted, so this idea could provide a gamified way for students to help each other, where they can watch video classes on subjects relevant to their course and upload content that they have mastered.
YouTube channel: People are constantly accessing the platform, so it is convenient to create a channel on the platform, where students can watch video classes updated by teachers on subjects relevant to their course, or area of interest.
Facebook group: for exchanging information and videos on the platform.
Research
Guiding Criteria
After designing the characters, analyzing the questionnaire and the interviews conducted, some guiding criteria emerged, which will outline coordinates showing how far the project can go. Once the guiding criteria were created, they were cross-referenced with the ideas, and people’s needs were decided which idea met their needs, forming a positioning matrix.
Proposed solution
The proposed solution found to improve the experience of Júnior, Jéssica and Natália is to make an application called Wollibrary available. Based on the registered user profile, the platform will offer video lessons, uploaded by teachers and students with the aim of exchanging knowledge, in addition to making the video content available in text format so that people who do not have an internet plan can access the video content using less mobile data, and chats by categories or subjects.
Proposed solution
The proposed solution found to improve the experience of Júnior, Jéssica and Natália is to make an application called Wollibrary available. Based on the registered user profile, the platform will offer video lessons, uploaded by teachers and students with the aim of exchanging knowledge, in addition to making the video content available in text format so that people who do not have an internet plan can access the video content using less mobile data, and chats by categories or subjects.
Sketches
With the short deadline for completing the project, I sketched the first stage in my sketchbook without paying much attention to details.
Interface
ID visual
A identidade visual se basea no conceito de conhecimento e cativação, trazendo como ícone alusões como: árvore frutífera e coruja, e o nome “Wol” para ligar a ideia de um mascote algo mais culto e fofo.
Style Guild
Color palette
The application colors were chosen because they convey tranquility with the shade of blue, also convey joy, and make the environment more technological.
Interface
After completing the previous steps, this is the part where the application takes shape.
Accessing the Platform
To access the application, the user logs in or registers on the platform using the registered email and password.
When accessing the Home tab (Home or Feed), the user is faced with the videos already uploaded, the existing categories and the bottom menu that they will use to navigate the application, which is very reminiscent of the experience they have with YouTube or another video platform. If there is no video, the user will click on their profile and upload a video. The screen that appears is where you select the recorded video, a title and details of the video. On the profile screen, you will also find a link to the channel itself, in addition to the credits in your balance, so you can exchange them for videos in the future.
Accessing the Trending, Subscriptions and My Library screens:
The Trending tab grants access to the most accessed content at the moment, without filtering by categories, as the same tab behaves in other applications. The subscriptions tab, on the other hand, is composed of content that the user subscribed to in the application, in addition to the categories that the user accessed and interacted with in the forum. And the My Library tab, contains the items that the user has already watched, such as videos and musical selections.
Accessing chat screens (forums) and uploading videos:
The differential of the application is the interaction between students, in addition to each student having their own channel, topics about subjects were inserted in the application, and called categories, in each of the topics there is a room where students who are interested in the subject, discuss and inform themselves.
In conclusion
This is my first academic project that I did while studying Digital Design at the academy, it lasted a little over 3 weeks, little time for testing and adjustments, and my first article on the platform telling my journey.
So I listed some topics about what I learned from the project:
- Pay attention to the process: The design process is a process that needs to be understood before it is executed. A few times the teacher had to intervene, reminding me to follow the process and forget about the aesthetics of the application.
- Does the solution solve the user’s problem?: Design is not for you, design is for other people. In the testing phase, do not test yourself, test it with other people, preferably people who have the profile of your personas, so you can see if the proposal really works or not.
- Articles are not a headache: For a long time I was terrified when someone said the word “article” to me, but at the same time I was writing 70 pages of technical production. So I decided to take a risk and write my first article telling my journey, short and without too much complication.
What to do now?
After reading all this, some people may wonder: is that all there is to it? As an academic project, yes, it is over, but as a proposed solution, no. Some steps must be followed to make the application tangible:
- Develop an interface for administrators to filter the application’s content and declare rules of conduct within it.
- Interview teachers and YouTubers to understand and improve the platform and the user experience.
- Find a way to monetize the platform, making it financially viable, and study the values within the application in more detail.
Final Considerations
Although it is a basic project, I am extremely happy to share my journey with this project, and soon I will write about another journey I took with another project and my final project for the Digital Design course at FUCAPI-AM.
I wanted to thank you for reading this far.
