Primary research to understand the problem in depth
I took some interviews to understand the problem in depth.
“Unable to find quality questions.”
This helped me decide to solve for users, keeping these questions in mind.
Overview
Educato uses AI to create high-quality exam prep for students worldwide.
Timeline
October 2024
Team
Individual
Tools
Figma
Role
Product Designer
The challenge
Many exams around the world, including some taken by hundreds of thousands of students each year, still lack high-quality materials.
As a result, students often turn to expensive private tutoring or mediocre resources, leading to poor learning outcomes.
How to find high-quality questions?
How to get the desired score?
How to choose the prep material?
The way I proceeded with the challenge
Secondary research to understand the problem faced by most people.
Primary research to understand the problem in depth.
Competitive research to understand the values provided by current companies.
Synthesizing the information to ideate the solution.
Iterating to get to the final solution.
Final screens.
RESEARCH
Secondary research to understand the problem faced by most people
I did the secondary research to find out the problems faced by most of the students while preparing for the GMAT. I found some data through Quora and Reddit.
Insights through secondary research
Confused about the prep material.
Concepts are unclear.
Prep materials get exhausted quickly.
Most users have tried every prep material.
Competitive research to understand the values provided by current companies.
I started with the competitive research in order to understand the values provided by popular companies in education and GMAT-related companies.
Duolingo
With their free mobile app or web and a few minutes a day, everyone can Duolingo.
Pros
Very motivating.
Gamification.
Cons
Not for competitive exams.
Khan Academy
Can learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, and more.
Pros
Free of cost.
Foundation based course.
Cons
Not specific to any exam.
No personalized learning.
Popular apps in education
GMAT specific companies
Target Test Prep
Follows a personalized plan of study that leads you through every step of the study process.
Pros
Is structured.
Good for quant.
Cons
Lots of repetitive questions.
Time taking.
Magoosh
Magoosh offers online study, live support, and free resources so you're at your best.
Pros
Affordable.
Self-paced learning.
Cons
Unstructured learning.
Unable to build concepts.
Limited questions.
Top insights from competitive audit
Top popular apps are not focused on competitive exams specifically.
Apps that are focused on the GMAT are very expensive.
GMAT-focused apps are not very engaging for users.
IDEATION
Ideating the solution
I started ideating on FigJam file to get the ideas as per my HMW.
One of the best ways to learn concepts is to practice the weak areas as much as possible. Started with the features below, as these were the core features.
How might we help users in clearing their concepts?
Personalized learning.
Digestible lessons.
Follow-up questions to clear every concept.
How might we help users keep motivated to learn and to be consistent in their preparation?
Daily streak.
Learning with the mascot.
Flashcard to learn concepts in fun and interactive way.
DESIGN
Iterating to get to the final solution
Design system
Mascot design from inspiration to final
Some design explorations
Key features
Personalized experience
Fun and interactive mascot
Personalized experience based on data
Understanding the concepts
Concepts learned through practical implementation
Digestible lessons
Questions based on the chapter after the completion
Experiencing the GMAT-like conditions
GMAT-quality question bank
Questions based on different difficulty levels
Insights about weaker areas through correct and incorrect questions analysis
Keeping users motivated
Habit-building streak
Recommended lessons as per their weaker areas
Personalized user experience by providing them a study plan as per their input
Retain users by asking them to solve just a few questions
Learnings
Every design decision should be backed up by data.
UI enhances the UX. Also, it helps in connecting with people emotionally.
Research in depth helps to make design decisions for users.
With the short amount of time that I had, I decided to work on 2-3 core flows that would help users keep motivated and prepare for exams.
I learned user research, visual design, and prototyping while solving this problem. Given the time, I would have worked on gamification and other features in depth.