ClassMap

A desktop platform for international students to promote in-class engagement

| User Research

| UX Design

| Usability Testing

SEE FINAL PROTOTYPE

Time

2023.08-12

Type

Class Project

Group

Emily Lee

Yoojin Leem

Reina Li

Katherine Liu

Tools/Methods

Figma

My Contribution

UX research

User interviews, affinity map

UX design

Sketches, wireframing, usability testing, high-fidelity prototyping

HOW MIGHT WE

Encourage hesitant international students to participate in class?

International students make up ~16.2% of UC Berkeley student body. It’s important to notice their hesitation in class participation due to language and cultural barriers. Over time, this reluctance may lead them to become the “silent” ones in class, diminishing their self-value and leading to a less diverse class perspective.

Coming from an international background ourselves, we decided to design a platform that provides affordances for international students to feel included and confident to speak up in class.

USER RESEARCH

What are the barriers?

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 3 international students and 1 domestic student and observed the participants during class time.

Here are some of the questions we asked:

Can you walk me through your usual mental process before you speak in class?

Do you feel the difference in people’s participation compared to your home country’s classroom climate? Why do you think those difference occur?

In what situation do you find yourself having the most active participation? What about the least?

How does the guidance and feedback of the instructor impact your decision to participate in class?

We used affinity map to put the interview insights into clusters and identify patterns of pain points:

Synthesized research insight indicates that a safe class environment free of judgement is crucial for international students' engagement, which can be further attributed to 5 elements: peer support, instructor support, class vibe, course's adpatability to feedback and course content.

PROTOTYPE #1

Engagement Ears:
Enhance feedback, support, and add fun to classroom

I individually ideated and prototyped interfaces for engagement ears, which is a headband with interactive LED lights remotely controlled by a web application. They are aimed to increase visibility of peer feedback and decrease inattentive reactions.

Lo-fi prototype

Hi-fi prototype

1. Sign in

Students will be required to sign in with their CalNet account first

2. Connection

Students follow the instructions to connect their physical headbands

3. Course Selection

Course data will be recorded in reports

Reactions

Select the engagement state on screen will correspondingly change the color of the ears

Settings and Reports

PROTOTYPE #2

Class Heatmap:
Facilitate feedback and alignment & provide report

I also helped my teammates produce the prototype of another concept: a real-time display of students' engagement status to both students and the professor

USABILITY TESTING

What works out in each prototype?

We conducted moderated testing with 3 international students and 1 professor to identify any challenges and confusions that a user has when using the both prototypes.

Iteration

Based on the feedback from testing, we decide to combine the two prototypes with their complementary strengths.

Combined Student Interface

Combined Instrcutor Interface

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