Think Links is a single platform that helps students to create/join study sessions with other students, share notes, audio and video recordings, and allow students to highlight important moments and topics during the session which gives them the ability to go back and review them later.

Think Links

Project Overview :

Project Type: School project.

Duration: March 2020 - May 2020

Team: 3 people.

My Role: UX/UI Design, UX Research

Design Process:

01 Identify the problem.

02 Research.

03 Ideation.

04 Design.

05 Analyze/Test.

01 The Problem

College students who prefer to study in groups find it difficult to organize study sessions due to their different schedules. Even when they do, they face trouble keeping the information and the notes they shared in a specific study session organized and accessible for future references.

02 Research

Early Insights

We interviewed 20 college students on campus and asked them about their process in organizing a group study session.

Our goal was to understand the challenges students face when participating in a group study session.

Current methods :

We found in our research that students currently use WhatsApp, Group me, Slack, iMessage, and Skype to organize group study sessions.

We had students described their process in creating a study session. The common scenario was that one person from the group sends a group message to other students informing them of the session. Then, students start suggesting times for meeting up. This process takes a lot of time until all students find a shared free time.

When the time of the study session comes, some students set up an agenda depending on the session. During the session, students collect notes, homework, and projects and share them with other students by snapping a photo or making copies of them.

The session ends when the topics get covered or when students get other things to do or places to go. In some cases, not all topics will be covered after the session is over.

When students were asked about how much of the information they remember from a specific group session, the average answer was 65%.

Reframing the Problem

Difficulty in scheduling a time that works for everyone!

The first problem students face is scheduling a meeting time that works for everyone, especially with the different schedules each student has.

The current method they use is texting back and forth about a certain time and date which could take a lot of time to find a shared available time.

Problem in keeping up with all the information discussed in the session.

After a study session is over, most of the shared information will be forgotten or won't be accessible to everyone except the people who were able to keep up with taking notes.

Problem in keeping notes organized.

Even when taking notes, a big problem students face is keeping these notes and documents organized in a that is easy to access later when needed, rather than looking for them from a ton of shared notes and photos.

03 Ideation

Gathering ideas:

To solve the student's main problems, we wanted to come up with a solution that helps students prior, during, and after the study session to provide a better experience for users.

We decided to create an app that provides an all-in-one service for students throughout the full journey of a group study session.

To solve the first problem which is scheduling, we wanted to be able to know student's free times in advance which can make scheduling way easier and efficient. The solution to this problem is to have students import their schedules and save them in the app so that when a new session is created, the app can automatically generate the possible meeting times based on the shared availability of the group members.

Another solution that we wanted to implement into the app to improve the efficiency of the study session and the overall user satisfaction was to allow students to audio record the session so that they can go back to it even after the session is over to review the information. We also wanted to make the recording feature more effective and useful for students by allowing them to mark any important topics/moments during the session. This would make it easier for students to locate the important topics they wish to go over and review if they did not want to go through the full recording.

We also wanted to improve the way students share notes and files. Our solution was to allow students to share all files (photos, videos, and documents) inside the study session in the app at any time during the session. When a student shares a file, it would have a time indicator connected to the recording so that it would have a clear context when accessed later. By doing so, students won't have to worry about missing any important notes or files because they would be able to see all of that in one spot in the session afterward.

The last thing we wanted to implement in our app was an "ask a question" feature, which will allow students to ask any question regarding a previous study session.

When a student asks a question, they can connect it to a specific part of the session recording. Then, a notification will be sent to all other members that question was asked where are they can go in and answer it.

Reframing the Solution

Scheduling

is easy!

Allow students to import their schedules or link their calendars so the app collects the student’s schedules and recommends a meeting time based on the shared free time.

Record it,

you might need it!

Allow students to record the session with the ability to mark key moments based on a specific topic or an important part of the session where they can be easily accessed later if needed.

Sharing

is caring!

Allow students to share notes, pictures, and videos in the session with the ability to associate them with a specific part of the session so they have the correct context.

Oh, I have a

Question

Allow students to add comments or ask questions on previous sessions where other students get notified so they can reply or answer any questions.

04 Design

1st Iteration

During the early stages of the design process, I came up with low-fidelity mock-ups to visualize the proposed solutions.

My goal in the design was to minimize the complexity throughout the different processes.

After creating the first iteration of the Prototype, I showed it to my team to get their insights and feedback.

-The time was limited so we have to skip the user testing with actual students at this part of the design process.-

2nd Iteration

After gathering all the feedback from the team, I started working on the High-Fidelity mockups using Adobe XD.

Bring It to Live

Creating a new session:

From the dashboard, the student taps on the “Create a new session” button.
Next, the student enters the session name, location, and selects session members from the list of friends or can invite new users via a phone number or email.
The app will automatically generate the shared available times between all students.
The student then selects the day and the date.
The app will display all the available times for that exact date where the student can choose from.
Finally, the student will confirm the session details and add any description which will appear in the invitation for other students.
The student would also be able to add and goal for the session to be used as an agenda for the session.

Recording a session:

From the dashboard, the student selects the session from the “Upcoming sessions” list.
Session details will appear on the screen.
Once it’s time to start, the student taps on the play button to start the session.
The audio recording starts with the ability to pause it at any time.
Students would be able to check off the goals once they cover them.
Students would be able to highlight any key moment by tapping on the “+” button. Once a key moment is added, it will be marked in the recording for future use.
Students would also be able to attach files by tapping on the attachment button the selecting the file type. Once the file is added, it will appear on the screen with a timestamp for future use.

Revisiting a previous session:

From the dashboard, the student selects the session from the “Previous sessions” list.
Students can play the audio recording of the session.
The app will automatically generate a written transcript of the recording to make it easier to follow up.
Students can easily jump to a specific key moment by tapping on it from the “Key moments” list.
All attachments will be displayed on the screen with time stamps from the recording.
Students would be able to add comments/questions at any time by tapping on the “+” button. Once a question is asked, it will appear under the “Comments/Questions” section and a notification will be sent to other students that a question was asked.

Adding events to the calender:

From the dashboard, the student taps on the calender icon on the top right corner.
The student's personal calender displays on the screen.
The student can ta on the "+add" button to add any event.
The student enters the event's title, time, and the days of the week of the event then tap on the "Add" button to add it to his schedule.
The event will appear on the calender and will be saved in the app.
Students can view their schedule in a day, week, and month format.

View the full interactive prototype

05 Analyze/testing

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After creating the high-fidelity Prototype, we conducted 5 usability tests with students on campus to evaluate the effectiveness of our app and to get feedback from potential users.

During the usability tests, students were asked a few introductory questions about their experience in conducting group study sessions.

Next, we showed them the interactive prototype and asked them to navigate through the main functions of the app such as creating a new study session, starting a session, revisiting a previous session, and reviewing the personal calendar and adding events to it.