The Problem.

Despite a desire to form study groups, students often opt to work alone.

In a study with 450+ students, 78% had participated in study groups, 70% said that study groups increase motivation, and 60% learn more with study groups. However, only 19% actively preferred to work in study groups.
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This made sense to my team and I. Oftentimes, finding study groups was an anxiety-inducing situation for us, making us opt to work alone. Thus, we asked the question: How might we make finding study groups less intimidating?*

User Research

Our goal was to find the specific factors stopping students from forming study groups.

8 interviews

What motivates you to join a study group? What are your stories about finding and maintaining study groups?

38 survey responses

What are some emotions you associate with finding a study group? What often stops you from forming a study group?

Research Synthesis

After gathering our data, my team and I grouped our findings together to find themes & insights through affinity mapping.

Some groups we organized by: Motivations, problem points during the finding process, problem points during the actual study group meeting.

Our Research Findings

Study groups are more easily formed when there is a lower barrier of initiation.

User Personas

We made user personas to represent 2 common user groups we encountered.

User Journey Map

A journey map from Becky Xin case study ux designer

In short, Amber failed to make a study groups because a) her inhibition stopped her from approaching students in her class and b) her study group's goals misaligned with her own.

Ideation

Taking what I learned about the current process of finding study groups, I brainstormed ways I might intercept the user’s journey to change the outcome.

An image describing my 3 solution ideas for webbed: a reddit-style post, and a matching system.

While I expected my first solution to be most direct solution, user feedback revealed greater interest and excitement in the third option, with people expressing that they “would genuinely like to have something like this”.

There is a lower barrier to approaching other classmates when there are common experiences & friendships to bond over.

Sketching and First Mid-Fi Prototype

Low-Fi Sketching

I used the low fidelity sketches to 1) flesh out the idea and 2) present to users for interest and feedback, leading me to choose this design solution.

Mid-fidelity usability testing

I used my mid-fidelity prototype to test out crucial functions:
‍
1) Setting up the account
2) Navigation to matches & starting a chat
3) Creating a new groupchat from chats section.

Testing & Feedback - 2 Major Changes

On top of making changes to improve usability (such as more affordances to start chatting), user feedback allowed me to make large-level changes to my design.

Final Design

Presenting Webbed: a meaningful way to connect with other classmates.

Design System

Reflection

I really enjoyed creating Webbed and feel like I learned a lot about human centered design. Here are some of my lessons:

More user testing! Due to the time constraints of the project, I was only able to test the design on a few people. Had I interviewed more people, I know I could've created a more seamless product!

UI is a buildable skill. While I created and completed the initial app last April, I went back and revised the UI using the new UI principles I learned and practiced and was able to drastically improve it. UI is so important for the UX of a product and I hope to gain more and more experience over time. View old UI here!

Brainstorming actually works. I went in to this project with a set app solution idea in mind. However, after ideating several solutions (even ones that may not seem to fit at first), I actually used one of my more "crazy" ideas!

As I go forward, I will take what I learned and grow even more. Thank you HDesign Decal (my class).‍

Thank you for reading!

Source: McCabe, J. A. and Lummis, S. N. (2018). Why and how do undergraduates study in groups? Scholarships of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 4* (1), 27-42. Read through: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/what-students-can-learn-from-studying-together/

Webbed

The Problem.

User Research

Our goal was to find the specific factors stopping students from forming study groups.

8 interviews

What motivates you to join a study group? What are your stories about finding and maintaining study groups?

38 survey responses

What are some emotions you associate with finding a study group? What often stops you from forming a study group?

Research Synthesis

After gathering our data, my team and I grouped our findings together to find themes & insights through affinity mapping.

Some groups we organized by: Motivations, problem points during the finding process, problem points during the actual study group meeting.

Our Research Findings

Study groups are more easily formed when there is a lower barrier of initiation.

User Personas

We made user personas to represent 2 common user groups we encountered.

User Journey Map

In short, Amber failed to make a study groups because a) her inhibition stopped her from approaching students in her class and b) her study group's goals misaligned with her own.

Ideation

Taking what I learned about the current process of finding study groups, I brainstormed ways I might intercept the user’s journey to change the outcome.

While I expected my first solution to be most direct solution, user feedback revealed greater interest and excitement in the third option, with people expressing that they “would genuinely like to have something like this”.

There is a lower barrier to approaching other classmates when there are common experiences & friendships to bond over.

Sketching and First Mid-Fi Prototype

Low-Fi Sketching

I used the low fidelity sketches to 1) flesh out the idea and 2) present to users for interest and feedback, leading me to choose this design solution.

Mid-fidelity usability testing

I used my mid-fidelity prototype to test out crucial functions:‍1) Setting up the account2) Navigation to matches & starting a chat3) Creating a new groupchat from chats section.

Testing & Feedback - 2 Major Changes

On top of making changes to improve usability (such as more affordances to start chatting), user feedback allowed me to make large-level changes to my design.

Final Design

Presenting Webbed: a meaningful way to connect with other classmates.

Design System

Reflection

Thank you for reading!

Source: *McCabe, J. A. and Lummis, S. N. (2018). Why and how do undergraduates study in groups? Scholarships of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 4 (1), 27-42. Read through: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/what-students-can-learn-from-studying-together/

I used my mid-fidelity prototype to test out crucial functions:
‍
1) Setting up the account
2) Navigation to matches & starting a chat
3) Creating a new groupchat from chats section.

Source: McCabe, J. A. and Lummis, S. N. (2018). Why and how do undergraduates study in groups? Scholarships of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 4* (1), 27-42. Read through: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/what-students-can-learn-from-studying-together/