Group Client Project
TalkMaze: Increasing Curriculum Transparency
Group Client Project
TalkMaze: Increasing Curriculum Transparency
Group Client Project
TalkMaze: Increasing Curriculum Transparency
Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
3-wk sprint, April-May 2024
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Adobe Contrast Checker
Stark Accessibility Tools
Methods
User Interviews
Heuristic Evaluation
Affinity Mapping
Persona
Impact Mapping
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
Task Flow
Site Mapping
C&C Analysis
Feature Prioritization
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
3-wk sprint, April-May 2024
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Adobe Contrast Checker
Stark Accessibility Tools
Our Happy Client
"What sets Heather apart is not just their UX expertise but also their exemplary teamwork and communication skills. They were always reliable, arriving on time for every meeting, and they took the lead in discussions, ensuring everything was clear and on track. Heather's professional communication fostered a collaborative and positive team environment, making every project discussion enjoyable and productive."
Ghalia Aamer, Founder of TalkMaze
Our Happy Client
"What sets Heather apart is not just their UX expertise but also their exemplary teamwork and communication skills. They were always reliable, arriving on time for every meeting, and they took the lead in discussions, ensuring everything was clear and on track. Heather's professional communication fostered a collaborative and positive team environment, making every project discussion enjoyable and productive."
Ghalia Aamer, Founder of TalkMaze
Our Happy Client
"What sets Heather apart is not just their UX expertise but also their exemplary teamwork and communication skills. They were always reliable, arriving on time for every meeting, and they took the lead in discussions, ensuring everything was clear and on track. Heather's professional communication fostered a collaborative and positive team environment, making every project discussion enjoyable and productive."
Ghalia Aamer, Founder of TalkMaze
Methods
User Interviews
Heuristic Evaluation
Affinity Mapping
Persona
Impact Mapping
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
Task Flow
Site Mapping
C&C Analysis
Feature Prioritization
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Methods
User Interviews
Heuristic Evaluation
Affinity Mapping
Persona
Impact Mapping
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
Task Flow
Site Mapping
C&C Analysis
Feature Prioritization
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
3-wk sprint, April-May 2024
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Adobe Contrast Checker
Stark Accessibility Tools
Methods
User Interviews
Heuristic Evaluation
Affinity Mapping
Persona
Impact Mapping
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
Task Flow
Site Mapping
C&C Analysis
Feature Prioritization
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Methods
User Interviews
Heuristic Evaluation
Affinity Mapping
Persona
Impact Mapping
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
Task Flow
Site Mapping
C&C Analysis
Feature Prioritization
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Amplifying Voices
Most notably in this project, I leveraged my expertise as a film producer and operations manager to streamline communications with our client over Zoom, email, and text message.
I led a team of four designers, as we partnered with TalkMaze, an online educational company committed to empowering children with public speaking skills.
We went above and beyond in fulfilling the founder’s request for a dashboard that streamlines families’ engagement with the curriculum, by
Facilitating meetings with the founder thrice a week
Joining virtual roundtables with current parents, students, and coaches of the company
Ensuring every design feature was backed by robust user research and addressed the founder’s needs
Amplifying Voices
I led a team of four designers, as we partnered with TalkMaze, an online educational company committed to empowering children with public speaking skills.
We went above and beyond in fulfilling the founder’s request for a dashboard that streamlines families’ engagement with the curriculum, by
Facilitating meetings with the founder thrice a week
Joining virtual roundtables with current parents, students, and coaches of the company
Ensuring every design feature was backed by robust user research and addressed the founder’s needs
Amplifying Voices
I led a team of four designers, as we partnered with TalkMaze, an online educational company committed to empowering children with public speaking skills.
We went above and beyond in fulfilling the founder’s request for a dashboard that streamlines families’ engagement with the curriculum, by
Facilitating meetings with the founder thrice a week
Joining virtual roundtables with current parents, students, and coaches of the company
Ensuring every design feature was backed by robust user research and addressed the founder’s needs
A Speaker Losing Her Audience's Trust
TalkMaze's founder Ghalia originally requested that we create a dashboard to centralize the information most important to enrolled students and their parents.
According to her, these families sought a reliable area to reference curriculum progress and lesson details. Ghalia connected us with 20 enrolled families, whom we promptly emailed to schedule user interviews. We compiled a comprehensive interview plan and mapped out our first week.
In the meantime, for more context about her current operations, Ghalia invited us to a Coach Huddle over Zoom, where TalkMaze's coaches vented to her about their frustrations.
Notably, they felt that they were not being fairly compensated for their expertise and the labor of rescheduling sessions and communicating with students' families.
After the meeting, we reevaluated Ghalia's request. We were concerned that TalkMaze's coaches, not the families, urgently needed a centralized platform. They yearned for a reliable way to reference lesson plans and ease their administrative workload of scheduling lessons. We could support them and help Ghalia strengthen retention.
But that would mean pivoting sharply in Week 2 of our 3-week sprint.
A Speaker Losing Her Audience's Trust
TalkMaze's founder Ghalia originally requested that we create a dashboard to centralize the information most important to enrolled students and their parents.
According to her, these families sought a reliable area to reference curriculum progress and lesson details. Ghalia connected us with 20 enrolled families, whom we promptly emailed to schedule user interviews. We compiled a comprehensive interview plan and mapped out our first week.
In the meantime, for more context about her current operations, Ghalia invited us to a Coach Huddle over Zoom, where TalkMaze's coaches vented to her about their frustrations.
Notably, they felt that they were not being fairly compensated for their expertise and the labor of rescheduling sessions and communicating with students' families.
After the meeting, we reevaluated Ghalia's request. We were concerned that TalkMaze's coaches, not the families, urgently needed a centralized platform. They yearned for a reliable way to reference lesson plans and ease their administrative workload of scheduling lessons. We could support them and help Ghalia strengthen retention.
But that would mean pivoting sharply in Week 2 of our 3-week sprint.
A Speaker Losing Her Audience's Trust
TalkMaze's founder Ghalia originally requested that we create a dashboard to centralize the information most important to enrolled students and their parents.
According to her, these families sought a reliable area to reference curriculum progress and lesson details. Ghalia connected us with 20 enrolled families, whom we promptly emailed to schedule user interviews. We compiled a comprehensive interview plan and mapped out our first week.
In the meantime, for more context about her current operations, Ghalia invited us to a Coach Huddle over Zoom, where TalkMaze's coaches vented to her about their frustrations.
Notably, they felt that they were not being fairly compensated for their expertise and the labor of rescheduling sessions and communicating with students' families.
After the meeting, we reevaluated Ghalia's request. We were concerned that TalkMaze's coaches, not the families, urgently needed a centralized platform. They yearned for a reliable way to reference lesson plans and ease their administrative workload of scheduling lessons. We could support them and help Ghalia strengthen retention.
But that would mean pivoting sharply in Week 2 of our 3-week sprint.
Listening to TalkMaze's Audience
We proceeded with our scheduled interviews, determined to understand the full picture before deciding to pivot. Since TalkMaze's parents were unresponsive during our first week, we expanded our pool to prospective student users. Due to our firm resolve, we interviewed:
3 current parent users
2 prospective student users
1 current student user
Through affinity mapping, our data indicated a strong user preference for student-facing and parent-facing dashboards that consolidate all necessary information in one easily accessible place.
Still concerned about the coaches, we pursued a product that would center students’ and parents’ needs, while also addressing coaches’ overlapping concerns about communication and curriculum transparency.
We diligently kept Ghalia in the loop about our potential pivot, and she deferred to our expertise and research.
Listening to TalkMaze's Audience
We proceeded with our scheduled interviews, determined to understand the full picture before deciding to pivot. Since TalkMaze's parents were unresponsive during our first week, we expanded our pool to prospective student users. Due to our firm resolve, we interviewed:
3 current parent users
2 prospective student users
1 current student user
Through affinity mapping, our data indicated a strong user preference for student-facing and parent-facing dashboards that consolidate all necessary information in one easily accessible place.
Still concerned about the coaches, we pursued a product that would center students’ and parents’ needs, while also addressing coaches’ overlapping concerns about communication and curriculum transparency.
We diligently kept Ghalia in the loop about our potential pivot, and she deferred to our expertise and research.
Listening to TalkMaze's Audience
We proceeded with our scheduled interviews, determined to understand the full picture before deciding to pivot. Since TalkMaze's parents were unresponsive during our first week, we expanded our pool to prospective student users. Due to our firm resolve, we interviewed:
3 current parent users
2 prospective student users
1 current student user
Through affinity mapping, our data indicated a strong user preference for student-facing and parent-facing dashboards that consolidate all necessary information in one easily accessible place.
Still concerned about the coaches, we pursued a product that would center students’ and parents’ needs, while also addressing coaches’ overlapping concerns about communication and curriculum transparency.
We diligently kept Ghalia in the loop about our potential pivot, and she deferred to our expertise and research.
Affinity Map Insight 1: Current TalkMaze users want the curriculum plan and lesson progress to be more clearly and consistently communicated by TalkMaze's staff and coaches. This aligns with our prospective users’ expectations.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users value more consistent updates about their children's progress.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users feel uninformed and concerned about their children’s learning progress with TalkMaze.
Opportunity 1: We designed a streamlined communication system that would effectively update our users on each student’s progress, coach feedback, and curriculum details, so that they know what to expect from future lessons.
Affinity Map Insight 1: Current TalkMaze users want the curriculum plan and lesson progress to be more clearly and consistently communicated by TalkMaze's staff and coaches. This aligns with our prospective users’ expectations.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users value more consistent updates about their children's progress.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users feel uninformed and concerned about their children’s learning progress with TalkMaze.
Opportunity 1: We designed a streamlined communication system that would effectively update our users on each student’s progress, coach feedback, and curriculum details, so that they know what to expect from future lessons.
Affinity Map Insight 1: Current TalkMaze users want the curriculum plan and lesson progress to be more clearly and consistently communicated by TalkMaze's staff and coaches. This aligns with our prospective users’ expectations.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users value more consistent updates about their children's progress.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users feel uninformed and concerned about their children’s learning progress with TalkMaze.
Opportunity 1: We designed a streamlined communication system that would effectively update our users on each student’s progress, coach feedback, and curriculum details, so that they know what to expect from future lessons.
Affinity Map Insight 2: Our users value hands-on learning with proactive instructors that address their specific public speaking needs.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users expect more consistent homework for their children to better engage with the curriculum, which aligns with 4 of 6 total users.
Opportunity 2: We created a dashboard that facilitates student-coach communication for questions, feedback, and upcoming assignments for a more personalized, participative learning experience.
At the same time, our design is personalized to TalkMaze’s opt-out homework policy and TalkMaze coaches’ expressed need for a strong communication boundary with families.
Affinity Map Insight 2: Our users value hands-on learning with proactive instructors that address their specific public speaking needs.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users expect more consistent homework for their children to better engage with the curriculum, which aligns with 4 of 6 total users.
Opportunity 2: We created a dashboard that facilitates student-coach communication for questions, feedback, and upcoming assignments for a more personalized, participative learning experience.
At the same time, our design is personalized to TalkMaze’s opt-out homework policy and TalkMaze coaches’ expressed need for a strong communication boundary with families.
Affinity Map Insight 2: Our users value hands-on learning with proactive instructors that address their specific public speaking needs.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users expect more consistent homework for their children to better engage with the curriculum, which aligns with 4 of 6 total users.
Opportunity 2: We created a dashboard that facilitates student-coach communication for questions, feedback, and upcoming assignments for a more personalized, participative learning experience.
At the same time, our design is personalized to TalkMaze’s opt-out homework policy and TalkMaze coaches’ expressed need for a strong communication boundary with families.
Sizing Up the Competition
As we assessed TalkMaze's business needs through meetings and affinity mapping, we also conducted SWOT and Competitive Analyses to hone our understanding of the most urgent design needs:
The current website's main strengths:
Showcases the benefits of public speaking for children, and demonstrates how the founder has proven her own public speaking skills through national competitions and TEDx talks.
Offers a 30 min free trial to try out the services before committing to the offered packages.
However,
The website provides no information about the coaches and their expertise before the user signs up.
The website has abundant information on speeches, but it is unclear on what families can expect when enrolled with TalkMaze, in terms of lesson structure, payment packages, and coaches’ experience levels.
Therefore, we derived these opportunities:
Create a clearer understanding around TalkMaze’s impact, by providing specific details about the curriculum and the available coaches.
Enhance user engagement by providing more in-depth details about what is included in each package.
However, our competitors illuminated these threats:
It can be difficult to determine whether TalkMaze is a good fit through a 30min trial.
Competitors like SparkStudio and NovaKids have a stronger sense of trust established from the beginning, through abundant details on coaches, their expertise, and curriculum plans.
Sizing Up the Competition
As we assessed TalkMaze's business needs through meetings and affinity mapping, we also conducted SWOT and Competitive Analyses to hone our understanding of the most urgent design needs:
The current website's main strengths:
Showcases the benefits of public speaking for children, and demonstrates how the founder has proven her own public speaking skills through national competitions and TEDx talks.
Offers a 30 min free trial to try out the services before committing to the offered packages.
However,
The website provides no information about the coaches and their expertise before the user signs up.
The website has abundant information on speeches, but it is unclear on what families can expect when enrolled with TalkMaze, in terms of lesson structure, payment packages, and coaches’ experience levels.
Therefore, we derived these opportunities:
Create a clearer understanding around TalkMaze’s impact, by providing specific details about the curriculum and the available coaches.
Enhance user engagement by providing more in-depth details about what is included in each package.
However, our competitors illuminated these threats:
It can be difficult to determine whether TalkMaze is a good fit through a 30min trial.
Competitors like SparkStudio and NovaKids have a stronger sense of trust established from the beginning, through abundant details on coaches, their expertise, and curriculum plans.
Sizing Up the Competition
As we assessed TalkMaze's business needs through meetings and affinity mapping, we also conducted SWOT and Competitive Analyses to hone our understanding of the most urgent design needs:
The current website's main strengths:
Showcases the benefits of public speaking for children, and demonstrates how the founder has proven her own public speaking skills through national competitions and TEDx talks.
Offers a 30 min free trial to try out the services before committing to the offered packages.
However,
The website provides no information about the coaches and their expertise before the user signs up.
The website has abundant information on speeches, but it is unclear on what families can expect when enrolled with TalkMaze, in terms of lesson structure, payment packages, and coaches’ experience levels.
Therefore, we derived these opportunities:
Create a clearer understanding around TalkMaze’s impact, by providing specific details about the curriculum and the available coaches.
Enhance user engagement by providing more in-depth details about what is included in each package.
However, our competitors illuminated these threats:
It can be difficult to determine whether TalkMaze is a good fit through a 30min trial.
Competitors like SparkStudio and NovaKids have a stronger sense of trust established from the beginning, through abundant details on coaches, their expertise, and curriculum plans.
Meet Meera and Her Daughter Priya
Equipped with our ample research, we established our personas. We distilled our interviewees into a primary parent persona and her child, focusing on TalkMaze's primary users, while supporting their trends with new users' first impressions of TalkMaze:
Meera is dedicated to her child's education and seeks clarity from TalkMaze regarding its approach to improving her child's public speaking skills. While her child, Priya, benefits from TalkMaze sessions and excels in speaking, Meera faces challenges in tracking the curriculum.
She desires a well-defined plan, regular progress updates, and easy access to coach information to ensure effective support and progress tracking. Clear communication of course material is crucial for Meera to align her efforts with her goal of Priya's successful education and skill development.
Meera and Her Daughter Priya
Equipped with our ample research, we established our personas. We distilled our interviewees into a primary parent persona and her child, focusing on TalkMaze's primary users, while supporting their trends with new users' first impressions of TalkMaze:
Meera is dedicated to her child's education and seeks clarity from TalkMaze regarding its approach to improving her child's public speaking skills. While her child, Priya, benefits from TalkMaze sessions and excels in speaking, Meera faces challenges in tracking the curriculum.
She desires a well-defined plan, regular progress updates, and easy access to coach information to ensure effective support and progress tracking. Clear communication of course material is crucial for Meera to align her efforts with her goal of Priya's successful education and skill development.
Meet Meera and Her Daughter Priya
Equipped with our ample research, we established our personas. We distilled our interviewees into a primary parent persona and her child, focusing on TalkMaze's primary users, while supporting their trends with new users' first impressions of TalkMaze:
Meera is dedicated to her child's education and seeks clarity from TalkMaze regarding its approach to improving her child's public speaking skills. While her child, Priya, benefits from TalkMaze sessions and excels in speaking, Meera faces challenges in tracking the curriculum.
She desires a well-defined plan, regular progress updates, and easy access to coach information to ensure effective support and progress tracking. Clear communication of course material is crucial for Meera to align her efforts with her goal of Priya's successful education and skill development.
Vision Alignment
My team determined which features and layouts would most effectively meet our users' needs. After aligning on vision, we sketched our planned frames and annotated each others' work, backed by design patterns identified through our competitors’ websites and Dribbble inspiration. Once we agreed upon the visualization of each feature, I assigned frames to each designer based on who had sketched the clearest versions of each.
Vision Alignment
My team determined which features and layouts would most effectively meet our users' needs. After aligning on vision, we sketched our planned frames and annotated each others' work, backed by design patterns identified through our competitors’ websites and Dribbble inspiration. Once we agreed upon the visualization of each feature, I assigned frames to each designer based on who had sketched the clearest versions of each.
Affinity Map Insight 2: Our users value hands-on learning with proactive instructors that address their specific public speaking needs.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users expect more consistent homework for their children to better engage with the curriculum, which aligns with 4 of 6 total users.
Opportunity 2: We created a dashboard that facilitates student-coach communication for questions, feedback, and upcoming assignments for a more personalized, participative learning experience.
At the same time, our design is personalized to TalkMaze’s opt-out homework policy and TalkMaze coaches’ expressed need for a strong communication boundary with families.
Affinity Map Insight 2: Our users value hands-on learning with proactive instructors that address their specific public speaking needs.
3 of 3 current TalkMaze users expect more consistent homework for their children to better engage with the curriculum, which aligns with 4 of 6 total users.
Opportunity 2: We created a dashboard that facilitates student-coach communication for questions, feedback, and upcoming assignments for a more personalized, participative learning experience.
At the same time, our design is personalized to TalkMaze’s opt-out homework policy and TalkMaze coaches’ expressed need for a strong communication boundary with families.
Vision Alignment
My team determined which features and layouts would most effectively meet our users' needs. After aligning on vision, we sketched our planned frames and annotated each others' work, backed by design patterns identified through our competitors’ websites and Dribbble inspiration. Once we agreed upon the visualization of each feature, I assigned frames to each designer based on who had sketched the clearest versions of each.
Gamification in the Spotlight
A Maze of Seashells and Stars
Through our frequent check-ins with Ghalia, we learned that she had exciting plans to revamp the lesson material, which our TalkMaze parent interviewees and coaches were all keen to easily access.
Her developing curriculum plan included a maze that students would pretend to navigate during lessons to earn digital tokens. They would also automatically earn a badge after each completed level.
Our team asked Ghalia for her reasoning to implement the maze, since the tokens acted similar to participation trophies, but we were eager to see her prior research. She revealed that she did not have any.
Parent Advisory Meeting: Evaluating the Maze
Curious about how her users would view the tokens, we attended meetings with concerned TalkMaze parents and eager TalkMaze student leaders. I represented our team when addressing the parents and facilitating discussion about how our designs could best serve them.
The parents shared about their dream states for TalkMaze, eager for their children to have fun mastering public speaking. In particular, they wanted their children to practice a variety of speech topics relevant to their real-life environments — something not currently offered.
In line with this vision, the parents also wanted tangible rewards with genuine, real-world impact that must be earned. They considered these rewards only valuable if they were not guaranteed to everyone, rendering Ghalia's current gamification plan less useful than she expected.
Student Advisory Meeting: Seeking Real-World Impact
We soon learned that the parents' desires also closely aligned with the students' own measures of success. TalkMaze's student leaders sought rewards that they could earn to motivate themselves. They also wanted to hone their skills through debate competitions and speeches, as well as mentorship opportunities.
Identifying Our Piece in the Puzzle
It had become clear that TalkMaze has ample room to grow, and our dashboards could provide a foundation as Ghalia and her team better understood their users' needs and dreams, through our research and meeting facilitation.
Vision Alignment
My team determined which features and layouts would most effectively meet our users' needs. After aligning on vision, we sketched our planned frames and annotated each others' work, backed by design patterns identified through our competitors’ websites and Dribbble inspiration. Once we agreed upon the visualization of each feature, I assigned frames to each designer based on who had sketched the clearest versions of each.
Solution Statement
Our UX design team worked with TalkMaze to better personalize its website for parents and students like Meera and Priya.
Our goal was to design a user-friendly dashboard that provides families with convenient and clear access to personalized TalkMaze curriculum and view coach feedback. With our new dashboard, parents like Meera can also see that her daughter is succeeding in her education goals through obtaining awards.
These new features together allow families to be more confidently informed about and engage with their students’ achievements and learnings. Meera can rest assured that her daughter is having a formative experience.
Our TalkMaze dashboards provide a clear way for TalkMaze parents and students to track students’ lesson progress through both big-picture overview and in-depth details.
We prioritized simplicity and clarity to give users the ability to track progress on sessions and payment plans, communicate effectively with coaches, and support student success, ultimately providing a space to do all in one.
Solution Statement
Our UX design team worked with TalkMaze to better personalize its website for parents and students like Meera and Priya.
Our goal was to design a user-friendly dashboard that provides families with convenient and clear access to personalized TalkMaze curriculum and view coach feedback. With our new dashboard, parents like Meera can also see that her daughter is succeeding in her education goals through obtaining awards.
These new features together allow families to be more confidently informed about and engage with their students’ achievements and learnings. Meera can rest assured that her daughter is having a formative experience.
Our TalkMaze dashboards provide a clear way for TalkMaze parents and students to track students’ lesson progress through both big-picture overview and in-depth details.
We prioritized simplicity and clarity to give users the ability to track progress on sessions and payment plans, communicate effectively with coaches, and support student success, ultimately providing a space to do all in one.
Solution Statement
Our UX design team worked with TalkMaze to better personalize its website for parents and students like Meera and Priya.
Our goal was to design a user-friendly dashboard that provides families with convenient and clear access to personalized TalkMaze curriculum and view coach feedback. With our new dashboard, parents like Meera can also see that her daughter is succeeding in her education goals through obtaining awards.
These new features together allow families to be more confidently informed about and engage with their students’ achievements and learnings. Meera can rest assured that her daughter is having a formative experience.
Our TalkMaze dashboards provide a clear way for TalkMaze parents and students to track students’ lesson progress through both big-picture overview and in-depth details.
We prioritized simplicity and clarity to give users the ability to track progress on sessions and payment plans, communicate effectively with coaches, and support student success, ultimately providing a space to do all in one.
Gamification in the Spotlight
A Maze of Seashells and Stars
Through our frequent check-ins with Ghalia, we learned that she had exciting plans to revamp the lesson material, which our TalkMaze parent interviewees and coaches were all keen to easily access.
Her developing curriculum plan included a maze that students would pretend to navigate during lessons to earn digital tokens. They would also automatically earn a badge after each completed level.
Our team asked Ghalia for her reasoning to implement the maze, since the tokens acted similar to participation trophies, but we were eager to see her prior research. She revealed that she did not have any.
Parent Advisory Meeting: Evaluating the Maze
Curious about how her users would view the tokens, we attended meetings with concerned TalkMaze parents and eager TalkMaze student leaders. I represented our team when addressing the parents and facilitating discussion about how our designs could best serve them.
The parents shared about their dream states for TalkMaze, eager for their children to have fun mastering public speaking. In particular, they wanted their children to practice a variety of speech topics relevant to their real-life environments — something not currently offered.
In line with this vision, the parents also wanted tangible rewards with genuine, real-world impact that must be earned. They considered these rewards only valuable if they were not guaranteed to everyone, rendering Ghalia's current gamification plan less useful than she expected.
Student Advisory Meeting: Seeking Real-World Impact
We soon learned that the parents' desires also closely aligned with the students' own measures of success. TalkMaze's student leaders sought rewards that they could earn to motivate themselves. They also wanted to hone their skills through debate competitions and speeches, as well as mentorship opportunities.
Identifying Our Piece in the Puzzle
It had become clear that TalkMaze has ample room to grow, and our dashboards could provide a foundation as Ghalia and her team better understood their users' needs and dreams, through our research and meeting facilitation.
Gamification in the Spotlight
A Maze of Seashells and Stars
Through our frequent check-ins with Ghalia, we learned that she had exciting plans to revamp the lesson material, which our TalkMaze parent interviewees and coaches were all keen to easily access.
Her developing curriculum plan included a maze that students would pretend to navigate during lessons to earn digital tokens. They would also automatically earn a badge after each completed level.
Our team asked Ghalia for her reasoning to implement the maze, since the tokens acted similar to participation trophies, but we were eager to see her prior research. She revealed that she did not have any.
Parent Advisory Meeting: Evaluating the Maze
Curious about how her users would view the tokens, we attended meetings with concerned TalkMaze parents and eager TalkMaze student leaders. I represented our team when addressing the parents and facilitating discussion about how our designs could best serve them.
The parents shared about their dream states for TalkMaze, eager for their children to have fun mastering public speaking. In particular, they wanted their children to practice a variety of speech topics relevant to their real-life environments — something not currently offered.
In line with this vision, the parents also wanted tangible rewards with genuine, real-world impact that must be earned. They considered these rewards only valuable if they were not guaranteed to everyone, rendering Ghalia's current gamification plan less useful than she expected.
Student Advisory Meeting: Seeking Real-World Impact
We soon learned that the parents' desires also closely aligned with the students' own measures of success. TalkMaze's student leaders sought rewards that they could earn to motivate themselves. They also wanted to hone their skills through debate competitions and speeches, as well as mentorship opportunities.
Identifying Our Piece in the Puzzle
It had become clear that TalkMaze has ample room to grow, and our dashboards could provide a foundation as Ghalia and her team better understood their users' needs and dreams, through our research and meeting facilitation.
One Space to Do It All
For our end product, we consolidated the original features highlighted in our affinity mapping with features that Ghalia requested in our final week.
To ground our design, we prioritized simplicity and clarity to give users the ability to track progress on sessions and payment plans, communicate effectively with coaches, and support student success, through both big-picture overview and in-depth details.
Our series of dashboards allow families to be more confidently informed about and engage with their students’ achievements and learnings, while offering privacy for parent-only features and giving TalkMaze the opportunity to smoothly integrate its evolving plans for group curriculum and group chat features.
One Space to Do It All
For our end product, we consolidated the original features highlighted in our affinity mapping with features that Ghalia requested in our final week.
To ground our design, we prioritized simplicity and clarity to give users the ability to track progress on sessions and payment plans, communicate effectively with coaches, and support student success, through both big-picture overview and in-depth details.
Our series of dashboards allow families to be more confidently informed about and engage with their students’ achievements and learnings, while offering privacy for parent-only features and giving TalkMaze the opportunity to smoothly integrate its evolving plans for group curriculum and group chat features.
Visual Considerations
During prototyping, we utilized Adobe Contrast Checker and Stark Accessibility Tools to accommodate users with visual impairments, because we wanted to care for these users.
Our efforts would be a starting point for TalkMaze to increase the accessibility of its new platform.
Visual Considerations
During prototyping, we utilized Adobe Contrast Checker and Stark Accessibility Tools to accommodate users with visual impairments, because we wanted to care for these users.
Our efforts would be a starting point for TalkMaze to increase the accessibility of its new platform.
Visual Considerations
During prototyping, we utilized Adobe Contrast Checker and Stark Accessibility Tools to accommodate users with visual impairments, because we wanted to care for these users.
Our efforts would be a starting point for TalkMaze to increase the accessibility of its new platform.
The Final Speech
I synthesized our deliverables into a slide deck and coached my teammates on how to best present their slides, which had been assigned based on which deliverables they felt most confident in publicly describing and representing.
I championed their strengths and gave them advice on how to make clear transitions and strengthen their individual practice. It was an absolute joy to watch them grow in confidence and ownership of their gained expertise.
I presented our Affinity Map insights and walked our client through our hi-fi prototype, demonstrating my own strengths in comprehensive analysis and captivating storytelling.
The Final Speech
I synthesized our deliverables into a slide deck and coached my teammates on how to best present their slides, which had been assigned based on which deliverables they felt most confident in publicly describing and representing.
I championed their strengths and gave them advice on how to make clear transitions and strengthen their individual practice. It was an absolute joy to watch them grow in confidence and ownership of their gained expertise.
I presented our Affinity Map insights and walked our client through our hi-fi prototype, demonstrating my own strengths in comprehensive analysis and captivating storytelling.
The Final Speech
I synthesized our deliverables into a slide deck and coached my teammates on how to best present their slides, which had been assigned based on which deliverables they felt most confident in publicly describing and representing.
I championed their strengths and gave them advice on how to make clear transitions and strengthen their individual practice. It was an absolute joy to watch them grow in confidence and ownership of their gained expertise.
I presented our Affinity Map insights and walked our client through our hi-fi prototype, demonstrating my own strengths in comprehensive analysis and captivating storytelling.
Up Next
We look forward to future iterations of TalkMaze's user interfaces, and we envision several opportunities for TalkMaze to further streamline its internal communication and secure its long-term success.
Opportunity 1
Establish and maintain positive relationships between coaches and families through standardized communication, starting with our series of dashboards.
Opportunity 2
Consolidate features from the previous iteration of the dashboard that fulfill current user scheduling and payment-tracking needs and implement them into our team’s design.
Ghalia showed us the previous dashboard in the final days of our spring, and we were impressed with several of the features that could further strengthen the company's operations.
Opportunity 3
Standardize the branding color palette with more nuanced accessibility considerations.
Up Next
We look forward to future iterations of TalkMaze's user interfaces, and we envision several opportunities for TalkMaze to further streamline its internal communication and secure its long-term success.
Opportunity 1
Establish and maintain positive relationships between coaches and families through standardized communication, starting with our series of dashboards.
Opportunity 2
Consolidate features from the previous iteration of the dashboard that fulfill current user scheduling and payment-tracking needs and implement them into our team’s design.
Ghalia showed us the previous dashboard in the final days of our spring, and we were impressed with several of the features that could further strengthen the company's operations.
Opportunity 3
Standardize the branding color palette with more nuanced accessibility considerations.
Up Next
We look forward to future iterations of TalkMaze's user interfaces, and we envision several opportunities for TalkMaze to further streamline its internal communication and secure its long-term success.
Opportunity 1
Establish and maintain positive relationships between coaches and families through standardized communication, starting with our series of dashboards.
Opportunity 2
Consolidate features from the previous iteration of the dashboard that fulfill current user scheduling and payment-tracking needs and implement them into our team’s design.
Ghalia showed us the previous dashboard in the final days of our spring, and we were impressed with several of the features that could further strengthen the company's operations.
Opportunity 3
Standardize the branding color palette with more nuanced accessibility considerations.
Case Studies
