Full Story
Conoted
How can design help people to study more effectively?
Year
2023
Category
UIUX / Service Design
Designing a community and coworking space tailored for college students to enhance focus and productivity.
Conoted is a collaborative learning platform for college students, designed to facilitate course-specific communication, enhance active learning, and improve academic performance.
Introduction
Background
During my early college years, I faced personal challenges in finding effective study methods and getting connected with classmates. This personal experience motivated me to participate in a university business incubator program at RIT in my 4th year.
Initially, my idea was to create a class-specific Wikipedia, but it evolved into a collaborative note-sharing platform after conducting in-depth research and interviews.
“How do you feel about studying?”
Study
is a common struggle among university students
How can we enhance studying experience?
Group effort can solve this problem.
Key Concept
Observing many students dedicating hours and efforts, yet still struggling to achieve their academic goals, led me to the belief that students can study more effectively when they collaborate and channel their efforts in the right directions. This realization sparked the inception of my idea for a network of study notes.
I aimed for this product to address the scattered study efforts of students, providing a structured approach that guides them to focus on the contents of their classes and invest their efforts in the correct direction.
Research
Customer Discovery
To identify and understand the target user group, I conducted customer discovery interviews with over 130 college students from across the nation, including RIT, UofR, UC Berkeley, Cornell, and UPenn.
These interviews allowed me to gain insights into their study habits and challenges. Through this research, I identified their frustrations with studying and the need for better guidance.
Using the data gathered from these interviews, I adjusted my product's focus to provide study guidance and establish common communication channels for students attending classes on different campuses.
Yoon Namgoong, UC Berkeley
Alaina Mupparthi, Rochester Institute of Technology
130 Customer Discovery Interviews
Design Process
References
In designing a product that fosters student connectivity, I drew inspiration from Figma and Google Docs, two highly successful collaboration software tools that facilitate communication among users.
User Flow
Based on the design iterations and target user interviews, I created a user flow that reflects the key features and user engagements for the MVP.
The MVP includes four basic features: entering a class, creating a community, making a study note, and searching communities.
First Ideation
The initial design iteration revolved around the fundamental idea of a collaborative Wikipedia. Its primary focus was on allowing users to create and share notes in a manner similar to social media.
However, following the insights gained from the customer discovery interviews, our product underwent significant changes both in terms of its concept and visual design.
Second Ideation
In our second design iteration, we placed a stronger emphasis on enhancing the community aspect of Conoted. Based on insights from target user interviews, Conoted was designed to foster a sense of community by enabling students to join shared drives for collaborative note-taking in their core courses.
Additionally, students could engage in real-time chat channels to facilitate communication among themselves.
For our paid users, we provided access to content such as study notes from previous semesters, enhancing the value of the platform.
Final Concept MVP
Final Design
The project's final deliverable was a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that incorporated collaborative note-taking, the ability to search for notes from other classes, and a chat interface to support study groups.
Collaborative Note
Students can create study notes collaboratively with their classmates.
The note allows users to create and edit content, ask questions, and highlight what is important.
Students can naturally understand the content through this collective collaboration and study effectively together.
Chat Interface
Having a common communication channel is crucial for students to share their ideas and opinions throughout the semester.
Conoted provides a chat interface to facilitate communication among classmates.
Finding Notes from Other Classes
Throughout the customer discovery process, I heard that having the chance to look at study materials before the class progresses would be a great help for students.
Based on these insights, I developed the idea to allow students to search contents from other communities, giving them a chance to see how other students study.
This is one of the key main features of the MVP, depicting my effort to develop a product that is truly aligned with users' needs.
Takwaways
#1
Power of Communication
Through an extensive series of customer discovery interviews, our team effectively tailored Conoted to meet the specific needs of our target users.
As a result, we secured 14 alpha testers who expressed a keen interest in sharing their knowledge with fellow students and expanding their learning horizons by experimenting with new study methods.
The process of creating a product that genuinely supports people in their educational journey was a transformative and rewarding experience.
#2
Certificate of Concept Excellence - NYS Fingerlakes Region Business Model Competition 2023 (May 2023)
Conoted was honored with a Certificate of Concept Excellence at the New York State Business Model Regional Competition in 2023, where it stood out as one of the top business ideas among over 100 competitors.
In my role as the founder and lead designer of the product, I presented Conoted's business model to a panel of three experts in the fields of education and technology.
