Pavr
An educational tech app that focuses on providing pediatric oncology patients and their families information about cancer in a way that makes sese to them.
To kick off my research, I interviewed 5 participants who were children, parents, and healthcare professionals. Their ages ranged from 13-50 years old, and each interview took about 5-10 minutes to complete.
Interview Questions
Do you know what ed tech apps are?
Are there any ed tech applications that you currently have / have used?
To you, what are important factors that helped you or your kids learn best? Do you have any experiences?
Did you or your child have learning experiences that were not favorable?
12
Kahoot
Khan Academy
Pearson
Quizlet
Content explained thorougly/slowly
Visuals
Examples
Visuals
Concepts too hard and not enough examples
Reflection
Repetition
Memorization
Visuals
How might we remain mindful of and deliver sensitive information to our users?
Create mindful resources and solutions that make it easier for families and kids to easily digest new information. In order to do this, I wanted to reach out to a wide variety of audiences, and get a glimpse into the current workflows of resource sharing between the care team and family.
Competitive analysis to compare and dissect other ed tech apps
For this end-to-end project, it was a bit daunting to get started and be confident in design choices that I wanted to include in my product. This competitive analysis was a great help to pick apart other ed tech apps, and to see the features that made them successful and set them apart from their competitors.
Content is not explained well enough / had to revisit everything
50
Khan Academy
Design
SECTOR
Ed-Tech
Learning
Research goals and objectives
Interviewing process to supplement my research
Participant 2
Repetition
Easy to understand
Participant 3
20
Quizlet
Kahoot
Pictures
Colors
Fonts
Alone/ in silence
Repetition
Classes with lots of busy work felt more tedious than enriching
Participant 4
24
Duolingo
Kahoot
Quizlet
Chegg
Visuals (Diagrams, arrows, and pictures)
Participant 5
Youtube
Taught in a way unique to their learning style
Visuals
Simple language
Bright colors
A lot of examples
Step by step instructions
Visuals
N/A
User personas to capture the essence of our target audience and users
When creating user personas, I wanted to include very different personalities that could represent a diverse range of future users for this product. Since Pavr’s purpose would be to provide health-related information for patients and families, it was important to include both healthcare professionals and patients/families in this discussion and consideration.
Overview
Research
Age?
What ed tech apps have you used?
How do you learn best?
How do you think kids learn best?
Any unfavorable learning experiences?
Participant 1
34
Duolingo
Comfortable environments
Taught in a way unique to their learning style
Encouragement
Engaging content
Easy to understand
Content is taught too quickly/sped through
Ideation
Pavr is an app targeted towards providing families and kiddos with kid-friendly resources about all things cancer. This is done by gamifying the app through features such as stepping stones/achievements, minigames, and avatar customization. By going through different topics regarding their diagnoses, users can earn accessories to further customize their avatars.
Determining user and task flows to hone in on
User and task flows are essential tools to helping understand, plan, and optimize the user journey through a product or service.
User Flows
User navigates through onboarding to the home screen
User navigates through a unit, completing one “stepping stone”
User customizes their avatar
Task Flows
User completes onboarding process
User starts the first lesson in Unit 1
User changes avatar color
Site mapping to lay out information hierarchy
Site mapping was helpful in laying out the information hierarchy for Pavr in the early stages of its development. Mapping out the intended navigation and screen flows was a starting point in determining the different screens that I wanted to include in my user and task flows.
Developing lower fidelity wireframes
I was pretty excited to get started on designing these screens, and I used Duolingo to reference the general layout of some of the screens. My main goal was to find ways to make the Pavr app entertaining and engaging.
Creating a mood board and UI kit to capture the intended theme and vibes
One of my favorite deliverables! Conceptualizing my product from brainstorming the theme to creating a comprehensive mood board to further inspire me was quite helpful in designing a product that was visually aesthetic. The UI kit was also a great help in putting my ideas and elements all in one place to see how they pair together.
Parameters
5 participants
Middle schoolers, parents, and healthcare professionals
Experiences with learning and education
Task Flows
User completes onboarding process
Profile customization / Avatar creation
User completes first lesson in Unit 1
Making revisions based on user feedback
MY ROLE
Solo Project
UX Design
Research
UI Logo Design
Create mindful resources and solutions that make it easier for families and kids to easily digest new information.
In order to do this, it’s essential to:
Understand current pain points (whether they are related to new diagnoses or difficulty finding reliable resources
Gauge how to best relay information through this platform
Understanding current accessibility to pediatric oncology resources
Approaching this project, I wanted to make sure that I was careful about how to go about my research regarding this sensitive topic. Working first-handedly with families that are in their journeys to beat the odds with cancer, I know how difficult these obstacles can be for them. I also looked forward to connecting with other healthcare professionals at my hospital to gain a clinical perspective on how to best go about this project.
Research goal:
Create engaging user interface fit for kids and deliver content that is appropriate for children
Research objectives:
1) Interview parents and professionals who work closely with children to gain insight
2) Understanding the importance that online resources have when it comes to learning about sensitive topics
3) Understanding what elements can be used to optimize engagement throughout the task flows of the app
High fidelity wireframing to create a more realistic version of Pavr
The more that I progressed from the low fidelity wireframes to the high fidelity, I got a better picture of what screens were essential and needed to be added to create a smoother flow throughout the task flows.
Prototyping to bring usability of the product to life
Adding in the interaction flows to the prototype allowed me to carefully map out how each interaction with the screen would affect the next. It was important to be thorough in assigning these behaviors, so that participants in the usability testing would be able to give back essential feedback.
Key Takeaways
Take time with branding and logo design
Coming into this project, I wanted to make sure that I got the logo design on point. Since I had more creative freedom with making this product from scratch, I explored various different strategies to maximize my idea generation. Ultimately, I chose wordmark as the logo choice, and designed the theme and screens accordingly to fit an “outer space” theme.
Create different versions of screens
Creating different versions of screens encouraged me to explore different layouts and placements of elements. This was a great help during usability testing, because I could gain advice and opinions from my participants.
Takeaways from user feedback
Simple onboarding process
Sign in / Sign up process is easy to follow
Participants liked the overall outer space theme of the application
Separate accounts for parent and child are a nice touch to differentiate what different users might see when using the app
Possible iterations that are needed
Create a clearer “Start” point because kids may not be able to figure out where to start
Make instructions clearer
After
Before
DURATION
6 weeks
The Problem
Childhood cancer accounts for 1% of all new cancer cases each year in the United States
Childhood cancer is relatively rare compared to cancer in adults, and a cancer diagnosis can be difficult for kids and their parents to navigate
A lot of information to process
Key factors that make ed-tech apps successful with children
Engaging and interactive content
Personalization and adaptivity
Clear learning objectives
Age-appropriate content
The Solution