From Context to Problem

Our client for is project is Winchester Thurston (WT) School in Pittsburgh. We need to make a design case that helps them solve the problems in project-based learning. We first met four stakeholders Graig Marx, Instructor of Research Science at WT school;Adam Nye, Assistant Head for Educational Strategy & Director of City as Our Campus program; Amanda Welsh, Dean of Faculty & Director of Middle School and Loren Gordon, Associate Director of College Counseling. 

We used affinity diagramming and diagnostic mapping to summarize the problems of four categories: assessment, project making, collaboration. Below is an example of the diagnostic map for assessment problems. 

Fig. 1 Diagnostic Map for Assessment Problems

Then we sent out questionnaires to students involved in PBL courses at WT school and found out that the greatest challenges they encounter in PBL are technique difficulties, research difficulties, and difficulty determining next steps. 

Next, we each drew 5 storyboards and did speed dating with our stakeholders. At last, 20 storyboards were condensed into 3. We finally decided to include the contents from 2 of our storyboards to inform our final design. The final problems we want to solve through our design are learning goal setting & tracking, collaboration and assessment. 

Fig.2 Storyboards

First Design 

First, we used paper prototype and storyboards to do user test on 2 WT students. Below is the homepage of our system, which includes functions like uploading project proposal, setting learning goals, uploading daily logs, checking progress bar, uploading self-reflection and viewing final grades. 

Fig. 3  Homepage of Paper Prototype System

Iteration

Our first user testing shows that students generally feel the value in our system, saying that they would like to keep track of their learning goals throughout the semester and receive fair individual grading. Several places they think need improvement include what 'tasks' mean in daily log uploading is not very clear, tagging collaborators is not practical enough as they might need to tag other people under the condition that they didn't participate themselves. Based on the insights, we conducted the second round of user testing using mid-fi wireframes from Figma (see Fig. 4 - 5)

Fig. 4 Mid-fi Prototype 1

Fig. 5 Mid-fi Prototype 2

Our second round of user testing led to the following improvements: 

• Refine the navigation in sidebar and header
• Add arrow to show sequence for each step on the homepage
• Change the term “Daily Log” to “Daily Progress”
• More obvious “Add daily Progress” button in the daily progress page
• Add “completion proportion” when uploading daily progress
• Add “Explanation” for the progress bar

Final Design 

Fig. 6 Final Design - Home Page 

Fig. 7 Final Design - Set Learning Goals 

Fig. 8 Final Design - Create Weekly Tasks 

Fig. 9 Final Design - Add Daily Progress

Fig. 10 Final Design - Finish Daily Log

Summary

To sum up, several core features of our system could guarantee its value and scalability to PBL courses. For example, hybrid goal setting, goal tracking, collaboration, documentation habit formation and individual assessments. The system is well-suited to other PBL courses as well because it enables multiple forms of evidence uploading, customized goal-setting templates and can include multiple courses in same system. 

Next Step

Based on our final pitch feedbacks, what we are going to do next include refining the hi-fi screens, designing a logo, and shooting a video prototype.