ROLE
UX Researcher + UX/UI Designer
TOOLS
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
COLLABORATORS
Other UX Researcher and Designer Teammates
TIMELINE
09/2023 - 12/2023
OVERVIEW
Who has juggled the insane coursework of high school with the mind-numbingly delicious social media distraction stored in their smartphones?
My team and I have.
In the age of short-form videos and superficial distractions, how could high school students balancing academics, sports, social lives, and extracurriculars ever find a calming moment to sit down and read the reading assignments, which now range from paperback books, online articles, to downloadable PDFs, page-by-paged, zoned in and focused?
To address high schoolers’ dwindling attention span and ability to focus on reading assignments, my team and I developed a tool for their reading needs as it pertains to academics for the Stanford Human-Computer Interaction Seminar. With Whizread, users are able to read their school assignments, novels or otherwise, with four reading modes designed to enhance concentration. Users will also be able to perceive their week’s reading from their dashboard, and take reading quizzes.
In the duration of four months, the project progressed from initial white paper research, to user-interview-focused UX research, the analysis of research findings, user flow development, and finally the design process.
PROJECT SUMMARY
OBJECTIVES
This UX design case study aims to develop an inclusive reading tool for high school students, prioritizing engagement for those with ADHD. The objectives include addressing the following issues.
The tool seeks to accommodate diverse high school activities, from academic responsibilities to hobbies, fostering a sense of community through virtual book clubs. The ultimate goal is to create a user-centric design that enhances the reading experience, making it both accessible and rewarding for all students.
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
USER PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we improve high school students' reading engagement, especially those with ADHD, post-COVID-19, and mitigate the 4.1-month literacy decline, considering the diverse activities and challenges they face?
USER INTERVIEWS
My team and I each interviewed two high-school aged participants, and inquired upon their daily lives based on the following themes:
SCHOOL WORK
Are there any repercussions for not completing your assigned readings (includes textbook, novel, websites, etc)?
How is your concentration when doing reading assignments? If you get distracted, why?
In your opinion, how do you think you can focus better when completing school reading assignments?
LEISURE READING
Do you read for fun?
What genres of books do you read?
What books have you read this year outside of class?
How many pages or chapters can you read before you stop to do something else?
Do you ever read the same books as your friends?
FOCUS
Do you procrastinate?
How well can you focus on a piece of homework that you do not feel interested in?
Do you have ADHD or suspect you have ADHD?
Think about your experience doing reading assignments on your laptop, how can your experience doing so be improved to help you focus better?
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
For the think-out-loud contextual inquiry prompt, my team and I asked the high school-aged participants to walk us through all the homework that were due that week. Here is an example of one of my users' answers (kids have it so hard these days).
USER SEGMENTATION
PERSONAS
01 PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL + DIAGNOSED ADHD: CLAIRE
02 PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL + DIAGNOSED ADHD: THOMAS
03 PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL + UNDIAGNOSED ADHD: KIMBERLY
SCENARIOS
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL + DIAGNOSED ADHD: CLAIRE
For Claire’s high school English class, she receives a reading assignment on Monday that is due on the upcoming Friday. Claire typically procrastinates on her assignments because she is always able to finish them quickly a couple of hours before the deadline. Plus, the adrenaline rush she gets by doing her homework right before the due date makes her more productive anyway. Therefore, for this reading assignment, she is just aiming to finish before the due date. Throughout the week, Claire doesn’t look at the assignment because she tells herself she will have enough time later on to do it. Claire spends her week hanging out with friends and finishing up other assignments that were due last minute.
Thursday night rolls around and Claire begins to look at her reading assignment from Monday. It is a whole 5 chapters spanning 58 pages. It’s currently 9PM and Claire realizes that the reading assignment is going to take her longer than expected by looking at the estimated reading time and has a panic attack, which renders her completely terrorized and unable to move.
After the attack, Claire knows she will not be able to finish her assignment as it is late. Greatly disappointed with herself, Claire goes to sleep unsure of what the repercussions will be for not doing the reading assignment.
PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL + DIAGNOSED ADHD: THOMAS
Thomas is reading the last two chapters of his new favorite book about the Roman Empire. Based on what his tutor says about reading for pleasure, he annotates throughout the text to remain focused and retain information more efficiently so that he can talk to his friends about it. He takes the pens from the desk in his bedroom to start the process and begins to underline, star, and leave comments in his book. However, over time, he puts down fewer annotations so that he can go through the reading faster. As a result, Thomas does not retain as much information and does not have much to refer to when he meets up with his friends to talk with them about the book. Thomas starts up his computer as he finishes reading the paragraph so he can do some research on the events in the book. He wants to quickly complete this reading before going to his friend's place. However, he has to re-read the content again because he did not annotate properly and does not know where the information that he wants to look up is. He frantically flips through the book to find where it is, but his friend is now texting him to ask when he will be coming over. He decides that it is best to send his friend a quick text to say that he'll be over in 20 minutes before turning his phone off. He is able to finally pinpoint where the funny quote from Julius Caesar is after 15 minutes. He underlines the text and bends the corner of the page before researching it on his computer. Looking over to his clock, he closes the book, puts it in his bag, and heads over to his friend's.
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL + UNDIAGNOSED ADHD: KIMERLY
Kimberly wrapped up two and a half hours of rigorous volleyball practice at 5:45PM, which left her utterly exhausted. On top of that, as a sociable 14-year-old, she accepted some friends’ invites to stop by Ulta Beauty and Starbucks after practice, which left her with barely enough time to shower before dinner as her mom had picked her up at 6:30PM. When she had finished dinner at 7:45PM, she was even more weary from a big dinner and her hot shower, but still needed to finish her homework, which included a geometry packet, reading two chapters of The Catcher in the Rye, and a chemistry worksheet.
Dreading the impending work, Kimberly first went on her phone for half an hour, replying to her friends’ texts and commenting on their Instagram posts, before finally placing her phone 20 feet away on her nightstand, and then she opened her backpack at her desk. Her goal was to finish up her reading assignment first, as it is usually the one that takes up most of her time. She decides that the best way would be to split up the chapters into short passages.
Kimberly started reading, trying to follow the short passage format she had outlined for herself, but she could not fully immerse herself into the book and concentrate fully. Her mind jumped elsewhere frequently. Before long, she had crept up to her nightstand and started scrolling on her phone again. When she checked the time, it was already 9:50PM. Exhausted and distracted, Kimberly decided to sparknotes the chapters.
Kimberly quickly rushed through the problems in her chemistry worksheets, leaving behind problems she was confused with, and did not bother to double-check her math work. As a reward for concentrating somewhat on the packet, Kimberly allowed herself yet again to go on her phone. As she scrolled, she became increasingly drowsy. As she drifted off to sleep, she set an alarm for 5:30AM with her eyes half closed, with her last thought being that she would finish her geometry packet in 6 hours.
PERSONA 3 KIMBERLY'S STORYBOARD
APP FLOW DIAGRAM
With the results from user interviews converted to UX requirements, I then moved onto translating them into an app flow diagram.
