01 // Overview
Making Office Hours More Accessible
In my second capstone course, our group of 6 was tasking with creating a digital solution that would improve any aspect of the education experience. The goals of the project were to plan and launch a viable business, plan a product or service that meets the needs of consumers and customers, as well as analyzing, testing, and iterating on designs and prototypes. Our team chose to address office hours and improve this experience for both students and educators (professors/teaching assistants).
For this project, I specifically worked on conducting several informal interviews with educators to generate initial research for the problem, performing extensive competitive analysis for similar solutions, designing/modifying several of the high fidelity screens, creating test questions, and conducting usability tests.
02 // Background
Tools
Role
Timeline
Team
03 // Problem
How might we make office hours more accessible for students and instructors?
Being able to speak with an educator 1-on-1 about studies is extremely valuable for students, however there is lots of room for improvement based on our discovery interviews with educators and students who expressed their pain points about their experiences with office hours.
04 // User Research
What pain points do educators and students face?
After conducting user research primarily through interviews we discovered the following pain points with our two user groups, educators and students:
Issue // 01
Educators may face empty office hours or massive queues
Educators sometimes end up answering repetitive questions. Educators may not be able to answer all of the student’s questions during the available office hours.
Issue // 02
Students are limited to set time slots, regardless of their personal schedule
If students have class or other responsibilities during the office hours sessions, they will not be able to attend
Issue // 03
Required physical meetings reduce opportunities for feedback and advice
Students and educators may need to commute far distances to arrive at the location of the office hours, reducing the amount of potential time they have available.
Side Note
This project started in January 2020 before COVID-19 impacted the typical day-to-day schedule, so the possibilities of physically meeting became non-existent by the time we were wrapping up the project, however we were glad we were able to identify this pain point of physical meetings prior to it beginning.
05 // Personas
What pain points do educators and students face?
Based on our user interviews with students, instructors, and teaching assistants, we developed personas who would represent the users for our solution:
Martha
Senior Instructor
Profile
Martha has become increasingly frustrated with the way office hours work. Either no one shows up or people are queuing for hours to ask similar questions. She attempts to mitigate this by sending email FAQs to her students.
Needs
Having an easier way to provide office hours that gives better value
Informing students of answers to FAQs
Having an understanding of how many students will attend office hours to better manage her time
Justin
University Student
Profile
Justin didn’t understand a concept in class and wants to get help. Unfortunately, the only times available for him to meet up with his professor happen during his work shift. When he has an opportunity to go, the commute is too far to campus to make it on time.
Needs
Catching up on concepts he didn’t understand in class
A way to attend office hours during the times he is available
Being able to attend office hours wherever is most convenient
06 // High-Fidelity Mockups
From low to high fidelity
Based on how the roles were assigned for the project, my teammates worked on the paper prototype and low fidelity prototype, leaving myself and my teammate, Steven, to work on designing the mockups and prototype for the student’s side of the app and designing the high fidelity version of our web application, Cue, using Figma.
At the beginning of this iteration cycle I initially reworked some of the preexisting screens for students to ensure they matched the UI kit design, created by Steven, such as the videos on demand or to enhance the user experience such as making the “Go Live” button more apparent. I then spent the remaining time designing the screens for the student’s side of the web app.
07 // Usability Testing
One final round of testing to uncover usability issues
After Steven and I completed the high fidelity prototype, we conducted the third and final round of usability testing to ensure that the general flow was understood (such as booking an appointment) by our users and assumptions we made about new features were understood (such as the online queue system). Most importantly, we wanted to ensure that this product would be something our target users would be interested in. I created a script and spreadsheet for the usability testing, which the two of us used on our participants.
After we conducted this round of usability testing, I aggregated the most common issues our participants had (logout option and legibility issues), as well as several suggestions (raising hand option for students), and made revisions to the high fidelity prototype for our final submission to ensure that the user experience was polished.
08 // Final Designs
How it works for educators
Group sessions
Instructors can schedule live sessions for an entire class. This address issues regarding students’ understanding on a difficult topic and recurring questions being asked.
Private sessions
Instructors can host private sessions to groups or individuals. This provides a tailored experience, much like traditional office hours.
How it works for students
Join anywhere
If the professor or teaching assistant is holding a session, students would be able to join those office hours from anywhere. Students can virtually raise their hand to ask a question and pin comments to the top for the educator to answer.
Book sessions
Students can book sessions with a specific educator during their scheduled office hour periods. They can schedule alone or with a group to ask a question they have. Cue will be integrated with the school’s Learning Management System to have access to class lists for group members.
Watch past group sessions
A new office hour experience: Students can now watch past public sessions to review or catch up. Videos and files shared are downloadable for your own records or to see on the go without wifi/data.
09 // Reflection
Outcome & lessons learned
This project showcased the collective knowledge and growth I acquired over the years at university and was a great send off. Our group received a 93% for this capstone project.
Lesson // 01
Importance of a design system
At the time, this was my first project working together with other designers so I learned how collaborate with other designers and how to follow a design system to create a harmonious experience for the end user.
Lesson // 02
Designing for Accessibility
After the project was completed, I realized that the colour palette chosen didn't meet WCAG guidelines for text contrast. Going forward I became more cognizant of accessibility principles I could incorporate into my designs.
