This project was a finalist out of 500+ entries and received the second-highest score in Adobe's College + Amazon Design Competition.
overview
The following design project was a part of Adobe's International College Design Competition in collaboration with Amazon.
In a team of two, we were given the challenge of designing a tablet app (Android, Fire, iPad, etc) to provide a safe way for high school students (ages 13+) to discover design. This app should encourage students to discover what design is and how they interact with it every day, help them see the impact of good or bad design, encourage them to explore jobs/careers in design, and inspire them to start their own career in design.
The challenge was to design a tablet app for high school students to discover design in their everyday lives and allow them to explore design-related careers. Factors we prioritized were providing a safe environment for students to interact with one another while learning about design, engaging them using a gamified model of learning design principles, and allowing them to collaborate.
Solution
We created a high-fidelity prototype of our tablet app, WeDesign, with a focus on collaborative learning. WeDesign encourages students to safely explore the world of design through team projects, engaging learning modules, career exploration resources, and game challenges. Students can register through their school/NGO with a self-paced learning system.
The Learn page hosts themed modules to show the in-app effects of design choices. A notable feature I designed was a toggle element on each lesson that would change the page based on the design principle being taught. For example, students can toggle the colour feature on a page and view the app in greyscale in order to learn the importance of contrast. Similar toggles were implemented for font sizes and page layouts.
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The Explore portal allows students to delve into each individual design career path to explore what opportunities are available to them. By completing the learning and explore modules, students gain experience pointsand can unlock milestone achievements.
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Integrated with the point system, the Game Corner offers game challenges that use augmented reality (AR) to serve as a fun and educational way for students to apply their understanding of design.
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The Projects page is a platform where students registered with a school/NGO can collaborate on group projects with people who have different skillsets. Students can use any design medium available to them and upload their work for peer and supervisor feedback.
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Design Process
Ideation
We interpreted "discovering design" as a way to encourage students to observe the impact of design decisions in their daily lives. We also considered how best high school students learn and narrowed down on a gamified approach of introducing students to design applications. In order to balance application with learning the fundamentals, we also chose to include modules with intermittent challenges to test learning and give an opportunity to earn points.
We had the opportunity to book a brief consultation session with a Senior UX designer from Amazon. They liked our idea of gamified learning and wanted us to show some examples of how students will be encouraged to return to the app on a daily basis. They also suggested that we decide on a simple colour scheme that would suit student learning.
As a result, we developed the following branding identity:
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OUTCOME
With two team members, we were selected as one of eight finalists. We pitched WeDesign to an online crowd and a panel of 6 judges working as senior UX designers at Amazon USA. Out of 500+ total participants, we received the second-highest score.
Since the end of the challenge, I've conducted both secondary and primary research on gamified learning and collaborative work models. From here, I would also like to delve deeper into implemented augmented reality features and sustained user retention.
