Competitive Analysis
Much of our initial research was spent looking at existing solutions. Online courses were a budding industry long before COVID and our colleagues at other universities and design institutes were exploring options as well.
A lot of teachers and students would post their new arrangements on social media.
Contextual Inquiry
As students ourselves, we would conduct surveys and tests during lectures and often observed other departments such as illustration.
This allowed us an understanding not only of friction points instructors faced but also what solutions they tried to implement be it improvised or bought.
User Interviews
We ran several interviews with school instructors across different departments.
Instructors
Humanities and Science
Teaching since 1979, using Zoom and Email
Product Design
Teaching since 2009, using Zoom, Email, and a range of Collaborative Software
Product Design
Teaching since 1990, using Zoom, Email, and a range of Collaborative Software
Illustration
Teaching since 2018, using Zoom, Email, and Sketch Software
Insights
Technological Difficulties
Instructors are used to learning new technologies - if they met some problem they have their own ways of finding help.
Instructors put heavy emphasis on seeing students' work process, even in classes that aren't strictly about practice. However, this is far more difficult to do remotely.
Functional Limitations
ArtCenter has a culture of pinning artwork on the wall for group critique, allowing for all work to be displayed side-by-side. This experience is missing from online courses. This practice, among others in ArtCenter studio courses, simulates the real business world but Zoom classes can't.
Showing simple demos takes too much time/effort in Zoom. Too much equipment or alternative software solutions are required.
Student Management
Some instructors believe that online teaching is more efficient and some aspects of online teaching could be adapted for normal workflow.
Instructors aren't used to the new class structure and frequently have trouble with class time management.
General Painpoints
Instructors need to see students' faces to establish emotional connection and class engagement.
Online teaching feels like a stopgap measure and there's a loss of emotional connection and collaboration through Zoom.
Findings
Instructors have under-prepared home offices
Instructors needed extra equipment in order to teach the class more efficiently, but these new tools take up a lot of real estate.
Cannot feel classroom temperament
Instructors want to be able to read the room, not only for emotional connection but also just to know if students, who often remain silent, are understanding the material.
Stiff teaching workflow
The need to use multiple software at once is time-consuming and can get confusing. As a result, the teaching process isn't as seamless.
Area of Opportunity
Not all instructors were impacted equally. Those who already primarily work in software or had relatively straightforward course material adapted well.
We identified that the instructors who most need help were those who needed to teach using physical demonstrations, a keen eye on student work process, and/or specialized equipment as a part of the course material.
Persona
We chose to target illustration instructors for the aforementioned reasons.
The key points are that illustration instructors who teach a traditional medium can nonetheless adapt well to an online environment and only need a few extra tools to help them in a new setting.
User Journey
Using observations and findings from our contextual inquiries and interviews, we mapped out the typical Zoom class experience without use of additional software.
Area of Opportunity
Not all instructors were impacted equally. Those who already primarily work in software or had relatively straightforward course material adapted well.
We identified that the instructors who most need help were those who needed to teach using physical demonstrations, a keen eye on student work process, and/or specialized equipment as a part of the course material.
So how might we organize home offices and refresh the digital classroom experience?
Value Proposition
Our plan was to bring the human element of design instruction to the digital remote environment by introducing new hardware that offers a degree of physicality absent from current setups.
To this end, we focused on three things:
Organize the home office environment and reduce clutter.
Allow for better emotional connection with students and tactility during lessons.
Streamline logistical tasks and the classroom flow.
Service Blueprint
Our service blueprint service not only as an extension of the user journey, but also our goal for Zoom for Design. Laying this blueprint out allowed us to highlight key points in the process to focus on.
Next Steps
Integration with other popular productivity applications such as Microsoft Teams.
Port the software to existing hardware solutions.
Explore possible applications for film work.
Post Script
This was my first in-depth UX research project, working directly with users and gathering data. Unfortunately we had to content ourselves with digital prototypes and mock scenarios when I wish we could have done some actual product testing. However, it was nonetheless a surprisingly great project considering the circumstances. This was the first term that ArtCenter or any of us took 100% remote and I'm proud to say that we were able to turn such circumstances into an opportunity instead of a hindrance.
