Redesigning the online classroom experience
A case study.
Udit Shakya
Design Briefš
Google classroom came out as a solution to schools in the coronavirus pandemic but, with great powers comes great responsibilities š·, and google couldnāt keep up with the schoolās and studentās needs. It was a personal project and my role was of a product designer, constraints were limited data and metrics I worked on solving problems of overs Millions of students, parents and teachers, letās find out how. š§
User Researchš
The research was done with a total of 10 people which includes 6 students and 4 parents, through one to one interviews and phone calls. I also referred to the internet, twitter and play store to gain insights on the problems faced by students, teacher and parents.

I was able to find some experienced designers like Niteesh and Rahul addressing the same issue which kinda gave validation to my hypothesis and research.
Pain Points Discoveredš¢
- Tech barrier makes logging in experience difficult.
- Use of 2ā3 different apps to manage online classes.
- Online classes lack discipline.
- Bad UX copy and poor visual feedback.
So, how big the problem is ? This much ā¬

Unfortunately, students from the government schools could hardly afford a smartphone, so letās discuss about those who have access to smartphones.
Now letās try fixing each of these problems one by one.š
1. Tech barriers make login difficultš„
Only 2 out of 10 users were able to login to the app without any assistance.

Android was launched in 2008 and ios was launched in 2007 and after that, it took 7 years more in India for smartphones to reach 242 M users which were 18% of the total population (2015), Hence -
- Parents are not familiar using apps like Gmail and setting up accounts.
- Students of grade 1st to 8th are also not familiar with setting up accounts.

Logging using School ID and Parentās numberš²
The new design brings a 2-step process, which uses school id and parentās number to log in, this makes login easy because -

- Parents are familiar with receiving text SMS and OTPs.
- Gives more control to parents in case of password lost.
2. Use of 2ā3 apps to manage online classesš

- Microsoft Team is made for offices and teams.
- Each app has its own method to operate and itās difficult to learn them altogether.
- Each app requires different accounts to manage.
Making Google Classroom a one-step solutionā”
Schools need 2 basic features video conferencing to conduct classes, chat to send announcements and interact.

- The new design integrates google meet with google classroom to conduct video conferencing.
- Announcement tab allows interaction with students, send messages and instructions.
- The new design has records of previous classes which allows parents to check attended/missed classes.
3. Online classes lack disciplineš¤
- You must have seen memes or videos where students enter the wrong name to bully teachers.
- Parents have no idea whatās going on in classes, students often are found busy with entertainment apps during their live class.

What makes schools disciplined that our app can incorporate?š¤
To understand this letās look at a typical day of any student.

- Strict timings.
- Under teachersā surveillance 24Ć7
- Fear getting reported for misbehaving.
- Control over students.
Letās see how I improved discipline with these insights.
A. Strict Timings

B. Control over students

C. Teachersā surveillance

4. Bad UX copy and poor visual feedbackšµ
- 9 out of 10 users couldnāt understand āhand inā meaning.
- 4 out of 10 users couldnāt tell if their work was submitted or not.

According to the first two principles of Heuristics -
- The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.
- The system should speak the usersā language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms.

- Students can easily understand submit meaning instead of hand in.
- Loading animation gives good visual feedback after submission.
- Smaller touch target for withdrawing homework prevents accidental click.
Results of redesignš
I tested the new design with the same 10 users and found out -
- 60% increase in successful login rates.
- Integrations of google meet made it easy to join classes without setting up an account.
- All parents felt more trust in online classes after improved discipline measures
- 80% increase in understanding the UX copy on the first time.
- 60% increase in users who were sure if their work is submitted or not.
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Udit Shakya

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