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Bright Kids

Simple & Intuitive

Literacy for everyone, anywhere.

THE PROBLEM

How might we increase literacy in the U.S., by improving educational methods during grades K-2?

The U.S. Department of Education & the National Institution of Literacy estimate that 32 million American adults cannot read. 

At least 1in 4 Americans from low-income homes cannot read. Across the U.S., children lack basic literacy skills because of a lack of exposure, parental involvement or access to resources.  

WHY THIS?

This is a passion project and a concept

Why Bright? I am the daughter of two school teachers and I love to read. I'm also a mother who sat and read with her own child, but I've also spent time volunteering in elementary school helping children learn to read and it because of these experiences that I began to think, how could I 

What are the ramifications ?

 If a child cannot read by 3rd grade, they are 4x more likely to drop-out of High School.  

The children of parents with low literacy skills are more likely to live in poverty as adults. And are 5x more likely to drop-out of school. 

The higher the proportion of adults with low literacy proficiency is, the slower the overall long-term GDP growth rate. 

Bright is an e-learning platform designed to improve literacy by connecting teachers, parents, and students.

TIMELINE

This was a four-week process to identify gaps within current literacy e-learning literacy.

 TEAM

UX Researcher

UX Designer

KEY GOAL

Create a working prototype to garner additional feedback and iterations.

Skills learned at school are reinforced through different learning modules that include:

  • Reading

  • Comprehension

  • Spelling

  • Grammar

  • Vocabulary

  • Collaboration with peers.

 

Available on multiple platforms allowing children to practice at school and home. We developed a platform that reinforces skills through different modules. These modules can be tailored to the needs of each child. Real-time feedback is given to the teacher and parents on the student's status and skill level.​

RESEARCH

Focusing on the users' needs we asked, how might we design a product that will reinforce concepts, and instruct while simultaneously assisting three different users - the student, the parents, and the teacher?

We initially conducted a competitive analysis of 6 different e-learning competitors to determine their strengths and weakness, as well as market viability. This competitive analysis focused on competitor capabilities and areas of opportunity in the market.  Finally, 5 parents and teachers were interviewed to assess user needs and wants.

 

We spoke with teachers to determine:

  • What current products and platforms are used?

  • What are the elements they would value in an e-learning platform?

  • How might we make the platform collaborative among the teacher, the parent, and the student? 

Key Personas

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Hayleigh, Parent

  • Parent Dashboard

  • View modules

  • View individual child statistics to understand the child's learning gaps

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Cody, Kindergartener

  • Student dashboard

  • Interactive content

  • Ability to practice these skills at home.

  • Play games with my friends

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Penny, Teacher

  • Teacher dashboard

  • Comprehensive questions for each grade

  • Individual child statistics for each subject

  • Ability to re-assign modules to individual child. 

PROTOTYPE  & TESTING

By focusing our designs on a narrow use case, we would be able to iterate and understand how our solutions might elicit parental involvement at home. 

Users were asked to perform a variety of different tasks. While they performed the tasks we asked them different questions on the ease of use, and the intuitiveness of the platform. We asked the same users to try both the product on their smart-phone or tablet, as well as their desktop computer. 

 

  • 5/5 participants enjoyed the overall experience and were satisfied.

  • 4/5 participants were frustrated with the inability to access more content. They wanted to view the actual modules. 

  • 5/5 participants found the ability to view the child's statistics on the different modules helpful. They requested that more abilities be added to this feature. 

  • 4/5 participants liked the idea that their children can collaborate within the platform.​

Access paid content

Paid access to content on e-learning apps is a major hindrance to low-income families. 

Standards

There are no set Federal or National standards for any academic area and curricula.  Each specific State and its local agencies develop their own standards and curricula. State requirements drive individual content needs and compliance in privacy laws.

MVP

This platform covers a large multi-faceted problem set. The MVP of this prototype had to be broken down into three different things with the idea that the platform would continue to be developed in multiple stages. 

THESE WERE SOME KEY LEARNINGS 

DESIGNING BRIGHT

Our designs were quickly and thoughtfully sketched out from the learnings gained from research.  

Because the scope of the project is large, we made the decision to focus on the three key users. ​

  • The parents

  • The teacher

  • The student

The research revealed the following gaps in the current market. 

  • Onboarding for students

  • Dashboards for the teacher, students, and the parents

  • Access to content for the student

  • Parental access to statistical data for individual student 

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THE PROTOTYPE

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Mobile

The product required accessibility from multiple platforms. This mobile prototype walks the user through the student's journey

​

  • sign-in process

  • dashboard

  • modules

  • analytics

  • groups

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Parents have a similar dashboard which allows them to access their child or children's modules and individual analytics. 

Desktop

The product required accessibility from multiple platforms. This desktop prototype walks the user through the journey a teacher would take to access the following: 

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  • the site

  • dashboard

  • modules

  • group analytics

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Parents have a similar dashboard that only allows access to their child/children's modules and individual analytics. 

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RECOMMENDATIONS

More research is needed on this project to determine if this app would be a desireable product. 

After completing the initial research, prototype, and user testing, we synthesized our findings. Ultimately, the project is in its infancy and more user testing and prototype iterations need to happen before landing on the final prototype. 

Strategic Recommendations

Additional Research & Design Should Include:

  • Real content that children K-2nd grade can interact within the platform

  • Content for all modules with user testing

  • Further research on learning for children

  • Strategic partnership with Scholastic

  • Test group for the platform as a whole - integrated into five different classrooms 

  • Further testing of how the platform will work as a whole from sign-up/sign-in to use of parent, teacher, and child. 

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