Mathventures served as our capstone project at the University of Maryland. We were approached by our client who sought to infuse an element of fun into her children's math practice. Amidst the pandemic, she had transitioned to homeschooling her kids and envisioned this tool as a valuable aid in their education, with the aspiration to eventually integrate it into the daily routines of children everywhere.

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Problem Statement

Research and identify challenges children face while trying to learn math concepts and design a coloring-based game for K-5 children (ages 5-10) to enjoyably practice and reinforce math skills.

Role

UX Researcher and Sprint Facilitator

• In a team of 5 Designers, I was responsible for the UX research and for management of the sprint cycle. I also helped with the visual design for the prototype.

Project Objectives

• Create a MVP for proof-of-concept purposes and evaluate the app capabilities in helping kids practice mathematics.
• Test the app with kids and parents for usability purposes.
• Discover conceptual and technical limitations to guide future research areas and designs.

Project Challenges

• Talking on unexpected role of visual and interaction designer mid-project.
• Changes in timelines due to limited resources and technical limitations.

Process

The team was divided into two sperate teams, one for UX research and the other for the visual interface. I was part of the research team, working with another UX Designer who was working on gathering participants and communication between the two teams. I was responsible for designing the research plan and gathering data from various sources.

We talked with our client at length and got to know her expectations of the project and her need for the same. Based on the talks, objective, our domain knowledge, nature of the project and resources available to us we decided to do a generative UX study.

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• The overall process was a modified version of Google Venture Design Sprint methodology. We conducted 5 sprints which were spaced across our 9 month timeline. We divided our project stages across the span of a week instead of the typical daily approach.
• Although the idea of the app was decided by the client, the goals, scope and requirements had to be defined by the team.
• The UX researchers later transitioned into the role of visual designers to contribute to the design of the MVP.

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1. Understand

What do we want to learn?

With limited time and resources, we decided to define the requirements according to the key areas our client wanted to test.

• Do kids find coloring interesting? How do we reinforce mathematics through coloring?
• Can all concepts be taught through coloring?
• Are there better ways to learn mathematics and is coloring the right way to go?
• Which is the most popular "serious game" kids are using?
• Do we include multiplayer option? Any social component? If yes, how do we moderate it and make it child safe?
• What kind of Game Learning Analytics do we include? How do we measure the success rate?
• What would be the level of parent involvement?

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Defining the problem space

I conducted various interviews to understand the context of the product and how existing solutions performed in real world scenarios.

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Research Analysis

With my co-designers, we summarized the research results, reviewed them and laid them across our Miro board to help us sort our interpretations of the results. This method was extremely helpful as most of the data we gathered was qualitative and required a lot of discussion.

After several hours of discussion, we understood the key points and recognized several recurrent patterns in our data. Before we moved on, we created a map and a basic userflow to understand how many actors would interact with the app and what would a typical userflow look like.

Our client wanted to create a single-player game, and we created this map and our solution according to her wishes but we felt a multiplayer game mode should be included. We quickly made a rough prototype and tested it out with the KidsTeam at University of Maryland for a quick feedback and to gauge if kids like playing multiplayer more than single-player games. This gave us evidence with which we convinced our clients to change the direction of the project. After the session we created the final map.

After designing our maps we proceeded to create a userflow to see  how the children will go through the game and what will they experience. It also gave us an idea about how many screens would we need. This also helped us see if we missed anything or if any modifications had to be made.

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2. Sketch

Early Sketches

The next step for us was sketching. After gathering insights, all us individually started sketching solutions that could be incorporated into the game. This gave us a creative outlet where we could draw anything and later decide if the idea is worth pursuing.

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Creating a character (NPC Guide)

From our research we knew that a narrative was an important aspect that attracted children and kept them invested in the game. We wrote up various storylines and played around with them and decided one that would have the most impact. We created a NPC guide to help children navigate the game and drive the narrative, we called him "Monk".

The Monk was unanimously rejected by the kids, they informed us that they would like a cute animal as an NPC, something that is familiar to them. We went back to the drawing board and came up with "Lulu, the Llama", which along with it's expressions was an instant hit.

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Driving a Narrative

We sketched a narrative to include in the game. Stories are one of the most powerful means to convey information and to keep people invested. We wanted to use stories to keep the kids invested in the app and practice math at the same time.

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3. Decide

Our next step was finalizing our features and to start creating the wireframes for the game. To help us we brought our client in to update her on the progress and help us in deciding the features for the prototype. We did an art museum+Speed Critique on Miro, where we gave the client and our SME(Subject matter Experts) some stickers and Post-its they could use to vote for an idea.

After the art museum, we decided on the visual direction for our game. For our campaign mode we wanted to evoke a calming effect. We make our design decision based on that feeling and created our moodboard and style guide.

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4.Prototype

Powered by our sketches and research, we jumped to Figma and started creating high fidelity wireframes for our MVP.

Canvas

The Canvas screen is filled with mathematical problems to solve and various different colors. Once the picture is filled the kids can see the story and get a sense of progression.

Visual Cues

We have provided visual cues all throughout the game so the kids can easily move around and find what they are looking for. Visual cues are also simple and easy to understand in a glance.

Multiplayer Options

From our testing session with the KidsTeam at University of Maryland, we learned they wanted option of playing with their friends and against them too. So we added an option for Co-op gameplay.

Side Quests

We realized that coloring can get a bit tedious after a while and added options so they kids can learn mathematics in multiple ways. This also gives a chance for the client to update the game with other exciting game modes.

Rooms

This a personal space we proposed where the children can showcase any achievements or canvases they painted. They can also customize it as per their wishes. We hope this can become something of a bragging right and promote healthy competition among them.

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Prototype

Now we were ready with our prototype, our next step was to test it out with the kids and validate our designs. You can view our prototype here

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5. Test

We reviewed our designs internally and later conducted testing sessions with the help of KidsTeam at University of Maryland. In our testing session, we asked few adults to sit with a bunch of kids and do an unstructured interviews with them while some adults acted as floaters and observed the room. The floaters' were responsible for documenting the session and the logistics.

We also did different design exercises with the kids like +/-/DI (Positives, Negatives and Design Ideas), journaling and sketching. Although we faced some technical bumps along the way, the prototype was a huge success with the kids and the parents.

We also outlined a few steps that could be taken to improve the overall experience of the game and also gave insights into the development and sound design. Special thanks to the KidsTeam at University of Maryland, check out all the awesome work they are doing, we couldn't have finished the project without them.

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