top of page
Beni

A children's literacy app designed for remote teaching during Covid-19

My role

UX/UI Designer

Project

Visual programming project

Timeline

Aug - Dec 2020

Tools Used

Figma, Adobe Illustrator,
Optimal Workshop, Miro

Overview

Prompt

With the aim of helping teaching during the covid-19 pandemic through educational games with an interactive educational system. Create an experience that allows educators and students to develop their educational tasks. Consider the needs of pedagogues and students.

Design Process
Initial Thinking

Target Users

Literacy pedagogues, parents and children

Research methods

Online survey (Google form)

Online interview (due to the lockdown)

Research online

User Research

Background Research  

Identify existing online and on-site platforms related to community building
Discover how the new students are connecting with pedagogues.
Analyse how the students are utilising the current system.
Identify the strengths/potential of the current system.

Research Goals

Platforms and books offering literacy activities were analysed.

Research 1 - Existing Systems

Research 2 -  Literacy Educators and Students Surveys & Interviews

What resources are students using to study?

80%

through Google classroom

What are the biggest difficulties in using these resources?

It's not in Portuguese
Paid and Limited lessons
No customisation options
Weak content
Difficult to play
Children get angry easily

Websites, apps or platforms used

Research Findings / Pain Points

01

Most parents don't know about apps in this segment, and the few that do, along with data acquired from pedagogues who contributed to our research, identified lack of accessibility, prices, limited lessons and poor content as the main problems with existing apps.

02

Both parents and pedagogues agreed that the app should focus on: the alphabet, the initial letter of the word, the initial syllable of the word and word reading.

Problem Statement

There is no platform to help pedagogues during early childhood literacy. It's difficult for educators and students to establish a sustainable relationship and keep students interested.

Information architecture

Sitemap

To establish the functions and contents and organise so that can visualise the app's basic structure and navigation. Based on this idea, card sorting was carried out with different groups participating in the project. Then sought to diagram the results of the card sorting using the sitemap method.

Wireframe

Prototype

Beni as

a set of syllables made up of be + ni, making it easier for children to understand and the content of the application, the teaching of syllables.

A ligature was used in "be" to represent the student, as if they were sitting on a chair. In "ni", it refers to the idea of a pedagogue standing in front of a desk.

Design Concept

Visual identity

UI Guide

Colour palette

Typography

It's an app to help children learn literacy.
Learn by helping Beni and his friends build a rocket.

01

High-fidelity design

An educational platform

Design Solution

Select the activities, create a room with your class and monitor your students' development.

02

If you’re an educator,

Carry out educational and fun activities adapted to the digital environment. View your progress and personalise your character and screen.

03

If you’re a student,

User feedback

User testing feedback

It's clear how students are managed.
As a point of iteration, which was later developed, the importance of accessibility and inclusion for all students was discussed.

Presenting to the University

We had academic support throughout the project. I heard specific answers about how the app would be attractive and what advantages and suggestions it brought.

Reflection

Takeaways

Designing an app for this audience was very challenging, mainly because designing for children is very different for adults.

We need to take into account that they are still developing and that design is divided into age groups that need specific solutions. So the information needs to be clear, using symbols and icons as a way of communicating, and have appreciation and encouragement to get them involved.

The support of pedagogues and students was extremely important in this construction, as it was possible to ascertain the best approach and content.

Nice to see you here!

Narrative

To make it easier for children to interact with the app, a narrative was created inspired by the experience of one of the educators who took part in the research.

Characters were created, in particular Beni, putting him in direct contact with the child, guiding, explaining and participating in the learning process.

Beni wants to collect energy and build a beautiful spaceship. To do this, Beni needs the whole crew. As rewards, as soon as the activities are completed, energy is collected and characters are released.

bottom of page