Design report | Didicit
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Veni, vidi, Didicit
Didicit is a suscription-based mobile e-learning app with unique and premium content.
For this project, I was tasked to design a mobile e-learning app for self-paced learning on the go. I completed it in 3 days so I was focusing on launching a MVP (Minimum Viable Product); there’s still work to do!
The app is going to be developed natively on Android and iOS, and its monetization is based on a subscription model with access to exclusive content and premium content. Considering this is a competitive market to enter, I needed to add value to the experience and not just compete with a lower barrier price, so that users may start adopting our platform.
To help me get started, I had been given a few proto-personas representing the market needs I should meet. With additional research, this led me to the following conclusions:
- Our users want to study different things…
- at their own rhythm…
- with different goals…
- and have different concerns
Even though I kept our 3 personas in mind, I focused primarily on one of them (Sofia) for our MVP:
Sofía is a young happy 25 y/o woman who has been really affected by the current travel restrictions; before Covid she loved to travel, and meet new cultures and foods. Now, Sofía wants to:
- learn how to cook meals from different cultures at home…
- and connect with other people…
- for her personal satisfaction.
After making clear what Sofía was looking after, it was critical to look at the market and what our competitors, direct and indirect, were offering to their users, so that our design could fill gaps and position itself well in the market.
All the insight and information gathered via this research led us to clarify the problem statement:
Sofía can’t travel to meet different cultures and foods because of the current restrictions. If we can help this problem, it would impact Sofía positively as she would be able to learn how to cook meals from different cultures from home. It would also benefit our business because she would use the app to learn and also share it with friends.
And set the key elements of our app. After brainstorming possible solutions to respond the identified user(s) pain points, I decided to go with the following ones:
- Unique content generated by experts (i.e. the “Didiciters”)
- Some free basic content and 3 different subscription plans
- Premium access to personal assessment and learning certifications
Once the key features were defined, I started thinking about the design and how the user journey would be like.
After considering several variations of the design, I chose a direction and made a paper prototype to be able to test, get real feedback and iterate quickly:
After some prototype testings, I searched for patterns in order to iterate, move into digital wireframes and continue testing and iterating with more users. This is one of the iterations based on user feedback:
Some literal phrases from users when looking at the 1st screen were:
- “Why are there only those options?”
- - “Can I filter after I press ‘other’?
- “I’d prefer some more general topics to choose, that’s too narrow ”
As you can see, based on users feedback I categorized the options into more general topics.
Following several iterations, I arrived to a hi-fi prototype to -guess what- test again! This is how it looks:
You can test the prototype here and give me your feedback to continue iterating! ;)
The name of the app, Didicit, has been inspired by the famous Julio Cesar’s victory phrase “Veni, vidi, vici” which means “I came, I saw, I vanquished”. I translated this to the learning field and thought about “Didicit” which means “I learned”. This resulted in: “Veni, vidi, didicit” (literally: “I came, I saw, I learned”).
As latin is at the origin of so many languages, I chose to translate this also to the color palette by using the 3 prime pigment colors: cyan, magenta and yellow.
Going also to the foundations, the logo makes reference to a brain in connection with the learning app goal.
Besides these design decisions, there are some considerations to bare in mind when adapting the design to iOS; this is an example of some differences in the systems:
For the next steps, I would like to:
- review the research connections within the app features
- add easy access to other features
- include live classes (and make the premium content even more attractive)
- add a proper community platform for culture exchange and networking
- iterate, iterate, iterate
While I felt I was struggling with getting the overall structure at the beginning of the project -and I had the deadline in mind- as days went by I was happy every time I found an incongruence, as it was something I can improve. That is a big learning takeaway for me this week; I feel my mindset is improving!
Another reflection I have had as well is how the current context and pandemic have affected us…
Do you think this unprecedented times are going to separate or unite us as human beings? What about our relationship with the environment? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
Marina
