Teaching of the modern day
Summary
With the major transition to digital learning due to COVID, children with autism do not have proper digital platforms for education.
The Problem
The educational quality within the ASD classrooms is diminishing slowly with the move and incorporation of digital technologies. Despite the rise of children diagnosed with ASD over the years the teaching methods and technologies used have not changed. The introduction of new technologies has been implemented in the general education system, but the special needs education system is in need of technology specially formatted for the children themselves.
Platform
Mobile
Web
Client
NJIT
Skills
Ux Design
Ui Design
Ux Research
Strategy
Prototype
Collaborative Project
Design Phases
Where I post projects be big or small ranging from Photography, Graphic Design, Branding, and much more
Design
Where my most up-to-date resume online, showcasing some key projects, awards, and prior work.
Interview
Where most of my Ux/Ui related work is compiled consisting of concept work to actual professional projects.
Refinement
Where most of my Ux/Ui related work is compiled consisting of concept work to actual professional projects.
Initial Research
The majority of background research was discovered though analyzation of scientific research papers and statistics. The collective research was gathered into a research proposal paper for the Undergraduate Research and Innovation Program at New Jersey Institute of Technology and was approved for further research.
User Interviews
At the discovery phase of my project, I decided to conduct a user survey in order to get a better understanding of problems parents with children with autism are facing due to the switch to online learning.
In the upcoming phase of the project I will be conducting user interviews on teachers/monitors in the Monmouth County education system that are directed connected to special needs children's education.
What did I find?
-7 out of 10 children use a tablet or mobile device for educational applications.
-6 out of 10 parents use these applications as a supportive education method.
-8 out of 10 parents use after circulator actives at school to assist with learning.
-6 out of 10 parents have one parent at home to assist with education of their child with special needs.
Competitor Research
I gather information from the current on market applications dedicated towards children learning with special needs, in order to define basic features of my application.
What did I find?
-Only 1 out of the 4 apps have parenteral/educational modes.
-1 out of 4 apps have additional lessons outside of the main lessons.
-Growth/progression tracking is important.
-Color is a important aspect.
User Persona
With the project there are 3 main users: The Child, The Parent, and The Teacher. Each user has completely different user paths and features allowed. Click on the personas to read more about the users.
User Paths
For each user I sketched out the progress for each user and what features they would need.
Design Phase
Low Fidelity Wireframes
When starting the design process with low fidelity wireframes, I boxed out major component's and from there I was able to define the user journey of the app for children user. For this phase of the project I focused on the teachers' user path and journey.
What can users do in the app?
They should be able to select which account they are using when opening the app.
They have 3 main paths to chose from limiting confusing and frustration.
They can enter the virtual classroom when available.
Current High Fidelity Wireframes
For the first part of the Ui design process, I wanted to set the colors and styles so they would not be cognitively overwhelming to children based on ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) design methods.
Currently the High Fidelity screens created are for the teacher's path, in total there are 38 screen with fully interactable components. In the future the other users will be created and additional game screens will be created.
What did I learn?
I really enjoy working on this project and learned many new ways to look at design from the aspect of disability. At first it designing how I would normally wouldn't work for this project since there are psychological and cognitive difficulties with the users I am creating for. I had to take a step back and read a lot of papers on how to approach this topic and what are the essential features or graphics needed to make my project successful. With the project being ongoing I plan to have multiple iterations and interviews to change the over all project for the better.