Wait, Basketballs Aren't
for Breakfast?
¡Bienvenidos al español! Welcome to Spanish!
I was the Product Designer for FL4K, an EdTech innovator, in reshaping language learning education in K-8 schools and in home-based learning environments.
I redesigned FL4K's Spanish learning platform's user interface, focusing on intuitive navigation and streamlined dashboards for students and teachers. The redesign also extended to enhancing the interface of educational video games and activities
2021 - present
Timeline
Product Designer
Role
3-4
Team
Responsibility
I worked predominantly independently as the solo Product Designer, my journey at FL4K involved leading and delivering the majority of design tasks, with seamless handoffs to our development team.
Collaboration was also a key aspect of my role, as I occasionally worked alongside a short term product designer, game and web developers, CTO, curriculum development consultants and the company's co-founders. Despite the autonomy, regular weekly check-ins with the co-founders ensured alignment and cohesion in our goals and strategies.
Adversities
1
Design Challenges
The FL4K Spanish learning platform faced issues with non-intuitive navigation and a disjointed experience across its student and teacher dashboards. Additionally, the educational games and activities lacked the necessary engagement and interactivity to effectively foster language acquisition and cultural awareness among young learners and educators.
2
Research Challenges
Due to the lack of research budget and resources, research was limited to zoom interviews with district admins, teachers and curriculum development consultants. I gathered feedback from students and teachers after features were pushed out to the platform.
User Interview Insights
Need for Unified Dashboard Design
Feedback from users revealed a significant disconnect between the student and teacher dashboards. The current layout and design create confusion, hindering access to vital resources, assignments, and progress tracking.
Lack of Interactivity in Educational Tools
Users felt that this lack of dynamic content limited the effectiveness of the language learning process and the development of intercultural awareness.
Insufficient Personalization Options
Users revealed a significant issue with the platform's lack of personalization. The current tools and features do not cater to the diverse learning styles, paces, and language proficiency levels of individual users.
Solutions and Goals
1
All In One Platform for Teachers
An all in one platform including automatic grading system, editable student rostering, quick access to class activities and videos, and a customization center for editing curriculums for a group or individual students learning levels.
2
Adaptive Learning for Students
To provide an engaging and adaptive learning environment that caters to diverse learning styles and proficiency levels, enhancing students' Spanish language acquisition and cultural understanding.
3
Tailored and Personalized Tracking for All
To offer a comprehensive and intuitive platform that facilitates efficient resource management, personalized student progress tracking, and the ability to tailor teaching methods to individual student needs, thereby improving the overall effectiveness of language instruction.
Design Approach
Discuss, Iterate, Review, Repeat x100
The process to updating, adding or creating a feature to the platform goes through a series of constant cycles that I'm involved with from start to finish and then some.
Phase 1 is cycle with meetings, iterations, presenting designs and then back to review meetings. Phase 2 is design handoffs and development support and pushing features to server. Hooray! Phase 3 is user feedback I gathered from the co-founders in a meeting, which is start of phase 1 again. Repeat x100.
User Interface and Styling
I crafted an intuitive interface, blending interactive features with bright, engaging activity icons to captivate and guide users seamlessly. The visuals in the games are not just for appeal; they're chosen to make the content relatable and support memory retention. My goal was to merge education with engaging graphics, turning learning into an enjoyable adventure.
Desktop Design
Desktops, Laptops and Even on Tablets
Once the design strategy was established, I developed the final desktop screens for the platform, focusing on the student login process and their curriculum learning journey. The following mockups encompass an idea how the platform is structured around the course of study. Recognizing the nature of a learning platform, I incorporated ample white space to simplify the learning experience and facilitate ease of use for teachers and students.
Mobile Design
Limitations but Accessible
Though users can access FL4K through mobile devices, it is recommended to use to tablet or larger screens for full experience. Teachers and students can still access assessments, view grades, watch videos, message, and see their overview.
I constantly review and make updated versions for mobile for users to have a seamless transition from desktops to phones.
Conclusion
My Thoughts and Experience
In my efforts to build a state-of-the-art language learning platform for young students, I have gained valuable insights as a designer. This experience has shaped the way I approach system building and has highlighted the importance of user research.
As the sole Product Designer on the team, I had the opportunity to be involved in every stage of creating the platform. From designing complex customization pages to game leaderboards, I have honed my design thinking and UI skills. Working at FL4K has provided me with numerous opportunities for personal and professional growth as a problem solver and designer.