Zoom
Classroom
Background
Challenge
Solution
My Role
The traditional educational system has dramatically transformed into a virtual classroom in recent years. The Zoom platform is now a staple technological tool connecting instructors and students for synchronous content delivery.
While the online system has been successful for the most part, the biggest hurdle is steering student engagement within the world of online degrees, courses, and classes.
This project aimed to convert our conceptual design of 'Zoom Classroom' into actionable wireframes. Our spin-off of the widely popular video conference application solved the challenges of student-instructor interactions in virtual classrooms through highly immersive features and gamification. Since the holistic online classroom experience was captured in the requirements-defining phase, we narrowed our focus on the in-class interaction flows at this stage.
UX and Product Designer
1
Entering the Perspective
of Students and Professors
Using double-diamond UX methodology, our team researched the current online class environment. Our team then isolated problems students and professors have with online classes.
Our team interviewed five instructors and five students, finding two main areas of concern: Communication disconnection and Zoom technical difficulties.
2
Communication Disconnection
I identified five items that could improve communication between professors and students using the pain points and requirements.
​
-
Immediate feedback/response
-
Visualizing class participants
-
Feeling motivated to engage in class
-
Making the class time more structured and purposeful
-
Opportunities for participation and engagement
​
Two figures with the pain points and requirements can be seen below.
3
Zoom Classroom
We created individual wireframe designs and consolidated them into one system with three flows:
FLOW 1: Entering class and networking with classmates
-
Pain point addressed: I am unable to connect with the instructor and classmates before or after class because of the Zoom timer limitation.
-
How it was addressed: An allotted time was created to interact with classmates with the ability of chatting and viewing their profiles.
FLOW 2: Interacting with the Instructor
-
Pain point addressed: Chat rooms are not effective because the instructor does not see the questions immediately.
-
Pain point addressed: "I don't like when students talk over each other.
-
How it was addressed: Users can ask questions and pin them on the progress bar. This helps students ask their questions and can get a response when the teacher is available.
Class discussion with question prompt.
Question prompt space and class in session.
Class discussion with question prompt.
FLOW 3: Student interacting with quiz activities
-
Pain point addressed: I get bored when the class is taught in a monologue format.
-
Pain point addressed: Sometimes I feel bad when I am inattentive in class but I don’t know how to participate.
-
How it was addressed: Activities like short interactive quizzes are added to keep the lecture interesting but also to address if students have trouble with the material.
4
UX Evaluation of Zoom Classroom
Each team member independently conducted a usability test for five users. In each test, I switched roles. The roles included: greeter, facilitator, and observer. User interactions, including verbal and nonverbal observations, were recorded through notetaking. We identified three design gaps and addressed them as follows:
Hint Button
This button is necessary when users do not know the answer to a question. Some participants did not know the correct answer yet the button went unnoticed.
Design change: Make the hint button stand out by highlighting it yellow.
​
Spin the Wheel feature
Users were confused about the purpose of the Spin the Wheel feature. The prototype had an unclickable wheel image.
Design Change: Add a pre-screen with activity instructions. Increase the clickable area and provide sufficient time for users to understand the details.
Student Avatars
Student avatars distracted users during quiz time.
Design Change: Remove the irrelevant display of fellow student avatars to focus on the quiz.
5
We incorporated these new user insights and redesigned wireframes. In addition, we added 'project-self reflections' to serve as a key takeaway improvement for the subsequent usability testing. We are confident that more rounds of usability testing will scale this application in the market.
