NYU CREATE — Candice Huang

OVERVIEW

NYU CREATE is a research lab that designs simulations, games, AR, VR, and other tools to address the needs of all learners. During my time at CREATE, I worked closely with the lead web developer and UI Designer on a project named Digital Reference of Experiments and Assessments Manager (DREAM VR), a Web-based research platform application used to create and administer experiments for development, cognitive and educational psychology research. The real-time data analytics dashboard is designed specifically for proctored users to engage and participate live as they conduct experiments.

ROLE

UX Designer

DURATION

January - May 2022

TOOL

Figma, Miro

SCOPE

User Research, UI/UX Design, Wireframing Prototyping, User Testing

TEAM

---- PROBLEM

A real time analytical dashboard that lacked readability and usability.

The previous dashboard had several problems. First, the proctored users had trouble tracking participants that were engaged in the experiment. Second, they needed a live view of the participants’ biometrics as they progressed with the experiment. Third, they experienced difficulty downloading and exporting data from the experiments. With these questions in mind, we came up with the following problem space: How can we create a dashboard to effectively show the overall analytics for all participants and the detailed performance of each individual participant?

---- SOLUTION

Designing a clear, intuitive, and customizable experience.

The DREAM VR dashboard is divided into three tabs: Overall, Biometrics, and Download.

1. The Overall Tab: With clear labeling of participant IDs, the proctored users can now locate participants quickly. The graph also shows the percentage of completion including test accounts, which are used for checking the viability of experiments but are less useful for actual data analysis. Therefore, this graph helps proctored users identify the amount of “bad” data that they can eliminate.

2. The Biometrics Tab: As the participants go through tasks, the proctored user can observe how their emotions change over time. I used Russell’s Model of Emotion and ordered the emotions in the form of primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. Participants’ primary emotions are labeled next to their ID. When the participants are feeling confused or frustrated, the participant is moved up to the list. This allows proctored users to pay attention to students who need help at the moment.

3. The Download Tab: Proctored users can select data type between All Data or Completed Participants Only. This is useful because it immediately eliminates test accounts. Since experiments are often conducted over a period of time, proctored users can select All Dates or Select Dates depending on the period of data they want to export.

---- SECONDARY RESEARCH

Competitive Analysis

In order to create an efficient dashboard, I conducted a landscape audit on five dashboards that are designed for learning or with potential for learning. I identified the strengths and weaknesses of each dashboard. These key points served as the fundamentals that the design was built on:

---- Discover

User Research

Followed by secondary research, I conducted user research with five prospective proctored users for the dashboard.

My objective for conducting user research was to understand how users are currently navigating through the platform and digesting the given information. I wanted to confirm the hypothesis: The dashboard serves its purpose to the proctored users and solves their pain points in the previous dashboard. They are able to efficiently gather the information they need including overall analytics and detailed performance of participants . These were the major questions that I wanted to get out of the interview:

What are the key performance indicators for you to understand how helpful the games are and how successful the participants are completing them?
From most important to least, what information is the most critical for you to understand individual participants and their progress? (time of completion, number of items completed, types of items completed… etc)
What key statistics are you looking for when analyzing the overall performance of an experiment?

---- Synthesizing Research

Affinity Mapping

I synthesized the research findings through an affinity map where I categorized insights under questions including: What do you go on the dashboard for? What problems do you encounter with the existing interface? What kind of information would you like to obtain? What features would you like to see? These questions served as a direction for the design solutions while keeping the users’ needs in mind.

User Persona- Meet Jack

Then, I created a user persona named Jack Brown, a research assistant at CREATE who visits the DREAM VR dashboard everyday. He uses the dashboard to complete tasks such as matching packets with experiments, observe recorded data, and check participants’ completion. With Jack Brown in mind, I can better design for a target audience and quickly understand his needs and pains points.

---- Ideation

User Stories

After I gained a good understanding of my users, I created user stories to identify the functional needs of my product. Most importantly, I prioritized the user stories and identified the Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), which will help me quickly validate my hypothesis.

---- Sketches and Low Fidelity Prototype

Usability Testing

After making sketches of the screens, I conducted usability testing with 4 users to quickly flag areas of improvement and iterated based on the feedbacks I received from user testing. Below are the major changes I made when I turned my sketches into wireframes:

Low Fidelity Prototype

View Low Fidelity Prototype

---- High Fidelity Prototype

Final Product

After two weeks of iterations, the product was handed off to our UI Designer, Jiaqi. Below are some screens for the final prototype.

---- Reflection

Challenges & Moving Forward

My internship journey began with a casual conversation with my Web Design and Computer Principles Professor, Al Olson. He sparked my interest when he showed us some of the cool technologies that he created with his team during class. I am grateful to take part in this journey and work with individuals who are passionate about making positive educational impacts.

During this process, I have learned two main lessons that will help me become a better designer moving forward:

Be Intellectually Curious
The DREAM VR dashboard required creating several components that I am less knowledgeable in such as Russel’s Model of Emotions and Bio Feedbacks. Before designing the product, I familiarized myself with the topic by learning about how the devices work to track biofeedback such as pupillometry and control pressure. As I stayed intellectually curious about the topics, I was continuously discovering new insights, which made the learning process enjoyable and eye-opening. Most importantly, it motivated me to think outside the box and develop a functional and efficient user experience.
Aligning Design Objectives with the Company’s Mission
CREATE’s mission is “learning through play,” where it aspires to provide an interactive learning experience for all learners. For many students, the learning process can sometimes be dull or frustrating. As I came up with solutions for the dashboard, I aligned my design objectives with CREATE’s mission. I kept the student’s learning curve in mind and delivered a learning experience that is both fun and interactive.

Acknowledgment

Thank you to Jiaqi, our UI Designer for participating in design critiques with me and designing a meaningful product together. Thank you to my supervisor, Al for showing me the tech world of AR and VR and challenging me to become knowledgeable in this area.

More Projects