Major Project
“Kampong Spirit”, A social learning space for Home-Based Learners in Singapore [Read more]
Kampong Spirit's Heroshot
Kampong Spirit is a social learning space that establishes a mutually supportive community to provide assurance, confidence and support for home-based learners in their youth, aged 18 to 25 in Singapore to learn effectively.
This service would ensure learners could learn, share and grow together within a conducive and tight-knit community anytime, anywhere.
Learn – Establish small learning groups to learn together within a trusted tight-knit community
Share – Interact and share your thoughts with others so that necessary support can be rendered whenever necessary
Grow – Allow individuals to grow in confidence in their understanding and skills over time
Challenges Encountered
Due to COVID-19, all tertiary learners in Singapore have been forced to learn remotely from home until further notice. This has thrown the lives of learners into disarray as individuals struggle with a variety of problems with learning from home.
This situation can be detrimental to individual well-being and mental health, as learners are unable to seek immediate support or interact with their peers due to social distancing measures over an extended period. In a recent survey, the closure of schools and mental health services have led to an increasing number of students feeling lonely (60%), overwhelmed (70%), and/or the increased reports of mental health issues.
The prevalence of these issues led to the empathising and understanding of the challenges Home Based learners (HBL) face before deriving a solution that enhances their learning experiences and contributes to Singapore's education system in these times of global pandemic.
User Research
Extensive contextual research was conducted to gain deep qualitative insights into young home-based learner's experience, motivation and behaviours when doing HBL.
Methods included:
- 21 contextual interviews to gather personal accounts, perception and compelling stories of individual's HBL experience
- 5 diary studies to document and reflect on learner's feelings, thoughts and opinions through their daily HBL routine, practices and social interaction to identify deep insights and emotional pain points
- 2 covert observation of a HBL session conducted for approximately 140 tertiary learners to gain a broader understanding of the pain points encountered by various stakeholders while doing HBL
Key Findings
The data collected was analysed using affinity and user journey mapping to identify some key insights below:
- Students are unable to comprehend the learning content effectively due to the ambiguity of learning content, tutor’s articulation, or limitations of platform settings
- Learners felt lost and frustrated as they were unable to seek immediate verification with their tutors or classmates as there were no channels for face-to-face interaction or feedback
- Participants miss studying with their classmates or friends, as the presence of peers provide individuals with a supportive network which can motivate each other, share ideas and clarify doubts when necessary
Opportunities & Design Development
These insights were turned into “How Might We?” statements through co-designing sessions with various stakeholders and re-evaluated using an asymmetric clustering matrix and tree diagram. To derive the statements that were most relevant to the target users based on the hierarchical nature of their relationship.
Multiple Crazy “8”s, Competitive Analysis and Bodystorming sessions were also conducted to refine the concept, context scenarios and identify user requirements which were later prioritised by the users through MoSCoW.
Concept Development & Prototyping
Upon the validation of the idea, user requirements and design principles were placed along the scenarios to sketch out the key user journey of the primary target user. This mapping ensures that the features and details added within the solution are effective in solving target user’s pain points.
The concept was subsequently designed using Adobe Illustrator before testing the low-fidelity storyboard and wireframe through Google Slides. Further, an iterated high-fidelity video prototype and key touch points created and tested with users.
Challenges
As multiple co-designers and stakeholders were engaged to generate insights and evaluate ideas, the project scope was broadened massively as individuals have alternative thoughts of what would work for the target users despite the personas being clearly defined.
This situation led to the continual review of the research study and a constant reflection on the process, participants and methods to make objective judgments on the design decisions before iterating and re-evaluating them with target users.
The Solution
Kampong Spirit is a social learning space that provides home-based learners with a supportive and tight-knit community where an individual can learn, share and grow together.
This conducive environment is established through a network of learners who would like to share their skills, knowledge and expertise, and the Artificial Intelligent (AI) virtual buddy “Kaki” who can access additional resources, assistance and support from the institution according to individual needs whenever necessary.
Beyond offering immediate assistance, “Kampong Spirit” provides essential learning tools to boost individual productivity and provides a glimpse into their learning progress and achievements so that everyone can motivate each other, provide timely feedback or celebrate small milestones together.
Yu Hui Cheng
I am a people-oriented individual who enjoys engaging and being able to enhance the daily life of others through meaningful designs.
I was born in Singapore and have a first degree in Visual Communication from Nanyang Technological University. My professional career started as a digital designer before joining University of Loughbourough in the UXD MA. With a background in design, I aimed to create meaningful outcomes that can be integrated into our daily lives, with the goal of assisting the intended target audience, masses and the community. I wanted to do this by improving the usability, accessibility and contentment provided in the interactions between users and their touchpoints. My strengths in designing, collaborating and technology can enable me to create creative and innovative solutions to ease the concerns faced by the community, with the help of UXD.
Major Project
“Kampong Spirit”, A social learning space for Home-Based Learners in Singapore
Awards
Awarded Best Branding for UXathon 2019. A design challenge co-organised by Loughborough School of Design and Creative Arts, the Youth and Women Entrepreneurship taskforce, and the Business Lab MBA at Hong Kong University under the mentorship of Deloitte Digital, Wilson Fletcher and Lagom Strategy.