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Let's get engaged 💍 - Quizlet Intern Hackweek 2022
Engaging students has never been so small yet so impactful. Learn how a widget won multiple awards and is in the process of getting shipped. Is that a yes?
Overview
Engaging students has never been so small yet so impactful. Learn how a widget won multiple awards and is in the process of getting shipped.
Quizlet is investing more resources into motivation for growth. The User Growth team at Quizlet previously conducted a study to understand cultural differences in motivation to study, especially from non-US markets, to ensure that future designs around achievements, streaks, and badges are received well in diverse cultures.
Across the board, students are familiar with streaks though they are not necessarily the best motivators for all students. Customization for streaks would be helpful, such as setting targets for oneself - they don’t work if the goal is unattainable.
Final Product
Summary
During my summer internship with Quizlet, I was fortunate to participate in Quizlet’s annual Intern Hackathon. Hackathons are an essential part of Quizlet’s culture. They’re a time to come together to brainstorm new learning concepts, build products on new platforms, and experiment with the product potential of new technologies.
I worked with three interns across different fields to increase learners' motivation via study streaks¹.
1 - Study streaks, on a daily basis, are the number of consecutive days a learner has been studying using Quizlet. All it takes is to interact with a single flashcard to count as studying.
Problem
Students are stressed and lack confidence, which decreases their motivation to study. For 2 out of 3 users, the longest daily streak earned was one day.
Quizlet's research team found that adding study streaks increased study sessions by 12+ million per year. However, the current study streak solution is proven to have friction with its placement in the product. Thus, out of sight, out of mind for learners 🤷.
What does Quizlet's current widget look like?
Goals
Our guiding question:
How can we expand motivation touch points to align with a student's study journey?
We decided on creating a widget for Quizlet's native apps. There's a heavy push for widgets as increasing functionality is coming to Android 12 and iOS 16. Quizlet has one widget, but it's only visible on iPhone's Today View and has minimal branding and personalization. Our goal was to motivate students throughout their study journey by creating an engaging widget that celebrates personal learning and accomplishment moments.
Process
User Journey Map
Quizlet has a dedicated research team with previous data on streaks, badges, and motivation. We had access to their findings and wanted to utilize them to inform our decisions. But it was not easily consumable nor like we were designing for anyone. So, to better visualize the results, I created a journey map of the user from sign-up to long-term motivation.
Learners are happy with Quizlet's product; however, there are some downfalls. There were new changes to Quizlet's free and paid plan, which has had negative sentiment. But streaks are also being underutilized due to the lack of touch points. Learners must go to the profile tab on mobile to see their current streaks and badges.
Competitive Research
As the sole designer, I decided I would audited Kahoot!, Khan Academy, and Duolingo as competitors with existing widgets. We also looked at Headspace and some of Apple's native widgets as inspiration outside Quizlet's space.
As the sole designer, I decided I would audited Kahoot!, Khan Academy, and Duolingo as competitors with existing widgets. We also looked at Headspace and some of Apple's native widgets as inspiration outside Quizlet's space.
Iterative Design
I jumped straight into Figma, so I could utilize Quizlet's design team's bi-weekly design critiques to get early feedback. At the moment, I thought it would be best to start designing the smallest widget first and creating as many solutions as I could in about a day, then scale up.I utilized Human Interface Guidelines and Material Design 3 to understand and design for constraints and best practices around widgets.
We scratched displaying flashcards as its primary purpose is not functional at the widget level. Furthermore, revealing recent studier data from the set page is not currently supported on Quizlet's native app, but if added in the future, it could lead to more big wins as a social proof factor. Also, still learning and mastered metrics are now a Quizlet Plus feature, resulting in a permanent empty state for many users.
Final Designs
Scaling up proved not to be much of a challenge as we wanted to stick to the idea of recently studied sets so a user can jump straight into learning without the friction of navigating through the app.
Conceptualization
After I finalized the designs we wanted to develop as a working demo, I started to work on what the next stage of Quizlet widgets could be.
Students can set learning targets and add courses and recently studied sets to help with a more focused and efficient study journey.
Results
Our engagement widget took home two awards: 'Ship it now' and 'Crowd favorite.' Due to its popularity and immediate buy-in, we expect this widget to be available to millions of users in the next term (a few weeks from Aug. 14).
Success metrics would be time spent on app, time spent studying, and 1-day, 7-day, and 28-day retention. How effective is the widget at motivating students to build sustainable study habits?
Here's what some of my peers thought of the engagement widget:
"I love how you and the team expanded on a proven motivation tactic for learners."
"It looks like a polished and professional product that will fit well into the Quizlet ecosystem."
"It looks ready to be used by our users."
Latest works
