Designing the future of student assessment
Product Design, Strategy, Content, Illustration
Pulling from over 30 years of research, the application diagnoses student misconceptions and gaps in knowledge for specific mathematical concepts.
The original vision of SMARTtest from the University of Melbourne was to help teachers understand what a student does and doesn't understand by exposing their thinking through algorithmic formulas and machine learning.
People-first UI design
My role was to transform the current state and revitalise its UI/UX into a market-ready service for individuals and schools. Detailed research, Q&A sessions and design exploration phases gave me a great foundation for my creative work. I worked closely with the University of Melbourne team to gather and synthesise the logic behind each algorithm powering Diagnostic.
I identified existing pain points and noted what visual elements within each quiz needed to be improved to optimise its usability.
Most importantly, I also attained an understanding of what elements needed to be preserved to ensure that they didn’t compromise the algorithmic format of each quiz.
Focussed on simplicity and usability
Through several rounds of testing completed over months, we understood that our core user group would benefit most from a simple and direct UI.
Many users we interviewed confessed that they weren’t inclined to utilise the more advanced functionality delivered by competitor applications.
The three key learning areas were brought to the surface of the home-screen along with a universal search for all quizzes.
Colour-coded cards and iconography made it easier to identify the learning areas for the respective quizzes during search and browsing.
Bringing the UI to life
One of the final responsibilities of working on the project was to create a series of relevant and engaging illustrations to fuse in with the UI. Supported by Pearson’s brand values, I developed an illustration system built on three design principles: organic, expressive, and fun.
Prior to this project, Pearson Australia had yet to create its own illustration library. Using this approach from the brand toolbox, I chose to employ Pearson’s existing patterns while creating something that supported the needs of our users.
