Ameliorating the Dreaded Group Project
Becoming Privy to a Problem
My partner is enrolled in the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) program at Concordia University. So far, his classes focus almost exclusively on group projects, which has caused him a lot of frustration. He complained about some of his peers ditching meetings, underperforming, and leaving everything to the last minute. Upon doing some research on the good old internet, it became apparent to me that he wasn’t alone:
This sentiment of feeling let down by one's group is quite common, so much so that the phrase itself has been transformed into several meme formats, and shared across a plethora of platforms. Knowing this, I began to lurk subreddits catered to college students. Reading through the discussion threads, It didn't take me too long to come to the conclusion that my partner wasn't alone. It seemed as though group projects are an almost universally loathed form of academic assignment.
For many students, assigned group work is an inevitability. I wanted to better understand university students' frustrations by talking to them about their experiences working in groups.
The Challenge
While many task management/collaborative applications already exist, my challenge was to create a solution that catered specifically to the pain points of university students during group projects.
The Deliverables
Researching the Prevailing Frustration
Interviews
While my partner's academic woes were the main source of inspiration for this very project, I still wanted to speak to other students in order to gain a more comprehensive perspective. I recruited 5 students from the subreddits /r/GradSchool and /r/College to participate in an interview over Zoom. My intent was to understand their experiences with academic group projects at the university level, and gain insight from students of various walks of life. I asked each interview participant the following questions:
- Tell me about yourself, what are you studying?
- On average, how much group work are you assigned per term/semester?
- Which devices, platforms, and/or apps do you use to communicate with your teammates?
- How much work do you tend to take on when working on group assignments?
- In general, how satisfied do you feel with the work of your team members?
- Tell us about your last group project, how did it go?
- What is your ideal scenario when it comes to group assignments (besides getting a perfect grade!)
- Some teachers/professors assign peer reviews to be turned in during or after the group assignment. What has been your experience with peer reviews?
- How helpful do you find peer reviews?
- Tell us something yourself, or your peers can do differently to make group assignments an enjoyable experience
- What's your favorite thing about group work?
- What's your favorite and least favorite thing about academic group work?
- Please share any other thoughts you have about group projects in school.
Getting to Know U(sers)
Empathy Mapping
I used empathy maps for each interviewee in order to to get a better understanding of their experience and frustrations when participating in academic group work. While it had been a while since I was assigned to a group project in school (my BA program in psychology leaned heavily on individual papers and exams), I couldn't help but get flashbacks from my high school and pre-college days while conducting this empathy exercise. I was guided by the ghosts of group projects past, and as a result, I felt more in tune with the needs of the potential users I'd be designing for.
The Birth of Two Archetypes
During the empathy mapping process, I began noticing some distinct differences between my users. I decided to split them into two archetypes so that I could get a better understanding of their needs moving forward.
1. The Go-Getter
Goals: Get an high grade on the assignment
Likes: Good communication, hard-working teammates
Dislikes: Teammates who don’t contribute
Fears: Tanking their overall grade because of lazy teammates
“In a perfect world everyone would be more hands on with the projects.”
2. The Mellow Mate
Goals: Have a good collaborative experience
Likes: Learning new perspectives in the context of the assignment
Dislikes: Picking up a teammate's slack
Fears: Ruffling feathers in the group
“Ideally everyone should feel that they really learned or reinforced their knowledge from the project.”
A Deeper Understanding
User Journey Mapping
Once I synthesized my research findings into archetypes, I was able to map out their journeys according to different phases of working in a group. Each phase consisted of tasks the user would typically complete, split into two journeys mapped out in accordance to how the user might be feeling during these said tasks. By adding research interview quotes to the points where users were becoming frustrated, I was able to identify user needs and further pinpoint opportunities to improve future group project experiences.
Identifying User Needs
Based on my research, I created 6 problem statements in order to guide my design during future phases. Some problems were specific to an archetype, while others overlapped:
The Go-Getter Needs...
The Mellow Mate Needs...
The Goal
All study participants reported using mobile text-based applications as one of their main forms of communication with their teammates. I therefore decided to move forward with a mobile app, which would address the needs for (a) an easier way to schedule meetings; (b) a better way to ensure equal work distribution; (c) accountability for all group members; (d) facilitation of honest feedback; (e) an easier way to form groups, and; (f) a more cohesive final product.
Some Divergent Thinking...
Task Flow
I created a task flow for a visual representation of how students would experience group work on a mobile app. I added opportunities for forming groups, scheduling meetings and giving feedback. I planned on further expanding on these steps deeper into the ideation process. I had made some decisions when tackling the problem of equity in work distribution by adding a multi-step task delegation feature. In this, all group members would edit/agree to a task list, rank the tasks from most desirable to least desirable, and then have the app equally distribute the tasks based on how they were ranked.
Crazy Eights and How Might We?
I did some brainstorming exercises to get the creative juices flowing, and came up with some ideas that would expand on the task flow, and further address user needs. I would eventually incorporate my How Might We? ideas, and Crazy 8's layouts to my wireframes.
Crazy 8s Homepage
Crazy 8s Project Page
Wireframes
I created wireframes on Figma, and made them interactive so that I could eventually test my concept before moving forward with a high-fidelity design.
The Lo-Fi Prototype
TRY THE LIVE PROTOTYPE
Testing and Feedback
Guerrilla Testing
I recruited some students in the lobby at my partner's university, and had them move freely through the prototype. I wanted to get some general feedback, and ensure that they didn't run into any pain points before moving forward with the high-fidelity design. Many became excited about the concept, particularly the feature where they could randomly assign themselves to a group, rather than awkwardly scope one out within a pool of unfamiliar peers. However, participants had mentioned instances whereby certain group members specialize in certain tasks, and that they therefore wanted the freedom to manually assign tasks to group members, while still keeping the equal distribution feature. Participants also said that it would be a good idea to input class sections during the group delegation flow, since some classes were held at several times during the week.
App Developer Feedback
Since much of my experience comes from web-based products, I reached our to an IOS Specialist for some more technical feedback. He recommended that I split all forms into smaller sequences with a progress bar, so that users wouldn't feel overwhelmed by the amount of information they would need to input. He also provided me with a few helpful tidbits concerning IOS best practices, like icons to be used for re-orderable table cells as well as implementing range sliders to shorten some forms. All of these changes can also be found in the final hi-fi prototype.
Implementing the Feedback
I added a class section/time input to group creation/joining forms, and came up with a solution for manual task delegation while also keeping the task assignment feature in tact. My solution was a task trading feature, whereby all group members could request to trade tasks with another member. This would give group members some control over tasks should it be necessary, under the guise that two parties agreed to this change in tasks.
The Design System
I created a Figma based design system as supplementary communication tool for the developer. This would also ensure seamless scalability, as we were already seeing several opportunities for additional features and pages down the line. Browse some screenshots of the system below, or view the full system on Figma!
VIEW SYSTEM ON FIGMAIntroducing: Group Tank
TRY THE LIVE PROTOTYPE
What's Next?
Future Plans
Every time I would have a student try the prototype, they would have a great idea that could further integrate the app into the group project work flow. Hearing these ideas was exciting, and has further validated my hunch in helping students, like my partner, with the frustrating aspects of working in groups. The end goal for the app is to make it a one-stop hub for all elements of group projects, including document sharing and more interactive task management. For now, I will be completing the final pages of the current MVP and handing it off to the developer so we can create a beta version for testing.
Challenges and Limitations
The recruitment process of in both the research and usability testing stage was difficult, especially with no budget. It was daunting trying to find busy students to participate in an interview or test a prototype when there was no incentive for them to do so, which meant that I got rejected or ignored quite a lot. However, now that I feel more comfortable finding strangers on hard mode, I am even more confident in my abilities to recruit participants on easy mode, with a research budget!
Reflection
Thanks to this project, I discovered how satisfying it is to create something from concept to prototype. I feel like a UX superhero, in that every time someone in my vicinity starts ranting about a problem, I get the sudden urge come to their rescue and present them with a solution. While it's unfortunate that the case for a quick solution is seldom, it makes the time and energy put into designing something like an app all the more worthwhile.