Project overview
Project type
School project
School project
Time
Spring 2024 (4th semester)
Spring 2024 (4th semester)
Tools
Figma/Figjam
Figma/Figjam
Design direction
UX-design, service design
UX-design, service design
Team
5 UX-designers
5 UX-designers
My role
UX-designer
UX-designer
Project background
NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) wants to integrate sustainability more actively into students leaning plans. Currently, many students show little awareness or reflection around sustainability, and sustainability are often only considered when directly required by an assignment.
Solution
A digital reflection tool with gamification elements that makes it easier and more engaging for students to learn about and reflect on sustainable design choices.
Most central in this solution was LoRE the Cat - a lecturer figure who must be “fed” with student reflections. If the students fail to submit reflection, LoRE will get upset.
Design process
Design process model (empathize, define, ideate, prototype).
Methods
• Empathize: Interviews
• Define: Affinity maps, personas, empathy maps
• Ideate: Workshop, crazy-8, 5-2-5, flip the problem
• Prototype: Wireframes, low- and high-fidelity prototyping, service blueprint
• Define: Affinity maps, personas, empathy maps
• Ideate: Workshop, crazy-8, 5-2-5, flip the problem
• Prototype: Wireframes, low- and high-fidelity prototyping, service blueprint
My contributions
• Interviews
• Affinity maps, personas
• Workshop
• Wireframes, low- and high-fidelity prototyping, service bluprint
• Affinity maps, personas
• Workshop
• Wireframes, low- and high-fidelity prototyping, service bluprint
Research and insights
Learning and motivation
Key insights about students learning styles.
Through in-depth interviews with students, we identified several factors that strongly influence their motivation to learn. Students were particularly motivated when they had the chance to work in teams, be creative, and receive positive feedback on their efforts.
On the other hand, they felt demotivated when faced with overly high expectations, tasks that lacked a clear purpose, or when they weren’t given the freedom to think and make decisions on their own.
Incorporation of sustainability in learning plan
Quote from interview with student
In addition to motivation, a key challenge was the lack of information and prompts that encourage students to engage with sustainability. For instance, sustainability is rarely brought up in lectures or reflected in the curriculum, leaving students with little reason to consider it in their work.
Quote from interview with lecturer
It later became clear that lecturers also lacked the necessary tools and resources to effectively teach sustainability. This highlighted the importance of involving them in the project to create a more holistic and supportive learning environment.
Personas
Two personas were developed to represent the students and the lecturers: Jonas and Anne-Lise. These personas visualize their needs, behaviors and challenges that they face.
Jonas - student
Jonas is a creative and dedicated third year web development student. However, he has limited knowledge about incorporating sustainability into the design process. He is willing to learn and improve his knowledge about sustainability, but don't know
Anne-Lise - lecturer
Anne-Lise is teaching in multiple design subjects, like web coding. Despite having great knowledge about sustainable design, it's difficult to incorporate into the lectures with limited time, resources and tools.
Idea development
Workshop
The ideation phase was built upon multiple HMW-statements, which allowed us to view the challenge from different perspectives and sparked more creative ideas:
• How might we create a good experience for students to develop their abilities to reflect about sustainable design choices?
• How might we "trigger" students into reflecting around sustainabbility more than weekly?
• How might we involve companies in incorporating sustainability in a way that are relevant for students future jobs?
• How might we "trigger" students into reflecting around sustainabbility more than weekly?
• How might we involve companies in incorporating sustainability in a way that are relevant for students future jobs?
For idea generation, the group used methods such as Crazy-8 (each participant generates 8 ideas within 8 minutes) and 6-3-5 (6 participants generates 3 ideas each within 5 minutes).
Idea selection
As the workshop resulted in a large number of ideas, we used a combination of quick idea grouping (inspired by the “Benny Hill sorting” method) and dot voting to identify the most promising concepts.
Results from Benny Hill-sorting
The winner ideas from the Benny Hill-sorting and dot voting were the following:
1) Reward systems (prices, leader boards, etc)
2) Workshop with companies
3) Feedback systems
4) Companies creates assignments
2) Workshop with companies
3) Feedback systems
4) Companies creates assignments
Winner ideas from Benny Hill-sorting and dot voting.
Following this, we began developing a digital reflection tool with gamified elements — a process that eventually evolved into the concept of LoRE.
Prototyping
Low-fidelity
During the early prototyping phase, I was responsible for designing the social features of the tool, including the user feed and forum.
Low-fidelty prototype for desktop version.
Low-fidelity prototype of mobile design.
Since the overall concept was still in its early stages, these initial prototypes were relatively generic and primarily served as a starting point for further development.
Final result
In the final concept, several core features were designed to make sustainability reflection more engaging and social for students. Central to the experience was LoRE the Cat, a virtual lecturer figure who encouraged students to submit reflections by “feeding” it with their input.
The tool also offered a dedicated reflection page with guiding prompts, helping students articulate their thoughts around sustainable design in a structured way.
To further boost motivation, a leaderboard showcased active participants, introducing a playful element of friendly competition. In addition, an online forum allowed students to share reflections, exchange feedback, and connect with peers.
Basic communication tools supported interaction within the platform, creating a stronger sense of community and collaboration.
Reflection
What I've learned
• Basic principles of service design and how to approach challenges holistically
• Using tools like service blueprints to visualize behind-the-scenes processes in a user journey
• How gamification can be used effectively to boost motivation and engagement
• Using tools like service blueprints to visualize behind-the-scenes processes in a user journey
• How gamification can be used effectively to boost motivation and engagement
Future development
• Adapt the design to be fully mobile-friendly, ensuring accessibility and ease of use across different devices
• Further explore how the platform can foster a positive and meaningful user experience beyond external rewards, by supporting intrinsic motivation through autonomy, purpose, and personal relevance
• Further explore how the platform can foster a positive and meaningful user experience beyond external rewards, by supporting intrinsic motivation through autonomy, purpose, and personal relevance
