Envisioning Educational Product User eXperience Through Participatory Design Practice

Due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease - 19), most schools have adopted remote or mixed methods to teach; therefore, students need new types of educational products to achieve a high-quality learning experience. There are many difficulties and obstacles to taking classes online. More interactions and formats need to be explored for students to absorb as much classroom knowledge as possible. The research team conducted a design workshop. Thirty-eight psychology and applied psychology students participated in this workshop using different user research methods, such as user journey maps and how-to methods. They explored educational products in five scenarios: taking physical education classes, giving online learning feedback, conducting teamwork, taking an online examination, and studying in the dormitory. Each group proposed design solutions to solve design problems in a particular context. For the 56 design problems, the participants identified 548 design solutions. The facilitator helped the group select six or seven design challenges with higher priorities. All the research data were collected, and the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) theory was used to analyze users’ needs for future educational products. The users’ needs were summarized into user need clusters. This study has identified seven primary user needs and 20 sub-needs in five scenarios. The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to UX designers and UX researchers to obtain a new perspective on scenarios.