PROJECT SUMMARY
In sub-Saharan Africa, a large percentage of children lack access to quality education. To address this problem in Nigeria, focusing on the ‘extremes’ users of public school children, we set out to explore ways to improve the learning and development of children ages 5-8years within the underclass public school system.
Carrying out Human-centered design, the team leveraged design thinking methods to design a measurable and resourceful system that employs the efforts of the key trifecta: parents, teachers and children, to track, measure and improve children’s learning and development.
Studying Public School Education in Nigeria
We studied a total of 15 teachers, students and parents in two different tiers of public schools: Federal and State, engaging with parents at home and in PTA (Parent Teacher Associations) Meetings, carrying out semi-structured interviews, intercepts, shadowing and observations to learn about their beliefs, lifestyles and experiences with children’s learning, and at school environments. We probed into their future aspirations and current experiences around education, and collected data into themes, drawing out insights and turning them into ideas to further test with.
METHODS
SECONDARY RESEARCH
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS
UX RESEARCH AND DESIGN
PROTOTYPING
TEAM
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS
UX RESEARCH AND DESIGN
PROTOTYPING
TEAM
5 Design Researchers
2 UX/UI Designers
1 Visual Designer
1 Full-Stack Developer
PERIOD
2 UX/UI Designers
1 Visual Designer
1 Full-Stack Developer
PERIOD
5 Months
We quickly discovered that though many existed, there were 3 main characters at play when considering the learning and development of the average 5-8 year old public school child. Parents, teachers and the children themselves were integral to a child’s successful development and leveraging their relationship in the context of Nigerian public school education had the potential to greatly improve the development of the public school child, in the early years.
FINDING THEMES AND EXTRACTING KEY INSIGHTS
HOW MIGHT WE LEVERAGE THE THREE
KEY STAKEHOLDERS TO IMPROVING
A CHILD’S SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT?
KEY STAKEHOLDERS TO IMPROVING
A CHILD’S SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT?
IDEA AND CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Using the SWOT framework, we converted the elements into 4 areas we discovered many of the children we studied fell into, in their learning and development journey. Under each category, each child is evaluated by the i) activities and habits that they are strong in, ii) those that they need to improve on, iii) those that they show potential to thrive in, and iv) avoid and those that they should avoid.
FLOW MAP SHOWING ALL THE KEY PLAYERS IN SAVANNAH’S TREE ECOSYSTEM AND HOW THEY ALL INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER
In using friendly and visually engaging aides, students didn’t feel bored or 'schooled', but were encouraged to get better in the 6 key areas of development, General, Social, Language, Literacy, Math & Logic and Other Skills.
Parents, teachers and children were given access to a color coded sheet and graded each child’s ‘performance’ in each of the 6 areas each term, having 3 different entities grade the child to make the results as close to accurate as possible. In addition to the sheets, each one was given access to resources physical, digital (online), and SMS* mediums for accessibility. Also answering to the need for accessibility, the grade sheets and resources were provided in Nigeria’s 3 main languages.
*SMS via feature phones was a discovery we uncovered during prototyping. We noticed some
lower-income parents were more comfortable with feature phones and used them more frequently.
lower-income parents were more comfortable with feature phones and used them more frequently.
Prototyping: Digital, Physical and More
We created prototypes with paper, digital platforms and feature phones to meet the needs of
our diverse audience, some who weren’t tech savvy or literate.
our diverse audience, some who weren’t tech savvy or literate.
TESTING PAPER AND DIGITAL PROTOTYPES WITH USERS
A Measurable and Resourceful System (in Beta Mode)
We built a working prototype of a system, made up of a framework that employs the efforts of the key trifecta: parents, teachers and children, to track and measure their learning progress.
• The framework contains an easy grading, reward and support resource that allows all 3 stakeholders: parents, children and teachers to measure where a child is excelling or needing assistance in 6 core developmental areas.
• The solution gives all stakeholders easy access to targeted and curated resources via web, SMS
(via feature phones) or paper, to help the child exactly where they’re at.
• To answer a discovery we found while testing the prototypes: that teachers were busy and already felt overwhelmed with their daily work, we built the system seamlessly into the classroom teacher’s term plan and the school’s already existing schedule. This gave the instructors structure, support and ease as they used the tool.
• The framework contains an easy grading, reward and support resource that allows all 3 stakeholders: parents, children and teachers to measure where a child is excelling or needing assistance in 6 core developmental areas.
• The solution gives all stakeholders easy access to targeted and curated resources via web, SMS
(via feature phones) or paper, to help the child exactly where they’re at.
• To answer a discovery we found while testing the prototypes: that teachers were busy and already felt overwhelmed with their daily work, we built the system seamlessly into the classroom teacher’s term plan and the school’s already existing schedule. This gave the instructors structure, support and ease as they used the tool.
