NOVUS
An Early Learning Center
Overview
This is a classroom project done for a hypothetical client- NOVUS, An Early Learning Center.
The entire concept of the website and it's final design was done from the ground up.
Role
User Interface/ User Experience Designer
User Research, Visual Design, Prototyping.
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Feb 2020
ABOUT NOVUS
NOVUS is an early learning center (hypothetical) whose motto is : "Discover Happy Childhood". They believe in the curiosity of young minds who require food for thought, space to explore and time to experience. They provide young ones opportunities to Explore, Experiment and Experience every concept that they learn to make them life-long learners.
Their methodology revolves around providing a rich stimulating environment provoking them to explore their surroundings leading them to experiment their ideas to find out the truths in the world. They have trained facilitators who kindles the young ones curiosity and enhance their thinking. The activities in NOVUS revolve around nurturing a child's creative and critical thinking rather than just acquisition of knowledge which is the need of the hour. The curriculum designed is engaging and interesting inspiring the children to become life-long learners.
The strategy underpinning the pedagogy is differentiated instruction which caters to the short attention span of children and to the unique individual needs of each child. This is facilitated by the learning center concept which allows movement of children through all corners in a day.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
The Primary Objective of this project was to design a Website for its center to make their services more diverse and inclusive and also help in enhancing the learning experience of both the child and the parents.
TARGET AUDIENCE
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Parents with their children already enrolled in the center;
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New parents-to-be; and,
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New admitted children.
COMPETITOR STUDY & PRODUCT INSPIRATION
A competitor study was done in order to understand the content and design idea behind their websites so as to help in the concept of the designing of NOVUS'S website. Early centers and Kindergarten schools websites were looked into to glean inspiration from them. Centers like:
Park's Place Daycare and Learning Center; Idea Early Learning Center; Early Learning Success; Fisher Early Learning Center; and, Kreedo. Based on these competitor study I have analyzed the feature of each of their website in terms of three parameters- Existing, Missing and Redundant.
Based on the above parameters I came up with the following analysis:-
Existing
Almost all of the websites have good navigation system and there is a clear distinction of each tabs. Some of the centers also have a chat bot feature facilitating quick chats amongst the parents for enquiries and other related information.
Missing
Some of the Learning Center websites is missing a clear hierarchy of information and the information layout is quite cluttered. Idea Learning Center and Early learning Success also lacked Visual Appeal.
Redundant
Few of the websites had a separate mailing info placed at the top menu bar as well as in their 'Contacts' Menu bar. The redundancy and repetitiveness of the action seems unnecessary.
DELIVERABLES
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Low-Fidelity Wireframes;
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High-Fidelity Wireframes; and,
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Website Prototype.
THE PROCESS
The UX process of Define, Ideate and Prototype was employed in this project. A Visual mood board was created to iterate for the brand guidelines foe the website.
USER PERSONAS
Based on the research on the target audience for the website I came up with these user group profiles for the website. This helped me to better empathize with my user and understand their goals, needs and prioritize the website according to their needs.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
A study on competitor websites and analyzing them along with the insights gathered from the user group created, I came up with the sitemap for the website.
VISUAL MOODBOARD
BRAND GUIDELINES
With the help of the Visual MoodBoard the brand colors were established and the brand guidelines was made for the website. Since the website is for an early learning center the colors and fonts of the website were selected keeping in mind a child's playful and colorful world.
WIREFRAMES
LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Before developing the wireframes in the digital format I first sketched them on plain paper. I brainstormed with few ideas about the possible layout of different important screens and sketched them on paper. This later on became a reference for me while creating the digital wireframes of the website.
HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
After the initial ideas were sketched and a design layout was decided upon, I then created the digital wireframes as part of the deliverables and to set a visual layout for the website.
WEBSITE DESIGN
The website was designed keeping in mind the user profiles needs and also that it is essentially a kids' learning center website. I tried to maintain a hierarchy of information which is easily understandable by the users. The navigation system in the website has also been kept simple and easily understandable by the users. I have finally come up with the screen prototypes of the website with all the important content screens.
CONCLUSION
The user testing for the site couldn't be done. The main aim of the project was to understand and apply both the UX and UI process of design. A thorough understanding of the research process coupled with the the design and color theory becomes an important tool in the design process of any human centered product or service. I have tried my utmost to follow through the complete process and steps while doing this project.