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Popular research by Ebbinghaus shows that people forget most information without reinforcement within 7 days.
This is especially the case if it's complex information delivered in long, passive learning sessions. Interviews with customers supported they struggle to ensure course participants retain learned knowledge. Course participants expressed that “life takes over” and that it’s difficult to find time to practice between physical sessions and after a course has ended.
Eventually, this results in costly knowledge getting lost.
Our users needed a learning structure that fit into their busy schedules while still reinforcing learning.
To support this, I designed learning journeys using spaced repetition – a method proven to help combat the forgetting curve. The learning journeys consisted of activities that combine short texts with images or videos and end with interactive engagements. In engagements course participants work actively with learning content. I designed the engagement to be activated when the user is ready so they can focus on the learning content before the upcoming task.
This aligns with course participants' need for flexibility, allowing them to complete tasks during short breaks in their day and reinforcing learning without overwhelming them.
1. Learning journey card with progress bar gives the user a quick overview of their progress and shows which journeys are active.
2. Learning journey overview with time estimations on activities. Icons and colors give cues about the activity type.
3. Visible details on duration, and notification time, that are available for the user to adjust according to their needs.
4. Media (image or video) and text with learning content that the user can focus on before moving on to activities.
5. Activities can be activated once the user is ready.
In an early iteration of the design flow each activity had a primary and a secondary action with the primary action prompting the user to begin the next activity and the secondary exiting to journey overview. This (of course) resulted in users continuing to the next activity. This caused to issues:
I decided to always direct the user back to journey overview.
As proved many times in research studies, passive learning is harder to remember especially for complex topics.
To ensure course participants stayed actively engaged with the content, I designed a range of interactive features aimed at making learning both fun and personalized. They encouraged users to apply what they had learned, helping reinforce knowledge and promote retention.
By designing diverse engagement types I ensured that learning is active and varied, avoided repetition, and kept users motivated.
Buddy engagement prompts users to share their reflections with their buddy groups in their designated chat promoting social interactions and social commitment.
Poll engagement shows statistics of previous answers and gives a sense of connectedness.
1. White borders for better accessibility
Scale engagement lets the user answer questions on a scale similar to smiley, but is more versatile in usage.
Journal engagement saves the user's reflections in a journal, where they can revisit and see their progress.
Smiley engagement forced likert scale allowing for quick reflections and keeping the momentum going
Going into the testing phase, I had concerns about the buddy engagement flow as I anticipated potential confusion around navigating it.
During testing (in production), users responded positively to the buddy engagement feature and to the variation in engagement types i.e. some requiring less mental effort and others requiring deep reflection. However, some users were uncertain if their answers were being shared with others or kept private in their journals. Adding to the confusion, were technical issues around lagging messages in the buddy chat.
This was cemented further when I did a co-design workshop, where most groups focused their work on the buddy engagement flow.
Lagging. Can't change the answers once it's saved.
It's nice to chat about something so important. I want to chat more with them
Confusing regarding the buddy vs. journal.
To resolve the lagging messages and uncertainty around buddy vs. journal, I kept both engagements within the activity screen avoiding the buddy chat altogether.
I gave the engagements the same format but with distinct colors and labels making it easily distinguishable and accessible. Instead of using the minders bot message to confirm to the user where the answers are saved, I used a snack bar. A snack bar that is colored and moving is more likely to catch attention.
As a bonus, they could now see the activity content while typing with only a scroll, and the issue was resolved within a single sprint.
As the only designer, I collaborated closely with the engineering team, which has given me an understanding of how design decisions impact development time and product architecture.
As the only designer, I collaborated closely with the engineering team, which has given me an understanding of how design decisions impact development time and product architecture.In hindsight, I would have taken more time to add a touch of "magic" to the designs despite tight deadlines. Moments of delight are crucial. Just as edge-case errors can leave a negative impression of a product, magical touches can connect with users and make a positive one.
And last but not least, I wish I had the time to do more explorative research making it possible to define a clear cut goal that would keep the product lean.
63.5%
Completion rate. A significant achievement in free voluntary digital learning, which typically sees between 5-15% in voluntary learning, whereas corporate training typically sees between 30-60%.
29%
Increased user satisfaction. This improved the overall user experience, directly contributing to the retention of course participants in a competitive market.
Proven engagement
Engagement across all app features: Course participants interacted with polls, journals, and buddy discussions, showing robust engagement across the app’s features.
Consistent design
I created a design system in Figma using variables, reusable components, and variants, all making smoother documentation and consistency in the design.
I can only give my highest recommendations to Ebru, who asks the right and difficult questions, thinks independently, works thoroughly, and delivers outstanding results.
Ebru places great focus on understanding what the user thinks and does, and she takes on the task from start to finish. She takes on more responsibility than asked and isn’t afraid to dive into the deep end, tackling new challenges with confidence. She is well-liked by everyone, communicates clearly and on time, and isn’t afraid to step up to facilitate workshops or present new ideas and solutions, both internally and externally.
If Minders hadn't closed, I would still be working with her! :)
Mikkel Gade Larsen
Founder & CEO at Minders
