Kuepa
2023
E-Learning platform Kuepa
Redesigning a Colombian learning platform so students can follow their study route, attend live and offline sessions, and track their grades in one place.
Overview
Kuepa is an LMS (Learning Management System) developed in Colombia
It provides and certifies high school education, technical careers, professional careers and foreign language learning for low-income students, mothers who are heads of household, and women pursuing a career in STEM.
Challenge
Kuepa was growing fast. With the number of students enrolling during the pandemic and the launch of technical and professional programs, the existing platform was falling short.
The academic team proposed a new asynchronous learning model. Supporting it needed a flexible platform that could show a study map, live and offline sessions, and several ways for students to consume content.
Project goals
1
Create a design system that lets the dev and design teams speak the same language.
2
Use the new design system to redesign and create the most important student flows: homework, content, grades and evaluation.
3
Create a solution for online and offline sessions with tutors and classmates.
4
Create a solution for the course study map, and a way to show students their progress and grades.
Research
Competitor research on online education platforms
A platform for studying and organizing program content. We concluded that students need a different access point for each module of the program, in Classroom a student couldn't move up to the next module.
Program content is organized attractively, which helps users keep track of their progress. Its weaknesses were an almost complete lack of synchronous classes and little variety in gamification tools.
Its language puts some users off. The gamification tools are basic, and it's hard to set up separate study groups while also keeping a statistics dashboard.
Pros and cons of the current product
The Kuepa LMS had been around for seven years, through several versions. Each new learning program added modules with its own learning and management tools. That growth caused problems for the dev team, inconsistent branding and visual identity, and above all a poor user experience.
The platform had usability flaws, but many of its tools still met the needs of students and stakeholders. So we looked for ways to improve processes, user flows and understanding without losing what already worked.
The previous Kuepa platform: course page, subject home, lesson view and messages.
Who studies on Kuepa
To analyze the platform more precisely, we created personas to understand the core needs and problems of Kuepa's audience. The platform serves two types of users:
Teenagers who can't finish high school the traditional way because of other commitments. Kuepa lets them finish their studies and still have time for sports, music, arts or other courses.
Young people and adults who work but need to finish high school to pursue a professional career.
User journey map
We ran a moderated exercise with a typical Kuepa student and gave them a task list, to uncover pain points, feelings and opportunities. The goal: study the day's lesson, practice with a quick quiz, and find pending homework.
Mood and improvement opportunity at each step
01
Browse LMS home
Friction
A home screen that shows what comes next: notifications, calendar, live tutoring, accumulated progress, grades and time studied.
Opportunity
A home screen that shows what comes next: notifications, calendar, live tutoring, accumulated progress, grades and time studied.
Impact
Students know what to do as soon as they log in, and reach live sessions on time.
02
Find today's lesson
Friction
Reaching today's lesson meant leaving home for the study route, and lessons weren't ordered by date or marked as finished.
Opportunity
A shortcut to the current lesson, and a calendar with a list view of the day's activities.
Impact
Fewer steps to start studying, and no doubt about what's done and what's next.
03
Consume resources
Friction
Too many resources per lesson, long videos, and no standard format across content types.
Opportunity
One consistent way to consume every content type, with exercises and transcriptions added to videos.
Impact
Keep the part students already enjoy while making lessons easier to follow and review.
04
Solve quiz
Friction
Quizzes felt monotonous, the Continue button hid below a scroll, and multiple selection looked like single selection.
Opportunity
More types of questions, with gamification.
Impact
More engaging practice and fewer mistakes when answering.
05
Get a grade
Friction
No clear place to check grades or find homework, and feedback didn't help students improve.
Opportunity
Feedback that fits each evaluation, and one place to check grades and turn in homework.
Impact
Students understand their results and stay motivated to keep improving.
Design
Organize and prioritize findings
Sitemap
With the problems defined and the research data in hand, we built an information architecture with seven primary flows. From there we kept refining the experience, focusing on the course route, moving up to the next level, doing homework, live tutoring, chat, the statistics dashboard and tests.
Wireframes
Once the architecture was approved, my team and I laid out the first low-fidelity wireframes, starting with the main and secondary components and the content resources: video, text and evaluations.
These early mockups showed us the logic and structure of the LMS and made us plan early for different screen sizes.
Design system
First, we needed a brand and a design system to unify the platform's look and feel. With it, we could build molecules and organisms faster, and the dev team could build the front end of new modules more easily.
New Unified image
Buttons: four variants across six states, four sizes (64, 48, 40, 32 px) and their anatomy.
Barlow (primary) and Nunito (secondary), with the full type scale. This page uses the same pair.
Testing
Alpha testing - Round 1
Beta testing - Round 2
Beta testing paid off. We brought 27 students in for on-site testing of the final prototype. They liked the new UI and found the information easy to follow. Their tasks were re-entering a session they had already seen, finding the next study subject, turning in homework, navigating with the study route, and completing quizzes and evaluations.
After the usability study, participants filled out a short System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire and a device questionnaire.
Every new module will bring room for improvement, but we're proud of the result: students interacted with the platform more, and they completed every required task.
