HMh Player
Overview:
A merger of technology and instruction giving the ability to connect, customize, communicate and collaborate. One large value prop of the Player is that it could operate off-line and allow students to continue work without the need of an internet connection. Target devices for the app were iOS and Google Chrome.
My involvement on the project was to work on the user experience for various parts of the app including the main dashboard (user and administrator), assignments and reporting structure for various grades.
Scope:
The premise of the HMH Player was to create a learning management system leveraging the experience and expertise of HMH, a worldwide leader in education. Designed to meet the needs of a core set of users, understanding and framing the project's scope was essential to getting it off the ground with a minimum set of requirements. From there, the product could be iterated on as feedback and validation of features became apparent.
Identifying our users:
We established primary personas that were precise and and specific. It is important to be specific as this lets us explore other cases when applying to the design, creating narratives of these users work role within the product. Four primary personas were designed based on age ranges that apply to specific curriculums. Pre-K to Grade 1, Grade 2-5 and grade 6-12. The educator would round out as the 4th persona.
We established primary personas that were precise and and specific. It is important to be specific as this lets us explore other cases when applying to the design, creating narratives of these users work role within the product. Four primary personas were designed based on age ranges that apply to specific curriculums. Pre-K to Grade 1, Grade 2-5 and grade 6-12. The educator would round out as the 4th persona.
mapping the experience:
Framing experiences - One main focus of the Player was off-line functionality for the core user. Understanding that a device drives the experience and has its own limitations based on screen size. Various points of use were investigated and vetted to understand the users needs. Identifying the happy (aka hero path) was used to help establish what features were accessible throughout the users journey.
Anatomy of a lesson: Working with various SME’s on the project to help understand how a typical lesson could be applied within the digital space of the learning app. Assignments were broken down by the type of scenario.
high fidelity designs:
High fidelity designs: These were based around extensive UX work and user-testing. The interfaces comprised of three different interface (primary, intermediate, and upper) grade designs. Each interface has design features for the appropriate user age.
Above: Experience for students grades 6-12 and also supported the view for teachers and administrations.
Below: K-5 experience for younger students. The UI features a more friendly layout that is more tactile for younger users. Information is suppressed to contain only the most relevant information.
Takeaways:
The HMH Player has been successfully implemented for a number of years now. This product is used throughout the United States with over hundreds of thousands of users in the App store. Having the task of designing the inner workings of how a teacher would go about creating a lesson or how a student user would access that lesson was challenging but extremely interesting. It was a rewarding journey and product initiative to be a part of.
