THENA.
Empower students to streamline academic collaboration, enhance resource management, and achieve academic success through a freemium digital platform which integrates Atlassian's product range.
UX Researcher, Product Designer
Role
Elanor Shi, Tracey Shiu,
Naomi Li, Jermaine Issa
Rank
3rd / 22 Places
Group
Overview
Product Hackathon Design Brief
Atlassian wants to branch into the student market with a feasible solution that integrates a freemium model.
How Thena meets Atlassian’s needs:
Increased exposure to an untapped market for students as the majority of students interviewed had never heard of Atlassian
LMS system which integrates existing Atlassian products i.e. Jira to create a product ecosystem
Scalable architecture: cloud-based platform to adapt to increased demand
Freemium subscription-based model
Utilises Atlassian’s design systems for the product
How Thena meets user needs:
Highly customisable UI; make it your workspace
Teacher and student feature considerations
Tools for organisation and management with intuitive designs
Problem Space
Assumption 1:
Brand Perception
Atlassian is well-known in the enterprise software space, but they may not have brand recognition among students. Building brand awareness on campus could be a challenge.
Assumption 2:
Early User Adoption Matters
Atlassian's freemium product will need to compete with current offerings, such as Microsoft GitHub and Notion, to attract and retain student users effectively.
Assumption 3:
Competitive Landscape
Atlassian's freemium product will need to compete with current offerings, such as Microsoft GitHub and Notion, to attract and retain student users effectively.
Research Phase
Primary Research
EdTech Markets
The global Edtech market was valued at USD 123.40 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow by 13.6% from 2023 to 2030.
The Edtech industry is growing at high speed so stakeholders need to interpret the needs of the learners.
Find innovative solutions to bridge educational gaps and improve learning outcomes.
Key trends: Social learning and collaboration, personalised learning, e-learning, automated tools.
User Research
University, Edtech & Atlassian
34 university students responded.
70.5% of students find it difficult to keep track of assignments, deadlines and academic resources
55% are not familiar with Atlassian products, 30% have used Trello, 15% have used Jira
Top 4 attributes students are looking for in an EdTech product for university
Synthesis
Understanding the User
Empathy Map
Key Take Away: Our user reach is diverse and we must consider the utility and learnability to meet their needs.
Understanding the User
Personas, User Journey Map, & Storyboard
We wanted to maintain a user-centred design process, focusing on key users’ needs and experiences to unveil patterns in their requirements.
User Requirements
Ideation focus
Focusing on User Needs
Based on the patterns unveiled, these key requirements were derived which informed our approach to ideation.
Requirement 1:
Intuitive User Experience
Prioritise an intuitive user experience design to make the platform accessible and enjoyable to students.
Requirement 2:
Organisation & Collaboration
Provide tools for students to create, manage, and organise coursework and study materials effectively. Support seamless collaboration within study groups and groups formed for assessments.
Requirement 3:
Seemless Integration
Support seamless integration with current learning management systems and other educational tools.
Ideation
Ideation
Brainstorming
We broke down our ideas into a feature map to visualise and assess how well our concepts aligned with the user requirements.
Ideation
Narrowing Down
Which product idea brings together what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable?
How does each idea sit at the centre of these three criteria?
Ideation
Sketching
Now that we have selected an idea that fits the user's needs to the greatest extent, we started visualising.
Our 5 main components to address user needs and pain points were: Dashboard, Coursework Hub, Roadmap, Kanban Board, Study Groups.
Ideation
Wireframes
We created these wireframes to make use of placeholders and focus on the overall structure of the user flow and content.
User Testing
Wireframe Test
To test our assumptions that our designs accurately reflect user needs, we had 12 university students with varying familiarity with time management tools and education levels to test our wireframe.
Objective
To evaluate the usability, functionality, and overall user experience of the time management to identify areas for improvement and validation of design decisions. Users were asked to navigate to specific pages from the home screen and asked for feedback on design choices.
Test 1:
UX Feedback
The navigation bar is efficient and useful
Tiles and carousels were intuitive and easy to understand
The icons were a bit confusing for users when navigating the navigation bar to find the desired page
Test 1:
UI Feedback
Intuitive app's interface design
Occasional confusion when navigating specific sections due to inconsistency in design
The concept of using imagery and customisation of the interface was highly appealing
Test 1:
Usability Rating
Overall average score: 3.6
We evaluated the following criteria learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction.
Learnability and memorability were our lowest average scores indicating we need to improve these areas.
Prototyping
Significant Design Changes
Added section tabs feature to align with Confluence and improve learnability, utility, and navigation
Structuring the navigation bar to be more intuitive by creating sections and improving the hierarchy
Changed icons to be more recognisable for their respective section to improve learnability
Added a Team Space feature to the Course Hub (allowing seamless peer review and feedback)
Improved filter options and tags in Resource Library to improve navigation and enhance custom UX
Iteration 2
High Fidelity: Overview
As this was a product sprint with a week to complete we were unable to keep creating iterations and tests (check out my project Melting Pot for in-depth examples of user testing and iterations).
Iteration 2
High Fidelity: Considerations
We even considered dark mode — because let’s be real, we have all had our fair share of late nights to finish an assignment!
Iteration 2
High Fidelity: Considerations
Overview of the features and key considerations implemented, including the LMS system, how it integrates with Atlassian tools, and general features.
Iteration 2
High Fidelity: Outcomes
What the product achieves in relation to our desired outcomes.
Feasibility
Profitability Breakdown
Initial profitability may be lower due to marketing and development costs. Profit margins can increase as the user base grows and recurring subscription revenue accumulates.
Subscription Fee: Offer the premium plan on a monthly/annual subscription basis.
Discounted Student Pricing: Provide students with a discounted or free access period to encourage adoption.
Enterprise Version: Explore partnerships with educational institutions for bulk subscriptions.
Cost Structure
Technical Feasibility
By leveraging Atlassian's technical capabilities and expertise, Thena can be developed and maintained as a technically feasible product.
Product Competitor Analysis
