MARKET GAMES
September — December 2018
Redesigning the web platform learning experience
Client: Market Games
Product: Intro to Business Game
Market Games is a business simulation where students collaborate with unique roles to make decisions for their business competing against other teams. It is currently in use by students at UC Berkeley and Miami University. Jump to product preview
Role: Product Designer
Research, Ideation, Prototyping, and User Testing
Initially, our client wanted us to make a mobile app as a complement to the web-based simulation.
Here's why we changed the project focus to the web platform
User Research Insights
Understanding the student users
Our primary methods of research were surveys and 30-minute interviews with students that had used Market Games in a pilot launch. Some questions that directed our overall research were —
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What experiences do students have with mobile learning experiences?
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How did students feel about using Market Games as a part of the curriculum?
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How could learning with Market Games be amplified with an app?
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How do students prefer to learn, or what is their learning style?
Using the web platform
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Steep learning curve due to an information overload
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Unorganized pages made it difficult in find relevant information each round
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Students were initially confused by the order of tasks they needed to do by role
Student Quotes
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"Feels like we are doing each round just to be done with it, and not to perform well as a team"
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"The game is a cool application of business concepts, but I don't see the connection to class material"
Mobile Learning
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Students felt mobile phones are too distracting with notifications and texts
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Students felt that it would add on another layer of complexity to the app
Listening to user pain points
We held a healthy discussion with Torsor, the CEO of Market Games. The research made it clear that we needed to switch our focus for this project.
1. Students found it difficult to find relevant information because the platform did not have a central home page to simplify navigation
2. Learning how to use the platform became a hassle with a lack of onboarding
How might we make it easier to navigate and use the Market Games web platform so that students can have an enjoyable learning experience?
Prototyping
Brainstorming with specific user insights
Most of the site's issues came from a lack of organization and it was missing a central page to access the different parts of the game
We also explored more ways to connect students to the content learning in class
Iterating the dashboard
Out of the 36 screens my team and I designed, the dashboard made the single biggest impact for students. Overall student feedback told us that it simplified navigation and helped them find information they could not before.
Dashboard
Dashboard Iterated
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Next steps: test the user flow from
Onboarding > Dashboard > Decisions > Quizzes
User Testing
Method 1: InVision clickable prototype with current students
We gave students a set of tasks to accomplish and observed them interact with the InVision prototype in person. After they finished on their own, my team and I asked questions about tasks they had difficulty with.
Main goals for the user going through task list
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Explain the game after going through onboarding
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Use the dashboard to identify basic information about the current round
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Go through a decision to complete a round
Method 2: Usertesting.com prototype with new users
Usertesting.com helped my team test the user flow with users that had never seen the platform before. Each participant recorded their interaction with the prototype, giving us an outside look into the site's flow.
Final Iterations
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Breaking down the onboarding in a step-by-step flow decreases cognitive load for first-time users
A dashboard gives students a central page to access the different parts of the game
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Within each page, the left sidebar guides users through the sub-pages
Specific concepts are connected to lectures and quizzes that test application of knowledge
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Lectures are taken directly from the classroom and include a space for extra notes
Quizzes use gamification to give students feedback and incentives for their learning experience
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Today, the intro to business game is used across 9 schools, and at least 25 schools by the 2022 fall semester
Testimonials
Miami University Professor Justin McGlothin
Market Games provides the missing piece to my Foundations of Business course…The application. [It] not only introduces the different functions that make a business work, but also allows my students to apply [...] critical thinking, teamwork, problem-solving - and get real feedback quickly in a team environment.
Market Games and OpenStax partnership
The updates to the Intro to Business Game will give instructors the power to do more with less. They will have access to many features (textbook content, a team project, peer feedback tool, assessment tool) that are helpful to driving engagement and learning outcomes in a larger classroom.
Final Thoughts
It was exciting to take on a challenge to improve a platform that would be used by many other students like myself!
I didn't expect the project to change so much after our research sprint, but this experience emphasized the importance of communication with stakeholders. If my team had not brought up the change in project scope, the outcome would have been entirely different. Users drove our entire project scope, from their pain points to their interaction with the prototypes during user testing. Ultimately, this led to a better learning experience for the students.
Other Work
