Students need to learn about other regions of the world as they move through the public school system. Kids in 5 & 6 grade enjoy learning; however, they struggle with reading long passages or listening to long lectures. Students want an engaging and fun way to learn while using technology to facilitate their learning.
During this project it was key to keep the target audience in mind. I worked as the designer and researcher for this project. The project was completed over a 6-week period. During the project I had the opportunity to work with peers and bring my work to a workshop for feedback.
Students will learn about the largest African cities, their people, culture, and how they live. This lesson will investigate what Africa is like today. Students will be able to identify cities, the people, and cultures of modern Africa.
The project is about connecting with young students. Africa is an often overlooked region when studying history and the world. With this in mind it is important to create a place that students can engage in learning about the continent. This project was completed in six week period working on research and design.
To prepare for this project research was conducted about Africa. Research looked into what students resonate with and how they like to learn. Because our target audience was younger, and they do not like to read long text my research informed the design decisions for the app. The app focuses on making an engaging way to learn through interactions and imagery.
For this app I wanted to cater to my audience as best as possible. In order to do that the app needed to be engaging, educational, and entertaining. Students can really enjoy learning when it is presented in a fun way that speaks to them. Exploring Africa is designed to be educational and fun. With these criteria in mind, I wanted to create a “live” feel to the app. The street walk segment of the app allows students to “walk” through locations in the region they are exploring. They are able to have a more hands on feel to their learning and thus will be more engaged.
At this stage in the project it was important to come up with a design that would lend itself to being fun and engaging. I looked into what other types of designs students had engaged with in the past and why they liked those designs. The age range for my target audience was around 10 to 11 years old. Because of their age I felt that a game would assist in their learning development. Exploring Africa would be a hybrid between a lesson and an interactive app. So I came up with the idea of "walking" through a region. Students would have the ability to view a landscape photo and find key elements that they could interact with and learn from. My initial idea was that they would collect items to fill a museum that they could later look back at to analyze the items they collected.
At this stage in the project there were a few ideas of how to create an engaging app that teaches young students about Africa. The initial idea was that students would collect items that were significant to the region they were exploring. By allowing students the ability to interact with the environment they would learn while they play. At first, they would learn a short lesson about the region they chose to explore and then they would move on to the exploration part of the app. In this stage they would search the region for objects of interest that would provide short lessons about Africa.
At this stage I wanted to consider how students would interact with each element. This meant that it would be important to consider what screens would do what and how students would know the results of their actions on the app. This is when I considered what elements would allow for interaction. I created a backpack system so that there would be one place students could view the items they collected. Additionally I wanted there to be a part of the adventure where they found a monument that was famous in the region they were exploring. This would allow for a recognizable element that would help students remember the location and set it apart from other regions.
Exploring Africa turned into a creative project that can provide an education to young students. At this stage in the project the aesthetic, and design choices were made. It was important to represent Africa accurately as it is a large and diverse continent. The visual design was created intending to represent the region that the student is exploring. I found that there were lots of different ways that I could represent Africa. For the final iteration of the app, I wanted to make it interesting and engaging.
Working on this project gave me insight into working with an audience by trying to meet all their needs. One of my main objectives when creating this project was to make an engaging app that helps students learn. Not only did I come up with design that was intended to facilitate learning but, also teach kids about a subject they don’t often engage in.
©Auden Rein all works reserved 2024
