University of Maryland + Flikshop
Prison Education Project
Date
Time
September 2021
Role
Team
9 Months
UX Designer
8 Members
Technology
Planned and conducted student and expert interviews
Analyzed qualitative interview data
Designed concepts and high-fidelity prototypes.
Analyzed qualitative interview data
Designed concepts and high-fidelity prototypes.
My Contributions
Our Objective
Flikshop and University of Maryland I-school partnered to work on an engaging and exploratory digital LMS system that would provide incarcerated individuals the proper skills and tools to successfully find work and be self-sufficient post release. This is part of a larger endeavor to reduce recidivism rates across the country.
Problems + Goals
Problem
Currently, prison systems have limited availability of educational resources causing large waitlists to occur. Even when resources are available, they vary widely depending on the facility and lack in variety. Frequent shutdowns, resident relocation and segregation housing also halt the educational progress and opportunities available creating a barrier to receive consistent resources and learning.
Goal
For incarcerated individuals to receive virtual learning opportunities that build necessary skills post release while accessing messages from loved ones.
Accepting the Facts
Although there were many focus areas and obstacles to design for, there were some that relied heavily on items beyond our control or had access to research. It was vital that we focus on the goals we could control and take into account the things we could not.
Things We Could Change
- Intimacy, customization and relevancy
- Establishing motivation and trust
- Upholding good UX principles and curriculum layout
Things we could not change
- Lack of target population testing
- Due to the nature of our research, testing and getting insights from currently incarcerated individuals was very difficult. We instead utilized proxy users, field experts and formerly incarcerated individuals to provide us with data.
- Managing the strict technical and environmental constraints within a high security environment
- Variations in facility regulations
Design Process Overview
Analysis
In the first 4 sprints we utilized a myriad of inquiry and analysis methods to help better understand our problem space further. Some of these analysis findings are summarized below and each heavily influenced our design decisions.
Our Findings
Meet Students Where They Are
Education, age and technology literacy varies extensively within our target population. Therefore, providing an accommodating experience that was still challenging to each group was important.
- Not just building skills, we are learning how to learn..
- Allow exploration and accommodate for different learning styles
- Simple and engaging does not mean childlike. The goal was for understandability, not for them to feel like children.
- You don’t know what you don’t know. If a student is unsure about the what a subject is really about, instructors can’t use random jargon and unclear expectations
Recreate Trust and Flikshop Identity Digitally
In a digital environment, it can be difficult to recreate the trust and bond between the students. It’s hard to believe someone has your best interest at heart when they don’t understand what you’re going through. Marcus did that well in person with his charismatic and heartfelt personality- how would we replicate that?
- Humanize the teachers. Showcase the stories of Professors who had similar barriers and upbringing.
- Speak the students language : provide relevant and meaningful content that students identify with and learn from.
- Establish the altruistic intent of the company
Persuading Commitment, Increasing Confidence, and Maintaining Motivation
Sustaining student engagement during the duration of a virtual class may be difficult. This is can be due to a multitude of things including distractions and decreased levels of confidence. Our team focused on creating multiple avenues to sustain attention and build confidence during the their educational journey.
- Affirm users and showcase their progress. Utilizing encouraging language feedback.
- Use tangible and direct incentives that supplement their intrinsic desires.
- Seeing the future and what it looks like is important - see where they’re going, not just where they’ve been.
- Relay to students the importance and benefits of completing the courses
- Give a sense of agency in building their own curriculum
- Gamify for additional attention and retention.
Enhanced Instructional Design is Vital to the User Experience
In order to create the most optimal platform, we had to give deep thought into the fundamental learning structures and curriculums that the students would be using. Therefore, we thought it would be helpful to get the feedback from those specializing in instructional design and teaching. Each of these paid special attention to ensuring user focus and engagement in an asynchronous especially.
- Simplified language and minimal text is a necessity to allow for maximum retention and comprehension (3rd grade level)
- White space, minimal text and actionable direction is key
- Utilizing Gagne’s Nine Events framework
The Final Concept
In our final sprint, we worked vigorously to design a high fidelity LMS prototype that represented the many insights we received throughout the project. Low to medium fidelity wireframes were also created to give a better sense of how the solution would look and feel.
We utilize core Flikshop branding but made minor variations in shading to give a more adult feel. We also provided a simple layout with a focus on navigational clarity.
Gamification was utilized to maintain user engagement while also applying newly required skills.
The main course content was carefully designed to make core features readily accessible without compromising such small screen real-estate on the tablet.
Students desired agency and variety. We created a design that would assess their current interests and provide them with options that met them at their level of knowledge.
Incentives, such as Flikshop bucks, were heavily utilized to supplement intrinsic motivations while completing the course.
Badge accumulation and positive feedback was another way our team instilled confidence and showcased individual progress.
User Testing
Future Improvements
We had the opportunity to interview 4 proxy users during our final sprint to get feedback on our product. The feedback gave insights on how to improve our solution given
1.
Further focus on how goal creation can be shown throughout work. Especially, for those who have little knowledge on what they do and do not know what is possible.
2.
Emphasize the opportunity for Flikshop bucks and messaging earlier on in the user flows.
3.
Focusing on how lines of trust and communication can be fostered between students and the class opportunities.
Personal Takeaways
Transparency in Limitations
This sounds simple, but initially we found ourselves adding too many incentives and structures when in reality we needed to refocus on the bare bones of what our users really needed.
During this project, there were a lot of barriers including lack of access to information and target users. It is important that we be transparent in our setbacks and limitations so that there can be honest conversation of how this can be improved. Also, accepting that you won't know everything is necessary at times.
Understanding Vulnerable Populations
Accommodations in User Testing
Focus on What's Necessary
Understanding the culture and barriers surrounding incarcerated individuals granted a new lens on the problem space and a new level of respect. Utilizing humanizing language, positive affirmations, critical thinking helped us keep in mind the privilege and power dynamics we hold as designers.
Similar to our findings to meeting our users where they were, we needed to do the same for our testers. Giving detailed explanations of abstract concepts like prototyping and give room for extra time is necessary.
This work cannot have been done without the awesome students and staff at University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Program capstone and Flikshop's amazing team!
The Team
Stakeholders
Marcus Bullock
Flikshop Founder
BJ
Flikshop Professor
Professors
Bill Kules
Wayne Lutters
UMD Team
Flikshop Team (Spring)
Ghayas Akbar
Matthew Alexander
Bree Douthitt
Markus Hynes
Alea Oakman
Kayla Winbush
Flikshop Team (Fall)
Brandon Cooper
Markus Hynes
Miya Oshiro
Kayla Winbush
+ More
Many thanks to the field experts, user testers and reviewers for also contributing to the project!
Want to work together?
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
