Why User Experience Design is Critical to Driving and Maintaining User Engagement and Motivation for Online and Mobile Educational Tools
Susan O\' Brien, Smigin (United States)
Abstract
Digital learning experiences are coming of age and as more users around the world begin to embrace online and mobile learning, it is imperative that educational product development incorporates User Experience (UX) design to ensure high levels of user engagement.
Innovative ICT products can be successful for two reasons:
1. They offer increased efficiencies of scale to both students and teachers
2. They offer an engaging experience that students are inclined to return to, and teachers will find easy to manage, deploy and moderate
The problem, however, is that despite the increase in availability of emerging technologies, UX has seen little adoption in educational products when compared to the lauded position that it holds in the tech consumer industry. The benefits are multiple for both teachers and students.
Most users can recognize poor design, but good design, is not merely effective implementation of colors and visuals, but rather is the designing of a seamless experience so that the user may successfully navigate that product and learn from it.
The challenge for students is twofold: procrastination and lack of engagement. Creating and delivering a thoughtful User Experience eliminates some of those obstacles for student motivation and adoption, especially in the context of foreign language learning.
This presentation will propose the implications for use and adoption of UX as a key component in educational product development as UX has not, as a function, received sufficient recognition for the role it plays in determining the success of an educational product and future adoption levels by teachers and students.
We will explain the benefits to the stakeholders (students and teachers), and highlight how adoption of these advances in learning technologies will create a new culture of digital learning and assure positive impact on Elearning methodologies and the emerging EdTech space.