Znam: Gamifying Bulgarian Exam Preparations
Project overview
Recently, I was drawn into an intriguing project that aims to revolutionize the way Bulgarian students from grades 5 to 7 approach their exam preparations. A friend shared this visionary idea with me about gamifying the learning process for the 7th-grade exams in Bulgaria, making it more engaging and enjoyable for students who, like me, did not relish the traditional study methods. The proposal resonated with me deeply, as I could relate to the struggle and frustration students often feel towards conventional learning materials. Eager to contribute and driven by my own experiences, I decided to join the team as a designer.
Our team is compact yet diverse, consisting of seven dedicated members: two full-stack senior developers with specialized focuses on the backend and frontend, two content creators including a senior teacher with expertise in Bulgarian exams and a copywriter adept in SEO, an advisor with a wealth of knowledge in the Edtech sector and funding strategies, and a visionary with a strong background in HR and angel investing.
In our collaborative effort, we've embarked on defining the project's scope, roles, research foundations, and the resources needed to bring our idea to fruition. With a lean approach, we are focused on validating our product and seeking a market fit, fully committed to enhancing the educational journey for students through this innovative venture.
Challenges
• Prioritizing Ideas: The project kicked off with an overwhelming abundance of ideas. The critical challenge for me was helping the team focus and prioritize, which led us to cut down 70% of the initial ideas to concentrate on a core, impactful concept: a competitive quiz-type game for students.
• Optimizing Resources: Given our lean approach, a major challenge was designing a user-friendly and engaging interface with limited resources. This required me to seek inspiration from existing apps to ensure we could deliver a quality product without overextending our capabilities.
• Design and Development Sync: As the designer, aligning my design vision with the development process was a significant hurdle. This involved refining a multitude of ideas into a singular, coherent user journey and translating this into low-fidelity wireframes for discussion and further refinement.
• Accelerator Program Preparation: Being accepted into an accelerator introduced tight deadlines for having a demo prototype ready. This not only pressured us to move quickly from concept to a tangible product but also to focus on essential features that could demonstrate potential KPIs for user validation.
• User Validation and Interview Challenges: Crafting interview questions for our two distinct user groups—parents and students—while adhering to data protection regulations for minors, presented a delicate balancing act between gathering insightful feedback and maintaining ethical standards.
• Navigating Team Dynamics: Proposing a new direction for the UI, inspired by popular gaming interfaces, led to a divergence in team opinions. This, along with some co-founders stepping back or leaving, strained our team dynamics, especially when my push for validation was met with resistance.
• Assuming Project Management Role: Recognizing the lack of effective project management, I stepped up to lead meetings and manage the project's progression. This role involved a delicate balance of contributing creative ideas and managing organizational tasks, often without formal acknowledgment or support.
Throughout my involvement in the project to gamify Bulgarian exam education, my approach to work was characterized by dedication, innovation, and a strong focus on collaboration. Here's a concise overview:
• Research-Driven: To ensure our product stood out, I undertook additional research on similar apps for UI inspiration, aiming to craft an engaging game with minimal resources. This proactive approach helped in iterating the design to better meet our target users' needs.
• Innovative Design Focus: I leveraged my design skills to refine and visualize the project's concept, focusing on creating a user-friendly and engaging experience through low-fidelity wireframes and careful consideration of the user journey and visual branding.
• Collaborative Team Player: Recognizing the importance of team alignment and efficient communication, I actively participated in discussions, shared updates via Telegram, and contributed to decision-making processes, ensuring everyone was on the same page.
• Adaptability: Facing a fast-paced environment, especially with the accelerator program, I adapted quickly by pushing for a lean launch strategy and facilitating the creation of interview questionnaires for user validation, showing flexibility in my role and responsibilities.
• Advocacy for Validation: I championed the need for user validation, arguing for its importance in identifying and addressing our product's flaws, even when faced with resistance from co-founders.
• Leadership in Project Management: Observing a gap in project management, I voluntarily took on the responsibility of leading meetings and managing project timelines, demonstrating my commitment to the project's success and my ability to lead by example.
• Educational Initiative: Following my exit from the project, I identified a broader need for effective project management skills in my work. Motivated by this insight, I decided to do a course to develop these skills further, aiming to contribute positively to future projects and teams.
My approach was thus defined by a blend of creativity, strategic thinking, active engagement, and a readiness to step into leadership roles to drive the project forward, despite facing challenges along the way.
• Brand Identity: Developed a comprehensive visual brand identity tailored to appeal to both students and parents, including logo, color scheme, and typography guidelines, ensuring consistency and engagement across all project materials.
• Two Working Prototypes: Successfully designed and contributed to the creation of two working prototypes, demonstrating the core functionality of the gamified learning experience and providing a tangible basis for further development and user testing.
• Two Questionnaires for Surveys: Crafted detailed questionnaires aimed at two distinct target groups—students and parents—to facilitate user validation and gather essential feedback on the usability, engagement level, and educational impact of the prototypes.
• Working Demo: Produced a fully functional demo version of the gamified learning platform, ready for presentation in the accelerator program and for initial testing phases, showcasing the practical application of the project's vision and design principles.
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