Audience:
Ages 18 and older; 87% women (1% trans women); 33% BIPOC; 33% LGBTQ+
My Role:
As an instructional designer and curriculum writer for an award-winning online coding boot camp, I was tasked with helping design a case study as the final project for the company’s User Experience (UX) Design course. The course would be offered 100% online and asynchronously for non-traditional learners in an effort to upskill them for future jobs in the tech field.
Case Study Design:
I collaborated with one Curriculum Writer and one Subject Matter Expert to design the UX case study. My methodology and thought process used backward planning and a variety of learning theories/models. The case study was divided into smaller parts for hands-on application throughout the course, immediately following each module. Some modules required the learners to submit their case study progress for review by a UX mentor to ensure knowledge transfer. Learners also had the option of meeting 1:1 or 1:2 with UX mentors throughout the program to ask questions or receive feedback on their work. For social constructivism, learners also had access to a Slack channel with thousands of other students.
After learning the basics of project planning, design theory, User Experience (UX) Design, and User Interface (UI) Design, we then provide learners with a beginner-level case study that aligned with the learning objectives and provided an observable demonstration of skill application.
Overview of the Prompt:
The learner is asked to imagine that they live in a city with a local bicycle rental company that has been around for decades but hasn’t invested in updating or modernizing its website.
Learners were tasked with analyzing the company’s existing website, using design thinking to ideate solutions, then mocking up the design that they felt would best suit the bicycle company’s unique needs.
WordPress Mockup:
In addition to the prompt, I also created a fake WordPress website for the bicycle company to provide the illusion that the learners were creating a website for a “real” business. We deliberately added several examples of poor UX design to the website, then tasked the learners with making the site less confusing and more user-friendly and intuitive.
We gave the fake company a name and branding, then our Subject Matter Expert (who also happened to be a UX Designer) designed a logo for the bicycle business.
Evaluation:
Within six months of the course launch, it rapidly became the company’s highest-rated, best-selling, and most successful course of all time. Within three years, the company was ranked as one of the Top 10 Best Online Bootcamps for 2021 by Switchup.
Student feedback was positive. Here is a review we received from an actual student: “I have been learning a lot about User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) on many different websites. In this particular project […] I learned everything I need to know about User Experience. I really enjoyed the work that went into making this project.”