651.276.0179 – brieannalindquist@gmail.com
Portfolio
Coolkit App
I developed an application that provides students with personalized profiles filled with coping tools to promote independent emotional regulation. It also provides teachers with valuable data on what coping tools work for the students and at what time they use them.
–MY ROLE–
Everything - From strategy to research to prototyping and presentation.
–METHODS–
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Surveys
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Remote Usability Testing
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In-person Usability Testing
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Card Sorting
–DELIVERABLES–
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High Fidelity Prototype
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User Journey Map
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Storyboard
–PRIMARY TOOLS–
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Invision
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Illustrator
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Sketch
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Google Forms
Presenting the Coolkit app.
Schools in America are commonly understaffed, and underfunded. Students today have complex emotional needs that often aren’t being met. I used to work in an emotional and behavioral disorder classroom and saw first hand the high need to teach student’s how to independently regulate their emotions. For this reason, I created an iPad app called Coolkit.
Initial Research: I researched other applications used by kids in school including Dreambox, ST Math, PBS Kids, and Stop Breathe and Think Kids. I read articles on designing for emergency situations such as trying to find emergency room entrances. I wanted this app to be useful when kids were feeling a little dysregulated as well as when they were quite a bit dysregulated.
WHAT THE USERS WANT:
During early card sorting activities with students, it was apparent that most kids enjoyed seeing images of them doing the activity (ex: doing a yoga pose) vs. a stock image of a child or cartoon character doing the same activity.
Students liked the control of picking their own activities that worked for them. They didn't like the idea of the teacher simply picking them all for them.
During early teacher surveys it was found that teachers loved data and found it essential that the app had a student portal with login information and data that could be easily printed and viewed.
Most teachers also found value in the app being used at home so it became a real part of the routine and became something students could work on with their parents.
Performing card sorting activity with child research participant.
USER TESTING
Usability testing was done with a few students aged 8-14, some students utilized special education, and all students identified as feeling anxiety at school sometimes. They were successfully able to get through the app.
When usability testing was done with teachers suggestions included QR codes for passwords, visualizations of data on teacher profile, A small list of student avatars the students could choose from as to limit time taken on that portion of profile creation and facial recognition with sign in.
NEXT STEPS
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Coolkit will have the option to utilize face recognition logins for students. This can preserve the accuracy of student data by preventing them from going into other profiles and can also help with students who may not be able to enter a password.
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Profiles will be sorted by keeping historically successful coping tools towards the top of the page.
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More restrictions on pages can be added such as limiting coping tool amount or timer length.
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A walkthrough tutorial for teachers that shows them the best way to build student profiles, acclimate them to app use and utilize Cookit data and resources library.
