My team conducted separate research efforts to understand the challenges young children and their teachers face in learning and teaching English Language Arts. I interviewed four elementary school teachers to understand how digital tools are used in their curriculum. Here are three key takeaways:
My team learned about the disproportionate challenges faced by students with learning disabilities, particularly those with auditory dyslexia. This finding led us to focus our solution on supporting this demographic. The lack of resources for young students with auditory dyslexia led us to ask:
Guided by our "How Might We" statement, Michelle and Ryn conducted desktop research to identify the needs of students with dyslexia. This research identified multi-sensory learning and Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) as key elements for effective phonics instruction in students with dyslexia.
Using our desktop research, we identified existing digital and hands-on learning tools that address the needs of students with dyslexia. Team members conducted a competitive analysis of multiple products to identify technologies and interactive elements that best support student needs. This research helped us pinpoint the necessary features for our design solution.
Our research yielded four key insights that guided our design decisions. These insights helped us prioritize key features for our specialized learning experience.