Joco
A learning platform for distracted people that transforms
any knowledge base into 5-minute learning conversations.
A learning platform for distracted people that transforms
any knowledge base into 5-minute learning conversations.
I've been working on this platform since day 1, so for a long time I was the only designer with a very generalist approach.
The upside of working in a small startup is the opportunity of being part of the whole process and approaching it in a holistic way. So today, in general, I'm both a Designer and Product Owner. I'm not always working at my desk, but most of the time I'm reaching stakeholders and taking care of the product.
Microsoft performed a research to understand how technology can affect human's attention span: at the time, in 2000, the average human attention span was 12 seconds. 15 years later, the same research was made and they discovered that human attention is dwindling: the average span had decreased to mere 8 seconds. Fun fact: the average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds.
This research was Joco's starting point. We wanted to design a learning experience suitable for this new generation of highly-distracted people.
Conversations are truly human-centered interactions. They are, in fact, world's oldest interface, it is how humans interact with each other for millennia.
Today, chatbots are on the rise due to texting and machine-learning technologies. Actually, texting is how we talk now and it feels like real direct human conversation. The numbers are really huge:
Source: Domo
People these days struggle to focus in environments that require prolonged attention, such as a regular classroom. And we think conversations are the antidote. In Joco, instead of listening passively to something, users are the center of the experience and encouraged to take part on it in a humanized, fun and meaningful conversation with a robot.
Every startup environment is full of challenges for a number of reasons, so Joco wasn't an exception. Here are some of the existent challenges while designing the platform.
This is how the user journey happens for a new user at Joco:
Joco follows a microlearning methodology. It is a flexible and effortless approach that turns knowledge in small doses, as tiny chunks of training material that users can comprehend in a short time.
The anamnesis is a fun and easy-going sign up experience. It's the moment where the user gets to know the robot's persona. Meanwhile, we ask a series of questions to understand one's profile and personal goals. The answers are the fuel for the algorithm that customizes the experience and recommends the most adequate content for each user.
Anamnesis screen for a SulAmérica product.
At the end of anamnesis, the recommendations algorithm will offer three of the journeys that best suits user's profile.
Suggestions were made to avoid the paradox of choice, showing users the three most suitable journeys to start their learning path.
Just after the anamnesis, users are ready to go and can choose a journey to start learning. Journeys are the product's core experience, so we spent a huge amount of time designing it.
Welcome Block
Every journey starts with a welcome block. The objective is to give users some context about the subject they are going to learn.
A couple of welcome blocks from different subjects.
Questions and Feedbacks
The core learning experience. It is a linear flow in which users answers questions and then receive feedbacks for their right or wrong answer. There is a number of different components and interactions that editors can pick when writing a journey.
In the image, two different options of interaction: an interactive grid of images and quick-reply buttons.
Follow-up
We tried to create an experience that is just the perfect mix of a game and a formal education material. So, when a journey ends, users unlock an achievement for completing it. After that, they can either choose to share their achievement, learn more about the topic, see other recommended content or restart journey.
Example of a achievement unlocked for completing the journey 'Dutch settlement in Brazil.'
Learn more
Once one learns new stuff, he/she needs to keep practicing, reading and studying about it. Therefore, we created a 'Learn more' section full of related content so users can keep up with the studies after he/she finishes the journey.
Learn more section on a journey about writing screenplays.
Tracking progress is always available on dashboard page, where users can see their progress and the next recommended journeys. On our user tests, this page turned out to be the “safe-house” where users would come back every once in a while to get a sense of achievement and then choose a new journey to start.
Zoomed out view of all the possibilities and paths a user can follow. Hexagons represent a category while each triangle is a journey. In this page, users have a broader view of all the product's available content.
As soon as we had an MVP, we decided it was the time to have some people and potential users to test the product we were building.
So, we called different groups with different profiles:
5 teenagers around 14 years old
9 children around 6–12 years old
4 elderly 65–78 years old
This early-stage test before the platform go live was essential to see the direction it was going. Overall, the product was well-received by users and they didn't find it hard to navigate and go through the whole journey experience. We discovered some minor UI improvements to make it more user-friendly for elderly and very young children. At the end of the test we came up with a report full of follow-up actions before launching the MVP.
We had some pretty successful cases in Brazil, partnering with big clients and helping their brand to be an educational vehicle as well. Here are some of them:
