Tupear is an EdTech Start Up that believes learning shouldn’t be lonely. A lack of accountability often leads to procrastination, especially for students at university.
Deliverables
UX / UI Designer Graphic Designer Co Founder (2020 - 2021)
Tools
Adobe XD
Illustrator
Mirro
Google Suite
Protopie
Co-founding a startup was a whole different experience for me and a few members of the team. The startup schedule occurs separate from the rest of the world, continuously learning on the go and being ultimately responsible for everything that goes on. But seeing the entire team having a great time together and seeing the product development was the highlight of the journey.
My Role
At Tupear, we were a small team of 4 founders; all met at a 2-day entrepreneurs programme online. For the first few months, we worked remotely because of Covid - 19 and UK Lockdown restrictions. So that meant we never had the chance to meet each other physically.
The initial and continuous stage of creating Tupear was the research phase, building empathy with our users using various research methods. My primary responsibility included designing the product's components for the building of the application, branding elements and creating pitch-decks for our presentations.
Problem Space
University students studying alone or with friends/ classmates are often distracted and hold a lack of accountability for themselves. Finding a suitable study buddy online is difficult and time-consuming, which leads learners to rely on their immediate social circle. We at Tupear Came together to build an online platform for a community of learners to help them find a study partner.
Outcome
Months of working on Tupear, we launched MVP.1 gained over 100 users within the first week of launching, pairing students with ideal accountability partners. Our MVP.2 is currently being built and developed for a second launch and Beta test.
The User Experience Process
Building Empathy
We spent time interviewing and sending out questionnaires to different categories of students learning various subjects. These included students actively looked for a study partner online, average students in University and students who already experience higher education to build upon their perspective. These methods helped us gather student requirements and identifying their pain points.
We specifically asked these questions below and additional questions for each interviewee when said fantastic insights.
Questions We Asked
- How would you describe yourself in a social environment?
- What is your current/ideal study style?
- What were your greatest hindrances to achieving your desired grade?
- What are your biggest distractions when studying?
- How do you choose who to study with?
- How well do you understand concepts you learn in lectures?
- What are your thoughts about studying with someone you don’t know?
Defining the problem
To help us pinpoint the exact problem, we used the card sorting method to build empathy & define the issue in a problem statement. This method also allows us to create a persona & a point of view for our users.
The team would brainstorm a range of design solutions by drawing quick sketches to test them amongst ourselves & conduction card sorting & crazy eight sessions via Google Jam board to find the best solutions.
" When I’m studying for my course, I need to pass an exam or hand in coursework. I want to get work organised, talk ideas through with someone reliable in a timely fashion and make sure I understand the subject. So that I can feel the right pressure to get things done and stay assured I’m making progress towards my learning goals. "
Building MVP.1
To quick test our products and ideas we used already made tech tools to tackle each area we were testing. We built a slack community that was running through APIS with Integromat. The different tools included Google meets, Airtable, typeform & trello.
MVP.1 user flow
The diagram above is a simplified user flow diagram that shows the journey of the students when looking for a study partner or an accountability partner on the platform.
The user had the opportunity to tell Tupear about their background & goals and study habits. Match & meet their study partner, get to know them and start the 21 day study cycle. They had a chance at the end to continue with their partner, find a new partner or leave as their goals were completed.
Testing MVP.1
We had the opportunity to test our idea with over 100 students. We received fantastic feedback from the students and experts In the start-up world to help us build our platform even further. The feedback allowed us to start the process of designing MVP.2, our own application.
Designing The Solution
Designing MVP.2
After testing our first MVP we decided it was time to focus on building our application. As design Lead I help structure the process designing the solution creating wireframes, user flows and prototype mockups.
Digital Wireframes
I delivered quick digital low fidelity wireframes to demonstrate the screens' layout and the flow to the team. The digital wireframes allowed the team to visualise the application in a more realistic spending less time on the process.
Habit stacking is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a current pattern. No behaviour happens in isolation. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the following conduct. We implanted and designed habit stacking to connect new educational practices with current patterns to improve their relationship with studies.
Habit Stacking
Our slogan is that learning shouldn’t be lonely, and the Exclusive forum for students allows students to connect, share motivation tips and insights for the University lifestyle.
Study Forum
Matching System
A lack of accountability often leads to procrastination, especially for students at university. At given moments, it is a lonely journey, and motivation can be complex. We connect students with their Ideal online study partner & accountability partner, which offers instant peer support from a diverse community of learners around the UK.
What I have learnt
A fantastic team ethic is everything
Working with great communicators and having good work ethics is a good recipe for teamwork, which I had at Tupear. We called each other friends, and I enjoyed every bit of it. You and your colleagues should laugh occasionally and understand that mistakes in a workplace are meant to happen so you can learn from them.
You learn something new every day
When working for a start-up, you can constantly be wearing several hats. One day your job title can be Head of Design, then the next Data Analyst and the next head of Operations and so on. You are constantly adapting to the endless world of not stop learning.
You can built a tech startup no code
We believe that we need to get everything in order to be able to get started when that is not the case. you will forever not launch your idea to the public. You need to build and grow around what you don’t know first then and learn as you go. No one on the team knew how to develop but we learnt no code & API softwares to be able to show the world our idea.
A Special Thank you
I want to say a special thank you to the team; Asma, Davide and Ayo. Building a start-up is not easy, and along the way, we embark upon a lot of challenges. With our team, we strode through; we learnt and enjoyed the experience.