Design Challenge : Names & Faces
Prompt: At the beginning of each new semester or school year, teachers are faced with the challenge of remembering names for a large number of new students. Design an experience to help an educator match faces to names, with the goal of shortening the time needed to reach complete un-aided accuracy.
Why I selected this exercise: It's easy to say "Oh, I'm so bad at names". The real challenge is make the effort to remember. Growing up with a teacher as a parent, I know teachers' jobs are hard enough. Trying to memorize student's names can become a less important piece; one is usually solved with assigned seats, trial and error.
Children and young adults hold their identity and self-worth in their name and the ability of people to identify them. It seems natural that putting in a bit of extra effort to memorize names and faces effectively could only increase a symbiotic relationship on behalf of the teacher and student.
Process : Research + Documentation
I began by thinking about what people memorize and why, so I researched memory techniques. This path quickly lead me to the idea of Spacial Intelligence and Mnemonic Triggers. Basically, associating a familiar (visual) trigger with information while forming a memory helps retention and recall ability. That's what teachers need, the ability to create a strong visual memory of faces and recall names flawlessly.
I invite you to take a scroll through my sketchbook where I recorded my research journey and started to piece together an experience. My recorded process includes: a brief, notes from articles, assumptions and info about teachers an interview with a teacher, stats from the Department of Education, personas, site maps, user interview notes, user flows and sketches.
Big Idea + Assumptions
After my research, I set out to create an app experience based on two memory methods: the Link Method - visualizing a bizarre image in association with the information to memorize, and the Memory Palace or Loci Method - visualizing a location in association with each piece of information, then replaying the 'route' of locations to recall the info. Both methods have a high recall rate & effectiveness.
I decided to build an app that facilitated the idea of linking - giving them an image to base an association on.
Each class will have a theme, and each student in the class would be assigned an emoji - to base an association on. Keeping the theme consistent is my way of mimicking Memory Palace and Situational Learning within a product. Instead of remembering locations along a route, they're remembering images within a theme; animals, food, monuments, articles of clothing, etc. Emojis are inherent to phones and pop-culture + safe to reveal to parents and students.
I found the video below helpful in understanding these methods.
User Testing
Based on my assumptions and core experience above, I completed 4 casual user tests with those most accessible to me (meet my family). I had them each complete a manual version of the experience and the recall results were incredible. Take a look at the results below and further writeup in my sketchbook.
I had the first 3 people complete the following test: Choose a 'memory palace' route from a list of 5 routes.
Choose 20 locations along that route from a list of 30
I gave each place along the route a name and a face (20 students- 10 male, 10 female) and had them articulate a connection out loud
Each participant had 5 minutes to study this arrangement (all 20 at once)
I followed up with a series of 4 exercises to test the connection and increase memory
Challenge A: remove the face + name cards, shuffle them and have the user place them back in their correct locations (left in place)
Challenge B: remove the combined face + name cards. Replace with separate faces and separate names, pair both with their correct locations
Challenge C: remove locations, shuffle names and faces. match correctly with each other
Challenge D: flashcards. i held up a face and had the user say their name to me.
I noticed that the idea of a route and locations were much too complex to effectively interface so I came up with a replacement. One inherent to phones: emojis.
For the final user, I associated an emoji theme (animals) with each student name. The process was shorter, easier and nearly as effective.
Wireframes and User Flows
Once I had tested and proven my theory around the idea of Visual Linking and Memory Palace, I set to work wire-framing the experience. I broke up the app into 3 main sections:
1. A homepage/dashboard- gives high level insight into the app experience
2. A practice section- the core memory experience
This consists of introduction to the student via name and picture, emoji assignment, followed by various memory retention exercises.
3. A challenge section- teachers compete with each other to reinforce memory.
Below, view the full app experience, followed by 4 annotated sections. Click to enlarge.
Visual Design
Finally, I launched into visual design. I knew from my research that 76% of teachers are female, so I knew the app could skew feminine (but not alienate men). I created a calming green color palette that does not feel out of place no matter what time of day it is opened, and feels inviting, spacious and engaging. Green tests well across both genders
I followed up with a Material Design inspired interface, heavily relying on various card styles to help isolate and organize information. The icons are a free, open source set created by this talented designer. I manipulated and colored them for my needs. Finally, I created hi-fidelity mocks for the 3 core sections of the app, and also built out the Emoji Link section for further clarity. A brief style-guide can be found below.
“A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language”
- Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People