Knowt Streaks, a Quizlet Alternative
Motivating learners to consistently hit their flashcard goals
Overview
Knowt is a flashcard studying app similar to Quizlet. Students use Knowt to help them study their favorite languages and for upcoming exams. Knowt is growing in popularity with about 20,000 users joining each month, but many aren't sticking around after the first week. With the CEO, I worked on integrating a feature that keeps users around by motivating them to engage with the app, hit their learning goals, and maintain consistent study habits.
Role
UX Research, Product Design
Duration
2 weeks
Empathize
Problem
Knowt continued to bring in new users, but they weren't sticking around. For new users, there was a 70% drop off rate after the first week.
Discovering What Learners Need for Motivation User Personas
I interviewed learners to understand why users stopped using the app so quickly. I identified three main groups.
Why Streaks?
User Needs
Motivation to study consistently for exams and language goals
But, currently
Users are limited to simple push notifications and their own will power
So, let's
Introduce a streaks feature to keep users accountable and meet study goals
Common Goals
Choose whether to participate and receive notifications
Share their progress with friends for motivation
Review, analyze, and plan through a simple calendar
What Shape Will This Feature Take? Competitive Analysis
Individuals I interviewed mentioned helpful streak features like Duolingo and Anki that keep them motivated while studying for exams and languages, so I reviewed them and analyzed the features best suited for Knowt.
Passive Streaks like Anki's Heatmap were shareable with friends, but not very useful for motivation. Active Streaks like Duolingo's Streaks were very good at motivating people to study, especially with the cute owl, notifications, and gamification.
Defining the Necessary Features Journey Map
Before wire-framing, I laid out the experience at each stage of the streaks feature to make sure wireframes reflected what users expected at each stage of their journey from awareness to logging in 20 days after their last streak day.
Students seek an optional feature for setting goals, staying motivated, and sharing progress.
Iteration
Visualizing Passive vs. Active Streak Wireframes
A version of active and passive streaks were created to visualize what we understood users to need from the journey map.
Passive
Having a long list of streak history allowed users to screen record/capture and promotes share-ability at the cost of additional features below it. It was copy-able, like Anki, to show how many streak days you have. On the upside, there was space for a quick preview at the top.
Active
With active, a short calendar leaves space for other items like goals. There was also the opportunity to add a more active, informative calendar with exam dates visible.
Goldilocks Streaks Not too active, not too passive
Students want an easy way to set goals, stay motivated, and share with friends. The feature should be optional, set goals by minutes or cards per day, shoutout Kai (fan favorite), and promote share-ability/flex-ability.
Integrating throughout Knowt Wireframe
I explored putting the streaks feature as a modal above quizzes, the primary action, but it hides them. Putting streaks below risks users not ever discovering streaks. Placing streaks on the profile page was also invisible, as most users rarely visited it. For an optional feature, placing streaks in the top bar where it is visible and non-intrusive help learners get to quizzes and other content.
After a quiz is taken, it was important to notify the user that they are making progress on their streak. Using Kai to tie everything together allowed the screen to not change but provide additional information.
Key Features
Streaks Goal Setting, Sharing, & Motivating
Streaks is a non intrusive feature to motivate learners to study consistently. They can create goals that aim to complete a certain amount of cards or time per day.
The calendar lets users analyze their past results and plan for exam dates.
Integrated throughout Knowt
Streaks are present on the home screen and after the first quiz of the day. The feature needed to be optional and simple so learners could stay focused on studying.
Rewarding Learners
Streaks reward learners in small ways throughout the site and serve as reminders of the progress they are making towards their learning goals.
Reflection
I really enjoyed this passion project as I involved a heavy amount of research to inform decisions I made. From what was included in the high fidelity prototype was formed from personas to journey maps and wireframes. I got to practice integrating a feature into an existing app, using their design system, and creating graphics to gain buy-in for this feature!
Knowt Streaks, a Quizlet Alternative
Motivating learners to consistently hit their flashcard goals
Overview
Knowt is a flashcard studying app similar to Quizlet. Students use Knowt to help them study their favorite languages and for upcoming exams. Knowt is growing in popularity with about 20,000 users joining each month, but many aren't sticking around after the first week. With the CEO, I worked on integrating a feature that keeps users around by motivating them to engage with the app, hit their learning goals, and maintain consistent study habits.
Role
UX Research, Product Design
Duration
2 weeks
Empathize
Problem
Knowt continued to bring in new users, but they weren't sticking around. For new users, there was a 70% drop off rate after the first week.
Discovering What Learners Need for Motivation User Personas
I interviewed learners to understand why users stopped using the app so quickly. I identified three main groups.
Why Streaks?
User Needs
Motivation to study consistently for exams and language goals
But, currently
Users are limited to simple push notifications and their own will power
So, let's
Introduce a streaks feature to keep users accountable and meet study goals
Common Goals
Choose whether to participate and receive notifications
Share their progress with friends for motivation
Review, analyze, and plan through a simple calendar
What Shape Will This Feature Take? Competitive Analysis
Individuals I interviewed mentioned helpful streak features like Duolingo and Anki that keep them motivated while studying for exams and languages, so I reviewed them and analyzed the features best suited for Knowt.
Passive Streaks like Anki's Heatmap were shareable with friends, but not very useful for motivation. Active Streaks like Duolingo's Streaks were very good at motivating people to study, especially with the cute owl, notifications, and gamification.
Defining the Necessary Features Journey Map
Before wire-framing, I laid out the experience at each stage of the streaks feature to make sure wireframes reflected what users expected at each stage of their journey from awareness to logging in 20 days after their last streak day.
Students seek an optional feature for setting goals, staying motivated, and sharing progress.
Iteration
Visualizing Passive vs. Active Streak Wireframes
A version of active and passive streaks were created to visualize what we understood users to need from the journey map.
Passive
Having a long list of streak history allowed users to screen record/capture and promotes share-ability at the cost of additional features below it. It was copy-able, like Anki, to show how many streak days you have. On the upside, there was space for a quick preview at the top.
Active
With active, a short calendar leaves space for other items like goals. There was also the opportunity to add a more active, informative calendar with exam dates visible.
Goldilocks Streaks Not too active, not too passive
Students want an easy way to set goals, stay motivated, and share with friends. The feature should be optional, set goals by minutes or cards per day, shoutout Kai (fan favorite), and promote share-ability/flex-ability.
Integrating throughout Knowt Wireframe
I explored putting the streaks feature as a modal above quizzes, the primary action, but it hides them. Putting streaks below risks users not ever discovering streaks. Placing streaks on the profile page was also invisible, as most users rarely visited it. For an optional feature, placing streaks in the top bar where it is visible and non-intrusive help learners get to quizzes and other content.
After a quiz is taken, it was important to notify the user that they are making progress on their streak. Using Kai to tie everything together allowed the screen to not change but provide additional information.
Key Features
Streaks Goal Setting, Sharing, & Motivating
Streaks is a non intrusive feature to motivate learners to study consistently. They can create goals that aim to complete a certain amount of cards or time per day.
The calendar lets users analyze their past results and plan for exam dates.
Integrated throughout Knowt
Streaks are present on the home screen and after the first quiz of the day. The feature needed to be optional and simple so learners could stay focused on studying.
Rewarding Learners
Streaks reward learners in small ways throughout the site and serve as reminders of the progress they are making towards their learning goals.
Reflection
I really enjoyed this passion project as I involved a heavy amount of research to inform decisions I made. From what was included in the high fidelity prototype was formed from personas to journey maps and wireframes. I got to practice integrating a feature into an existing app, using their design system, and creating graphics to gain buy-in for this feature!