Due
For many students there is a large gap between in class learning and at-home understanding
I co-founded and led design for Due– a platform that reimagines homework as a dynamic learning experience.
ROLE
Sole Product Designer
TIMELINE
Sept - Dec 2024
TOOLS
Figma
FigJam
Photoshop
TEAM
Sky Lam (PM)
Amrita Arun (Dev)
Kristi Wu (Dev)
CONTEXT
More than just design– Learning to think like a founder
This product was founded through USC’s premier startup incubator, LavaLab. Despite the fact that we all came in with designated roles of designer or developer, before any of us even touched our craft, we spent 3 weeks conducting extensive research across different problem spaces.
With all of us having past experience as tutors or teacher’s assistants, our interest was piqued by the EdTech space.
PROBLEM
Homework has become a tool for assessment rather than actual learning
Students are more inclined to cheat in order to get credit rather than actually understanding the concepts
Tailored help is not accessible for every student at home
This issue is most prevalent at the middle school level– the crucial transition stage between the academic hand holding of elementary school and the independence of high school
RESEARCH
Talking to users
We conducted 20+ user interviews with teachers of all grade levels during the ideation phase
Understanding Students
Access to homework help and resources looks different for every student
Internet resources are not always perfectly in line with what is taught in class
Children can have vastly different preferred learning styles– visual, auditory, reading & writing, etc.
Understanding Teachers
It’s not their job to be accessible to students 24/7
Keeping track of individual student progress can be difficult
Teachers are wary of AI use in the classroom, but still want to use it as a tool
How might we contextually bridge the gap between in class learning and at home understanding?
SOLUTION
01
Teacher uploads their material
Due parses the lessons plans, answer keys and homework to create an assignment specifically tailored to the in-class content
02
Students are assigned homework on Due
All questions are contextual to what was taught in class
03
Our friendly mascot Duey nudges students in the right direction
Multimodal input to accommodate for different learning styles– options for text, audio or fill in the blank questions
04
Teachers receive key insights
Dashboard with data for each student + overall class understanding stats that highlight areas that may need to be covered again
Why do teachers want to use Due?
Teachers we spoke with wanted to bring AI into the classroom, but they lacked the professional development to use it
Due doesn’t require any complex prompting to create assignments for grade. It's all done for you.
Parents, tutors, and online resources are disconnected from HW
Direct student insights are incredibly valuable to improve lesson plans
PROCESS
The Drawing Board
When sketching, some of considerations included: How do we prioritize simplicity? Why did we settle on a chatbot? And why is it more than just a chat bot? What were other options that got scrapped?
Balancing simplicity and playfulness
Introduce Duey - importance of having an iconic character.
Concept Validation: Getting an MVP to users ASAP
We decided to focus on the student facing side first. If students don’t want to use our product, then why would our customers– the teachers– want to buy it?
Once our MVP was developed, we took Due to K-12 public school classrooms and had students get their hands on it!
Key Student Feedback
They love the interactivity and had lots of fun talking to Duey
Frustration when they are on the right track and understand the concept, but can’t get the answer exactly right
Iterations
Adding a progress bar: allowing students to have a visual marker of how close they were to the right answer
Updating the visual design system to be more professional with a cleaner font in a smaller style-- original design was too immature for middle schoolers
When designing for AI, how do we create calibrated trust?
It’s important to create a balance between too much trust and no trust at all.
With a younger audience who is not as familiar with AI, much less any sort of prompt engineering, it's important to provide multiple options while still giving them the agency to steer the conversation
On the teacher end, we need to reassure them that they have control over what the AI is actually doing
DESIGN SYSTEM
Branding
As the sole designer, I was also responsible for the branding of Due. My goal was to create a clean and simple identity that still maintained a touch of playfulness.
Sticker Design
I was also in charge of creating fun merch to give out to the 200+ guests who attended Demo Night. My expertise from years of running my small business came in handy!
TAKEAWAYS
Be flexible with developers
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I had previously worked on a lot of solo design projects or designations with other designers, but this was my first time having my work coded out.
This taught me the importance of learning how to pivot– not every design is feasible to develop, especially on such a tight timeline. Be flexible!
Fail fast
This was also my first experience in the startup space. We cycled through a lot of ideas before we landed on Due.
Talk to users!!! If an idea doesn’t work/isnt needed, its okay to scrap it and move onto the next one.
The faster you fail, the faster you can iterate or pivot.
Thank you!
Huge shout out to my amazing team and mentors!
We all learned so much from each other and there’s no one else I would have wanted to take on this journey with!
