PLEASE NOTE: Due to confidentiality, detailed images are note used on this page. Alana will speak to the details of this project live. Images speak to the project overview and Alana’s workflow process.
The Intelligent Coach estimates what a learner needs at any given point in time in a course and actively recommends activities to support the learner. It also provides other helpful messages, such as encouragement, FAQ or help content, or next steps. The Intelligent Coach represents in-course personalization, as each Learner receives IC messages specifically for them, when they need it.
Technically, the Intelligent Coach (IC) consists of a front end and one or many backend components. The frontend is a visual element that surfaces messages to learners within their learning journey – this is what learners understand as the “Intelligent Coach.” The backend of the IC consists of one or many services that provide the “intelligence”; that is, they are responsible for determining what messages should be sent at what times and calculating when that occurs for each learner.
Research and hypothesis – First I needed to create an ecosystem of all the we know, need to know and is outstanding. This included information gathering, data mining, creating personas, competitive research, insights, hypothesis and logistics. The result was more questions and directions to go.
Creating a narrative – The IC is a stand-alone feature, therefore needed a voice and personality. The intention there is that eventually the IC will become an integrated personality not just for a course but for the entire Learning Genome. By creating a chart I was able to cover all use cases and scenarios for the IC and cross referenced those into multiple categories based on the type of support the IC was giving to the learner.
Working session – After evaluating the narrative and ecosystem it was time to create a working session to bring diverse minds together and generate ideas.
Creative session – What is the IC going to visually look like? I created a working session with the entire UX team to jam. After reviewing the overview of the IC, doing three creative exercises and deep-diving on our top five questions at this time, I was able to feel confident moving forward with three solid directions visually.
Writing – Since this is a new feature, we had to be sure we were meeting all our standards. With enough information to work from, I wrote up an impact document as well as a business requirement document.
Sharing – With enough information in place written through a process of defining cross functional team language, we were able to expand the conversation to define what’s possible by the deadline from a technical standpoint.
Review meeting – As data-driven decisions were being made I was able to build out three versions of a hypothetical prototype. Each prototype varied based on testing results with learners and learning needs. At this time I also referenced the original pain points to be sure the ideas I provided were meeting all the requirements and adding additional supportive ideas.