Vidyam
Empowering campus support staff with convenient access to skill-enhancement resources to foster their professional development.
August 2022- December 2022
Product Designer / Academic Project
Product Design, Interviewing
PROBLEM
Campus support workers are essential to educational institutions, yet often excluded from opportunities to learn and grow. Language barriers, limited time, and low digital familiarity make most existing learning platforms inaccessible to them. As a result, motivated campus staff lack clear pathways to upskill and advance.
How might we design an accessible and empowering learning experience for campus support workers; regardless of language, time, or digital literacy?
SOLUTION (BUILT AND TESTED FOR 3 LANGUAGES)
LEARNING
The central hub for accessing and navigating educational modules, designed for clarity and ease of use. Users can filter modules by English, Math, or Skills, or view all content at once. Each module card displays key details like progress percentage and module position in the course, helping users track their learning journey and stay motivated. A mic button near the title, “Choose a Category,” offers voice assistance for enhanced accessibility.
MODULE PAGE
This page is designed to provide a focused and streamlined learning experience. At the top, users can watch the course video, serving as the primary learning material. Below the video, related notes are displayed, offering additional context and key takeaways to reinforce understanding.
HELP
The Help Page is designed to provide users with quick and reliable support. A 24/7 chatbot is available to address doubts, offering clear and easy-to-understand answers. With its conversational interface, the chatbot ensures users can resolve issues or gain clarity on topics in real-time, without navigating complex support systems.
PROFILE
The Profile Page is a personalized space for tracking progress and customizing the experience. Users can add friends to build a community, switch languages for accessibility, and view achievements through earned badges. A detailed progress summary keeps users motivated, while the design highlights personalization and celebrates milestones.
REFLECTION
This project reinforced the importance of user-centric design and the need to continuously iterate based on real user feedback. We learned that designing for inclusivity goes beyond mere translation, it requires understanding the user’s environment, literacy level, and day-to-day challenges. Our testing phase revealed the critical role of simple, clear visuals and the power of an accessible help system in reducing cognitive load. Moreover, working on Vidyam gave us insights into how to design products for low-literate users in a dignified, empowering way.
🏆Vidyam won the Best Project Award among a submission of 30 HCI projects.
