We analyzed numerous articles, books, and products for insights on designing technology that support learning.

Literature Review

In order to invoke public interest in ISS scheduling and telemetry data, information must be conveyed in a way that our audience can easily understand and relate to. Since the learning process will primarily be driven by users, the interaction must be designed to allow them to take control of their learning and provide incentives to engage in this learning experience in the first place.

In light of this goal, we looked into various literature whose takeaways fall into four topic areas: Learning Theories, Engagement Theories, Educational Technologies, and Platform- Specific Design.

Our research revealed several insights about the learning process and tactics for designing experiences that sustain interest and support learning. The findings left us with a stronger understanding of qualities that are shared by effective learning environments and educational tools.

Competitive Analysis

We looked at analogous products in the market for inspiration to learn from their strengths and weaknesses. Due to the goals of this project, we selected mostly iPad applications and a web application, all of which aim to inspire users to explore scientific data. Using the criteria below, we visualized our product comparison and identified trends and opportunity gaps, which focus on novelty, social interactions, and immediate engagement.

Our analysis involved criteria like rating, pricing, feature offerings, and target users. Of these, we selected a few relevant items, highlighting the features used to communicate information and draw users to the application. In this analysis, we also included key differentiating features of the applications (e.g. signature interactions and use of novelty) and/or features that contributed to the applications’ popularity. Finally, we assessed whether engagement or communication tactics discovered in the literature review (e.g. use of social influence, user-generated content, virality factors) were utilized by these applications. Together these analyses revealed gaps among existing products in the marketplace, in turn revealing design insights and potential opportunity spaces.