Dyslexiapp
Giving elementary students with dyslexia a fighting chance
Skills
User research
User interface design
User experience design
App design
Timeline
January 2023 - April 2024
Made with
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Challenge
Dyslexia is a neural disability that affects the visual decoding in people.
1 out of 12 kids in school show possible symptoms of dyslexia in Primary Education.
Kids with dyslexia are often written off as “low-effort students” given their low grades.
Professors in rural-based schools don’t know how to identify the symptoms of dyslexia.
The four areas it affects is dictation, reading, writing and social queues.
Status quo
I started to research different topics that are present in Guatemala for my degree project. After selecting three themes, dyslexia seemed to be the topic that had the least amount of solutions with a lot of scientific papers on the topic. This project was made from scratch with a basis of professional interviews, surveys along with secondary research.
Getting to know what I don't know
How can I create a solution that diagnoses and treats kids with dyslexia in the context of primary education?
How can I minimize the emotional impact that kids have from the effects of dyslexia?
Target audiences
To determine who this product should be aimed at, I utilized surveys, netnographies, empathy maps and user personas. This allowed me to find insights related to demographic, psychographic, psychopedagogic and geographic profiles. By the end of these methodologies, I concluded that the product will be tailored for 7-12 year old students and 23-26 year old teachers.
User flows
Low-fi sketches
Hi-fi sketches
Solution
The solution was to design a mobile application for two end users. The first being for the elementary teacher in order to keep track of the student’s progress on the four key areas where dyslexia presents most inconveniences. Here they have access to their shortcomings as well as what areas they excel at, as well as having the option to learn more about the disability from trusted sources. For the students, they have a way to practice the four key areas with daily exercises that adapt to their learning needs and limits.
See the prototype
Impact
The impact recollected from the validation of the application from the target audience was positive. Teachers found the application to be useful and recognized the importance of knowing what dyslexia is and how it can affect students if they do not have a personalized set of exercises catered to their needs. Students remarked that it was the first application that they did not have a hard time reading off of, and that it helped them practice on areas where they feel they fall short on.
Learnings
This project taught me the importance of giving a voice for those users who have a disability. The mere fact that there is a product out there made specially for them makes them feel heard, noticed and valued. In terms of user behavior, I noticed that kids prefer to interact with elements that stand out color-wise; the more vivid the color, the more likely it is for them to make a certain action. They also don’t give much attention to grades, which led me to make some changes in how said info was presented (this was more sought after by their teachers).