At the last Viable Community meetup – an initiative of re:learn, the education practice at CcHUB, we hosted 54  participants consisting of teachers, school leaders, EdTech entrepreneurs, and professionals to discuss the topic, UX in Edtech: Designing Good User Experiences for Learners and Educators.

We brought in experts to share insights from their field experience with participants in an effort to educate them on the essential elements of user experience design in EdTech. The panelists, Obiajulu Anayo, a prolific Product Designer, and Ifeoluwasimi Olusola, a Product designer at Ulesson, pushed the conversations further, providing answers to certain questions. 

The answered questions include; What are the good and bad examples of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designs of apps, websites, or other technologies you’ve used that come to mind?  Here are some key lessons we learned:

• “There is no such thing as a bad user experience, continuous testing, and iteration with focus groups is important to understand and continuously satisfy the evolving and emerging needs of the users.” – Obiajulu
• “Always keep in mind that the goal of an edtech product is not just to mirror actual classroom experiences but should enhance them. Hence it is important to understand the users’ unique physical/digital needs.” – Ifeoluwasimi
• “Building on the outcomes of each testing phase, EdTech product designers should work with learning experience designers to understand how to better design EdTech Products to meet user satisfaction.” – Obiajulu
• “To ensure that EdTech products are not addictive and to ensure that actual learning takes place while learners use the apps, UX designers should ensure that they collaborate with the engineering team to include learning analytics features that will help inform them of each learner’s outcomes.” – Ifeoluwasimi

As we prepare for the next edition of the Viable Community meetup, the last for the year 2022, we look forward to consolidating on the discussions in the past five editions, opening community members up to employment and partnership opportunities in the EdTech sector across Africa. To get prompt updates about the Career Festival, ensure to join our vibrant virtual community on Slack. 

We remain committed to unleashing quality EdTech products, talents, and markets in Africa.