Mused, Capstone
In response to arts education budget cuts, I created Mused, an iOS app offering curated interactive projects adaptable to various subjects. Mused connects educators to curriculum-related creative project ideas, empowering them to foster interactive engagement and spark student imagination, providing a practical approach to arts education.
Project Overview
Schools Slash Arts Education Funding
Problem Space
Arts Education Funding Plummets by 90% in Florida K-12 Schools, Threatening Academic Performance and Cognitive Development
Despite the proven benefits of arts education in enhancing critical thinking skills and academic performance, there has been a concerning decline in arts funding for K-12 schools. Between 2017 and 2018, arts funding was reduced by 90% in Florida. This reduction in resources has left a significant gap in providing students with the necessary materials to develop crucial cognitive skills, ultimately impacting their overall education.
Project Length: 10 weeks
My Role: End to End UX/UI Design
Tools Used: Figma, Adobe Illustrator
#ConceptDesign #iOS #EdTech #UXResearch #UXDesign #UX #UI
Research Shows Arts Education Enhances Academic Performance.
Context & Research
Arts Education also contributes to higher graduation rates and improved critical thinking skills.
Arts education is strongly associated with lower dropout rates and higher graduation rates, regardless of socio-economic status.
Participating in arts experiences improves students critical thinking as it teaches them to slow down, and be more careful and thorough in how they observe the world.
Low-income students who are engaged in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college as their peers with no arts education.
Despite this research, there has been a severe decline in arts education funding.
Additionally, engaging with the arts influences the values of students, fostering increased tolerance and empathy.
Since 2008, more than 80% of schools nationwide experienced budget cuts.
Students of color had less than half of the access to arts education than their White peers.
of kids lack elementary arts education due to underfunding.
Because Florida ranks 48th in arts budget, K-12 teachers are left navigating the fallout of severe cuts, affecting education beyond art specialization.
Florida K-12 Public School Teachers
Target Users/Persona
Based on my research and speaking to my target users, I developed my persona, Hannah. The creation of this persona allowed me to ensure the user was always at the forefront of my design decisions.
Conversations with Teachers
One-On-One Interviews
By conducting one-on-one interviews, I was able to gain valuable insights into my users goals, pain points, and motivations, leading to a deeper understanding of their experiences and informing user-centered design decisions.
My objectives for conducting one-on-one interviews with Florida K-12 public school teachers were:
Understand general attitude towards incorporating arts into core subjects.
Understand if and how art is currently incorporated in core subject matter lessons.
Discover what, if any, resources teachers currently use to engage students in the arts.
Explore the challenges they face when integrating arts into their lessons.
Identify any innovative or successful strategies employed by teachers to effectively incorporate arts into their curriculum.
“Students learn in different ways and to have different ways of understanding material, like through an art class and them being motivated with that.”
“Activities were really good for their creative skills because it would help them understand the comprehension of the book better.”
“Creative resources are just not something that most teachers are exposed to. They’re not given those opportunities.”
Affinity Maps
Teachers Reveal Concern About Budget Cuts
Interview Findings
Despite the desire to incorporate interactive art projects, teachers lack the resources necessary to integrate arts into their core curriculum.
All of the teachers I interviewed overwhelmingly spoke about the transformative impact of interactive, creative, and choice-driven learning experiences on student engagement and overall development. Participants expressed a strong desire to plan these types of lessons for their students, but lacked the time and resources to implement them.
Experience Map
Chosen Theme & Insights
Defined Design Challenge
“How might we empower K-12 teachers to integrate interactive and creative learning experiences into their classrooms in order to foster students' essential creative and critical thinking skills?”
After defining the critical design challenge, I began authoring user stories for my persona Hannah, so that I could explore possible features of the app that would be solutions to her problem. The epics included the following categories: Community Support, Progress Tracking, Professional Development, Local Integration, and my chosen epic Content Library.
Content Library was chosen for my epic because it specifically addresses the most important part of my primary design challenge.
An application that offers a content library feature would allow educators to search for interactive and creative projects that align with their core curriculum and integrate them into their lesson plans.
Exploring Potential Solutions Through Functions
User Stories/Ideation
Connecting Educators to Curriculum Related Creative Projects
After ideation, I focused on prototyping my chosen solution so that I could begin testing and gathering user feedback.
Lo-Fi Prototype
Based on my usability testing, I plotted the Issues that arose on the design prioritization matrix based on what would provide the highest user value relative to the design effort.
After addressing the issues that arose on the matrix, I developed my final grayscale protoype.
Would Users Be Able to Find Activities Relevant to Their Lesson Plan?
Once the wireframes were complete, I began User Testing to see if users could complete the task I gave them, which was to find an interactive project for their class related to a specific subject matter.
User Testing
Finally, I connected my final high-fidelity frames to create my final high-fidelity prototype. Mused is an iOS app that offers curated interactive projects adaptable to various subjects. Mused connects educators to curriculum-related creative project ideas, empowering them to foster interactive engagement and spark student imagination, providing a practical approach to arts education.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Mused: A Creative Hub to Unleash Creative Classrooms
Mused Walkthroughs
Capstone Walkthrough
Prototype Walkthrough
Key Learnings
Marketing Site
To explore how Mused could be marketed, I created a single-page responsive marketing website for both Mobile and Desktop.
Executive Summary
Despite the proven benefits of arts education in enhancing critical thinking skills and academic performance, there has been a notable decline in arts funding for Florida K-12 public schools.
My goal was to assist teachers in integrating creative and interactive learning experiences that foster students' essential critical thinking skills in their classrooms.
During my firsthand research, I conducted one-on-one interviews with educators who had personally witnessed arts budget cuts. All of the teachers I interviewed overwhelmingly spoke about the transformative impact of interactive, creative, and choice-driven learning experiences on student engagement and overall development.
I identified the prime design intervention opportunity as connecting educators to ideas for projects that relate directly to the required school curriculum.
Mused empowers educators to discover interactive creative projects aligned with core subjects. Teachers can not only rate, comment, and attach classroom photos to each project but also craft and share their creations with the community. This social platform encourages engagement, connectivity, and collaborative learning.