Case Study | EMPATHY TUTOR APP + RESPONSIVE WEBSITE
Project Overview
The Product
Empathy Tutor is an app and responsive website that focuses on helping tweens and teens learn more about and practice empathy in their communication. It also offers support to parents and teachers in educating the teens in their lives.
Project Duration
April 2022
Role | Lead UX Designer
Responsibilities | User research, content writing, wireframing, prototyping
The Problem
With the increase in texting and social media usage, teens are struggling with communication skills resulting in strained relationships. Parents and educators need support and tools to model healthy communication skills. Teens need an engaging way to learn and practice those skills.
The Goal
Design an app that will improve education on the topic of empathetic communication to help teens build strong relationships and to aid parents and educators in modeling healthy communication skills.
User Research | Summary
Initial research was conducted via a survey that went out to teens, parents, and educators about their experiences with communication, texting, and social media. Additional research was conducted in the form of competitive audits, interviews, and research studies with wireframes.
Going into the project, I was unaware of other products on the market that helped with communication skills. After my research, I did learn of several available products, but most missed the teen market entirely and instead focused on younger (elementary and middle school) or older (college) users. This provided an opportunity to see what products were working well, but then customize the experience to appeal to the teenage user group and the adults in their lives.
Persona 1: Shane
PROBLEM STATEMENT | Shane is an outgoing teenager who needs real-time feedback and scenario practice with empathetic communication because friendships have been strained due to poor communication habits.
Persona 2: Carly
PROBLEM STATEMENT | Carly is a mother and educator who needs support and tools to model and teach empathetic communication because nagging and correcting have not shown themselves to be the best way to model communication skills.
Competitive audit
Many of the competitors had engaging concepts, but they weren’t executed in a way that would reach teenagers (ie, on their phone.) All competitors utilized a scenario-based approach that allowed users to imagine a scenario and see how it played out. These insights provided an excellent starting point.
