Jara

How do you design a layout that other content will drop into? How do you create a visual system that can flex depending on use and subject matter?

Role

Strategist

Designer

Solution

User Research

UI/UX

Jara empowers children in under-resourced and low-internet / low-electricity communities to receive a quality education anytime, anywhere through the Jara Unit.  The Jara Unit is a personal education device that enables children to learn localized education content in any language without needing access to power, a quality classroom, or the Internet. I am helping them with their first branding effort by creating interfaces for displaying different content and to enable smooth and accessible navigation for both students and teachers.

A nonprofit needs a UI/UX that provides an engaging, and often the first, digital experience for children in remote villages.

Problem

The unique demographic presents specific needs to ensure a successful experience.

Challenge

Research

Cultural Research

UI/UX Findings

  • Agriculture is a main source of income, signaling a broader agrarian society

  • Art consists of religious figures, gods, saints, heroes, which manifest in the spiritual imagery commonly exhibited in public spaces

  • Red, yellow, and green are culturally significant colors, associated with luck, abundance, and riches respectively

Key Takeaways

  • Kids expect feedback when interacting with objects, and so they appreciate digital responses

  • Kids are more trusting than adults and more readily tap on features without predicting consequences

  • Kids love a challenge and so features that maintain suspense and a sense of pursuit engage their interest

  • Nature-inspired Aesthetic: Use different shades of green and natural motifs to reference everyday experiences and cultivate a warm, familiar atmosphere.

  • Simple Design: An intuitive interface with easy navigation will help children interact with the device with minimal confusion.

  • Playful Features: Incorporate dynamic motion, games, and interactivity to keep children engaged.

Process

Conducting immersive research into the target demographic in order to build a strong concept that centers the user.

Objectives

The client provided two broad objectives at the start of the project:

  1. Student and Teacher sides of the device

  2. Features: Welcome experience, Dashboard, Course content, Quizzes, Games

I helped expand on these general objectives, creating an information architecture to distill device needs into a series of pages. The proposed initial journey map shows the interconnectivity of device features, while simplifying them into a concrete sequence of options.

Design

The physical Jara Unit.

Brand

Inspired by the playful, tactile nature of the physical device, I wanted to the brand to convey a lighthearted experience with bold gestures. After acquiring the above research findings and further discussion with the team, we chose a style guide consisting of color palette, fonts, and natural motifs.

Text

Colors

Motifs

Wireframes

All wireframes and designs were made on Figma to obtain a rough idea of each screen layout. By listing out the major requirements and small-scale features, we arrived at a skeleton for a page before filling it out.

Hover States

Since the Jara Unit is composed of physical buttons to navigate up/down/left/right, we had to figure out a way to show how a button was being “hovered” on before selection. Given that the Jara Unit is only 5” diagonally, we wanted to show a clear way to show the hover. As such, we chose to include a thick black outline for each button/component hovered on.

Here’s a demo going through the whole device.

Our design for the unit was awarded The Most Creative Award and The Most Impactful Award at Develop for Good’s Sum’23. The Jara Unit will reach 30 students in Nepal in the Fall and 1,000 by end of the year and help bridge the divide in the access to education around the world.

Results