Lead UX Designer
Plezmo
Design audit, user interviews, focus groups, rapid prototyping, UX/UI
Figma
Miro
A platform of intelligent wireless devices and easy-to-use coding apps to learn, play, and innovate with technology. The platform was originally built to accompany Bluetooth sensors and actuators that can be controlled with simple coding — to program elements like light, sound, motion, color, distance, etc.
Plezmo began as a brilliant company empowering kids to explore STEM concepts through physical DIY kits. While these kits were fabulous, they had a small hiccup: they were a little reliant on expensive hardware. So, Plezmo decided to evolve. Enter AI Coder—a standalone app that would teach kids the joys of coding while introducing them to the wonders of AI/ML.
We knew we were losing users after they finished the tutorials. We decided to conduct comprehensive research into the user experience and the instructional design to address it. This meant combing through the existing app, identifying what was clunky, confusing, or just plain unnecessary.
In addition to the audit, the research phase included usability testing, interviews and focus groups with the users. The discovery goals were centered around the following three themes:
Lasting knowledge
Building life-long skills of computational and design thinking.
Maker mindset
Hands-on learning to motivate expressing creativity through technology.
Encouraging exploration
Exploratory modules and lessons to facilitate self-learning.
Pain point: Difficulty executing projects without tutorials.
Business implication: Need to hire more teachers and tutors for support.
Pain point: Could not envision using Plezmo app without the hardware.
Business implication: Limited market penetration and brand presence, especially during the pandemic when manufacturing from China had stalled.
Pain point: No spending power to buy premium content at will.
Business implication: Parents with non-technical backgrounds needed to be convinced of why this was a worthwhile expenditure.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Unclear navigation and trouble completing tasks led to quitting the app.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Through some intensive feature ideation, furious prototyping, and numerous user tests, I landed on the following key features to make AI Coder a success.
Overview of the app with guidance on features and usage, with rapid entry to educational resources and recent projects.
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration
⟶ sense of achievement in users
Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
A place for users to view their peers’ work and garner inspiration for novel projects, and show off their own projects with pride.
Gamified skill sharing: project features, likes, replications get the coder points that can be exchanged for achievement badges.
Project showcase: browsing peer projects provides an incentive to keep exploring and coding after free content is completed.
Coder profile: a digital chronicle of learnings and achievements.
Peer learning: view and remix projects from community to learn how to code new apps
⟶ led to fewer support requests.
Tags for discoverability, entering projects contests
Users who already had the DIY kit missed using the sensors and actuators,and tried hacking the new app to work with them. To aid this, and to bring over the existing customer base to the new app we incorporated hybrid adaptability to unify the physical and digital Plezmo worlds.
Plezmo elements compatibility, preventing kit obsolescence for existing users.
A sensor simulator that will display Plezmo Elements on the screen to test your code.
⟶ this served as try-before-you-buy feature for the sensors, leading to increased kit sales.
A way of continuing and expanding on old projects for existing customers.
We introduced the ability to train your own ML models, and code apps using them.
In-built dataset models with tutorials and guided instructions in 3 categories—image, sound, and poses—to get started easily.
Capability to train and import custom models to suit project needs.
“Future forward” learning material to appease parents looking to make their children future-ready.
We had discovered that our users, mostly excitable kids, tended to skip the tutorials to get ahead, which meant they were diving into features without knowing what to do. The solution was to add interactive, bite-sized tutorials that were unskippable but fun.
Designing for kids is like juggling flaming swords—it’s tricky, exciting, and you’ll probably drop something along the way. Here’s what I learned:
Kids are ruthless testers: If they don’t like it, they’ll tell you. Their unfiltered feedback was pure gold, and they loved being a part of making something better.
Iterate, iterate, iterate: Fast feedback loops were my best friend.
Your best creations will outgrow you: While I did do my best to design to cultivate a maker mindset and love for learning, I was stunned by how quickly the kids were out there solving problems of their own with AI Coder—a memorable one being an app to teach everyone sign language, using the simple in-built pose detector dataset.
Lead UX Designer
Plezmo
Design audit, user interviews, focus groups, rapid prototyping, UX/UI
Figma
Miro
A platform of intelligent wireless devices and easy-to-use coding apps to learn, play, and innovate with technology. The platform was originally built to accompany Bluetooth sensors and actuators that can be controlled with simple coding — to program elements like light, sound, motion, color, distance, etc.
Plezmo began as a brilliant company empowering kids to explore STEM concepts through physical DIY kits. While these kits were fabulous, they had a small hiccup: they were a little reliant on expensive hardware. So, Plezmo decided to evolve. Enter AI Coder—a standalone app that would teach kids the joys of coding while introducing them to the wonders of AI/ML.
We knew we were losing users after they finished the tutorials. We decided to conduct comprehensive research into the user experience and the instructional design to address it. This meant combing through the existing app, identifying what was clunky, confusing, or just plain unnecessary.
In addition to the audit, the research phase included usability testing, interviews and focus groups with the users. The discovery goals were centered around the following three themes:
Lasting knowledge
Building life-long skills of computational and design thinking.
Maker mindset
Hands-on learning to motivate expressing creativity through technology.
Encouraging exploration
Exploratory modules and lessons to facilitate self-learning.
Pain point: Difficulty executing projects without tutorials.
Business implication: Need to hire more teachers and tutors for support.
Pain point: Could not envision using Plezmo app without the hardware.
Business implication: Limited market penetration and brand presence, especially during the pandemic when manufacturing from China had stalled.
Pain point: No spending power to buy premium content at will.
Business implication: Parents with non-technical backgrounds needed to be convinced of why this was a worthwhile expenditure.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Unclear navigation and trouble completing tasks led to quitting the app.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Through some intensive feature ideation, furious prototyping, and numerous user tests, I landed on the following key features to make AI Coder a success.
Overview of the app with guidance on features and usage, with rapid entry to educational resources and recent projects.
Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration
⟶ sense of achievement in users
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration
⟶ sense of achievement in users
Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
A place for users to view their peers’ work and garner inspiration for novel projects, and show off their own projects with pride.
Coder profile: a digital chronicle of learnings and achievements.
Gamified skill sharing: project features, likes, replications get the coder points that can be exchanged for achievement badges.
Project showcase: browsing peer projects provides an incentive to keep exploring and coding after free content is completed.
Peer learning: view and remix projects from community to learn how to code new apps
⟶ led to fewer support requests.
Gamified skill sharing: project features, likes, replications get the coder points that can be exchanged for achievement badges.
Project showcase: browsing peer projects provides an incentive to keep exploring and coding after free content is completed.
Coder profile: a digital chronicle of learnings and achievements.
Peer learning: view and remix projects from community to learn how to code new apps
⟶ led to fewer support requests.
Tags for discoverability, entering projects contests
Users who already had the DIY kit missed using the sensors and actuators,and tried hacking the new app to work with them. To aid this, and to bring over the existing customer base to the new app we incorporated hybrid adaptability to unify the physical and digital Plezmo worlds.
A way of continuing and expanding on old projects for existing customers.
Plezmo elements compatibility, preventing kit obsolescence for existing users.
A sensor simulator that will display Plezmo Elements on the screen to test your code.
⟶ this served as try-before-you-buy feature for the sensors, leading to increased kit sales.
Plezmo elements compatibility, preventing kit obsolescence for existing users.
A sensor simulator that will display Plezmo Elements on the screen to test your code.
⟶ this served as try-before-you-buy feature for the sensors, leading to increased kit sales.
A way of continuing and expanding on old projects for existing customers.
We introduced the ability to train your own ML models, and code apps using them.
In-built dataset models with tutorials and guided instructions in 3 categories—image, sound, and poses—to get started easily.
Capability to train and import custom models to suit project needs.
“Future forward” learning material to appease parents looking to make their children future-ready.
In-built dataset models with tutorials and guided instructions in 3 categories—image, sound, and poses—to get started easily.
Capability to train and import custom models to suit project needs.
“Future forward” learning material to appease parents looking to make their children future-ready.
We had discovered that our users, mostly excitable kids, tended to skip the tutorials to get ahead, which meant they were diving into features without knowing what to do. The solution was to add interactive, bite-sized tutorials that were unskippable but fun.
Designing for kids is like juggling flaming swords—it’s tricky, exciting, and you’ll probably drop something along the way. Here’s what I learned:
Kids are ruthless testers: If they don’t like it, they’ll tell you. Their unfiltered feedback was pure gold, and they loved being a part of making something better.
Iterate, iterate, iterate: Fast feedback loops were my best friend.
Your best creations will outgrow you: While I did do my best to design to cultivate a maker mindset and love for learning, I was stunned by how quickly the kids were out there solving problems of their own with AI Coder—a memorable one being an app to teach everyone sign language, using the simple in-built pose detector dataset.
Lead UX Designer
Plezmo
Design audit, user interviews, focus groups, rapid prototyping, UX/UI
Figma
Miro
A platform of intelligent wireless devices and easy-to-use coding apps to learn, play, and innovate with technology. The platform was originally built to accompany Bluetooth sensors and actuators that can be controlled with simple coding — to program elements like light, sound, motion, color, distance, etc.
Plezmo began as a brilliant company empowering kids to explore STEM concepts through physical DIY kits. While these kits were fabulous, they had a small hiccup: they were a little reliant on expensive hardware. So, Plezmo decided to evolve. Enter AI Coder—a standalone app that would teach kids the joys of coding while introducing them to the wonders of AI/ML.
We knew we were losing users after they finished the tutorials. We decided to conduct comprehensive research into the user experience and the instructional design to address it. This meant combing through the existing app, identifying what was clunky, confusing, or just plain unnecessary.
In addition to the audit, the research phase included usability testing, interviews and focus groups with the users. The discovery goals were centered around the following three themes:
Lasting knowledge
Building life-long skills of computational and design thinking.
Maker mindset
Hands-on learning to motivate expressing creativity through technology.
Encouraging exploration
Exploratory modules and lessons to facilitate self-learning.
Pain point: Difficulty executing projects without tutorials.
Business implication: Need to hire more teachers and tutors for support.
Pain point: Could not envision using Plezmo app without the hardware.
Business implication: Limited market penetration and brand presence, especially during the pandemic when manufacturing from China had stalled.
Pain point: No spending power to buy premium content at will.
Business implication: Parents with non-technical backgrounds needed to be convinced of why this was a worthwhile expenditure.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Unclear navigation and trouble completing tasks led to quitting the app.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Through some intensive feature ideation, furious prototyping, and numerous user tests, I landed on the following key features to make AI Coder a success.
Overview of the app with guidance on features and usage, with rapid entry to educational resources and recent projects.
Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration
⟶ sense of achievement in users
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration
⟶ sense of achievement in users
Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
A place for users to view their peers’ work and garner inspiration for novel projects, and show off their own projects with pride.
Coder profile: a digital chronicle of learnings and achievements.
Gamified skill sharing: project features, likes, replications get the coder points that can be exchanged for achievement badges.
Project showcase: browsing peer projects provides an incentive to keep exploring and coding after free content is completed.
Peer learning: view and remix projects from community to learn how to code new apps
⟶ led to fewer support requests.
Gamified skill sharing: project features, likes, replications get the coder points that can be exchanged for achievement badges.
Project showcase: browsing peer projects provides an incentive to keep exploring and coding after free content is completed.
Coder profile: a digital chronicle of learnings and achievements.
Peer learning: view and remix projects from community to learn how to code new apps
⟶ led to fewer support requests.
Tags for discoverability, entering projects contests
Users who already had the DIY kit missed using the sensors and actuators,and tried hacking the new app to work with them. To aid this, and to bring over the existing customer base to the new app we incorporated hybrid adaptability to unify the physical and digital Plezmo worlds.
Plezmo elements compatibility, preventing kit obsolescence for existing users.
A sensor simulator that will display Plezmo Elements on the screen to test your code.
⟶ this served as try-before-you-buy feature for the sensors, leading to increased kit sales.
A way of continuing and expanding on old projects for existing customers.
We introduced the ability to train your own ML models, and code apps using them.
In-built dataset models with tutorials and guided instructions in 3 categories—image, sound, and poses—to get started easily.
Capability to train and import custom models to suit project needs.
“Future forward” learning material to appease parents looking to make their children future-ready.
In-built dataset models with tutorials and guided instructions in 3 categories—image, sound, and poses—to get started easily.
Capability to train and import custom models to suit project needs.
“Future forward” learning material to appease parents looking to make their children future-ready.
We had discovered that our users, mostly excitable kids, tended to skip the tutorials to get ahead, which meant they were diving into features without knowing what to do. The solution was to add interactive, bite-sized tutorials that were unskippable but fun.
Designing for kids is like juggling flaming swords—it’s tricky, exciting, and you’ll probably drop something along the way. Here’s what I learned:
Kids are ruthless testers: If they don’t like it, they’ll tell you. Their unfiltered feedback was pure gold, and they loved being a part of making something better.
Iterate, iterate, iterate: Fast feedback loops were my best friend.
Your best creations will outgrow you: While I did do my best to design to cultivate a maker mindset and love for learning, I was stunned by how quickly the kids were out there solving problems of their own with AI Coder—a memorable one being an app to teach everyone sign language, using the simple in-built pose detector dataset.