Nomie - An Edtech Game for College Students

Nomie, a edtech company based in Montreal, provides inclusive games to build connections in cégep classrooms (French-Canadian college programs with students typically aged 17-21).

Nomie asked my team to design The Name Challenge - a social game that tests how well students remember their classmates’ names.

Role: Lead UX Designer

Team Members: Olivia Carasco & Maryna Pavlova

Timeline: March 2024 - April 2024

Tools: Figma, FigJam, Slack

First, students bid on the number of classmates they can correctly name
Then, the student who bids the highest number goes in front of the class to take on The Name Challenge and names their classmates one by one
The challenge is played multiple times during the semester with the goal that one or more students can successfully name every student in the class

The Prompt

Our team met with Nomie’s founder to establish the initial flow for our game which was loosely based off a contest the founder plays in her cégep classroom.

Challenges with the Initial Flow:

Standing up in front of the class requires a lot of confidence.

Students who are not selected for the challenge have a very passive role.

How might we make The Name Challenge more active for the observing students who do not take on the challenge?

How might we encourage students to take on the final challenge, especially for introverted students, students with unique learning needs and/or neurodiverse students.

Challenge 1:

Building Confidence and Encouraging Participation

We added a study time screen before the final challenge to remind students of their classmates' names to allow even the most reluctant students to learn at least a few names.

We added badges for a gamification element that rewards students and incentivizes participation.

Challenge 2:

Engaging Observing Students

Instead of just watching the challenge unfold, the other students now control the final challenge by tapping their screen when they are named.

Only 1 participant was willing to take on the challenge.

The 4 introverted users all declined to participate citing anxiety towards their performance and their relationships with classmates.

Ultimately, we decided that it would be most beneficial to address these concerns with a second round of usability testing performed with actual Nomie students due to our testing limitations.

Usability Testing

Participant Demographics

5 adults aged 19-38
4 introverts, 1 extrovert (self-identified)
4 of the 5 were higher education students
2 in-person, 3 remote sessions

Testing Limitations

The Nomie Effect: We hypothesized that clasrooms that used nomie regularly may talk to each other more and know more of their classmates’ names than typical higher education classrooms.
Potential Cultural Differences due to Geographic Location: Testing was conducted in New York, Florida, and Toronto, Ontario while the product is intended to be used in Quebec.
Age: Our testing group skewed older than the typical cégep student age range of 17-21.

Bidding Screen - All students make a bid.

The Final Challenge - Observer's First Screen

The Final Challenge - Observer's Second Screen

Conclusion

Our final design solved our two initial concerns with the initial game flow through the addition of Study Time and the added mechanic where the responses of observing students is what progresses the class through The Name Challenge.
Usability testing participants were skeptical about The Name Challenge, with only one extroverted participant willing to take the final challenge in front of the class. Due to time and testing constraints, our team decided not to undergo a second round of usability testing. The next steps for The Name Challenge is to perform user testing with existing Nomie users to investigate if they have similar concerns.
Overall, The Name Challenge maintained consistency with Nomie's platform due to our team's effective implementation of the existing design system. However, the system needs updates to meet color contrast accessibility guidelines for all students.