ROLE
Product Designer
YEAR
2023 – 2024
RESPONSIBILITY
Design and user research
UX and UI design
WHY PEOPLE NEED THIS?
Problem
Students and beginners in digital marketing often find themselves equipped with theoretical knowledge but lacking hands-on experience.
When implementing their knowledge in the real world, they face several challenges:
- The need to use real money.
- Waiting for analytics results, which can take time.
- Difficult to experimenting with keywords and creative.
- Trying different strategies sometimes is not option.
- Familiarity issues with tools such as Facebook Ads Manager or Google Ads.
SOLUTION
Develop a user-friendly learning tool tailored for beginners and students, helping them to enhance their skills through simulation-based learning, making them better prepared for the real world.
DESIGN PROCESS
Quick insight:
When designing new product, I always start by having deep understanding on technical side, project timeline, business rules and any constrains before doing any work.
This information is crucial for shaping the strategy for research and design exploration in later stages.
UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS AND USERS
Preliminary Research
The project kicked off with in-depth discussions with the founders so I can understand their business objectives and the desired outcomes for this product.
User research
Initially, the founders had developed a MVP as a proof of concept. We tested this MVP with professionals, lecturers, and students to gather feedback, suggestions, and validate our assumptions and user needs.
NOVELA MVP
Some key observations from the user testing
- Users often make random choices without fully understanding the impact or significance due to a lack of digital marketing knowledge (trial and error).
- The vast amount of information required for the simulation can be overwhelming, especially for students
- Users struggle to remember digital marketing terms and how to set up ad campaigns effectively.
Who is the primary user and what are their problem?
At this stage we decided to focus on students as our primary user. Because every students have similar motivation and challenges despite of different background and demographic.
From our research, we also gained a clear understanding of our primary users thinking, their needs, challenges, and motiviation.
DEFINE SUCCESS
Making sure we have a clear definition of success is key because it gives us framework to measure against, especially since our product is new in the market.
This measure of success also acts as a gut check during discussions, when making design iteration, and when evaluating the impact after the launch.
SUCCESS CRITERIA
01. Users easily use the simulation without need to invest too much time learning it.
02. Users really get to grips with digital marketing strategy, understanding why their choices matter and how they affect the final outcome through this simulation.
03. User willing to run the simulation multiple times. We want making the learning process both educative and fun.
FRAMEWORK, EXPLORATION AND TESTING
Design Framework
What makes the learning experience useful and enjoyable? How do we help users understand digital marketing better with this tool?
To answer these questions, we developed five design frameworks aimed at creating an ideal learning solution: Scenarios, Exploration, Guided Learning, Gamification, and Simulation.
These design frameworks guide the development of content, visuals, interactions, and features development, ensuring that the tool is both educational and engaging.
Designing for new experience
To improve user experience it's crucial to understand how effectively influence user behavior.
Based on Fogg Behaviour Model, new behaviour occures when three elements converge:
- Motivation: Provides a reason for someone to perform a task.
- Ability: Ensures individuals have the means to complete the task, considering any challenges.
- Triggers: These are cues from our environment or visual that prompt action. Examples include onboarding video, CTA buttons, colors, and notifications.
We use this model as foundation of overall experience that need to be present in the design.
The Fogg Behavior Model — by Marcos Rezende. More information: https://behaviormodel.org
Design exploration
Using the design frameworks and Fogg Behavior Model, I began exploring the user flow, UX, information architecture, and UI design.
This design exploration was a collaborative effort with the founders, making sure the design met both technical constraints and our desired user experience.
Testing and iterate, testing and
iteratate again..
Once the prototype was ready, we conducted multiple rounds of user testing and incorporated design iterations based on the feedback received.
Through this iterative process, we aimed to minimize user roadblocks and ensure the product was ready for market release.
LAUNCH
In less than a month, I've wrapped up the final design and handed it over to the developers. The product is ready for market release within 2 months.
Gamification
To motivate users to continue experimenting with the simulation, we introduced gamified elements.
These include challenges with specific goals to beat and a leaderboard where students can see and compare scores with others.
Simplifying the Interface:
- We streamlined tasks by breaking them into simpler steps.
- The UI is designed to be intuitive, with clear actions and contextual information.
Guided learning and feedback
- Help Text: Available throughout the UI to guide users working with the simulator.
- AI-Powered Feedback: Direct feedback provided by AI and large language models (LLMs) enhances the intuitive experience.
- Thoughtful Use of Colors: Colors are used as visual cues without overwhelming the interface.
Market research activity simulation
We offer digital marketing research activities powered by AI, such as gathering customer insights through simulated conversations.
By leveraging large language models (LLMs), we make the interactions between users and AI feel natural, mimicking a genuine user interview experience.
Generative AI
Large Language Model
Natural language processing
Prepare user for the actual thing
We carefully select key elements from digital marketing campaign builders to familiarize users with the actual tools.
But instead of replicating the exact user interfaces, we focus on providing the same flow and concept, allowing users to understand how real campaign builders operate.
We let users to explore different parameters and strategies, optimizing their results and preparing them for real-world applications.
IMPACT
This tool quickly well recieved by the leading education institution in the UK with plan to expand into other country. The positive feedback from both students and educators highlights its effectiveness in learning experience using this simulator.
Trusted by leading institution in UK such as Imperial School of London, Emeritus, and Columbia Business School.
Read more information on Novela website 
Students use the simulations for in their marketing class at Hult International Business School.
Photo courtesy of Novela.