StudyBuddy
Creators: Marwa and Safa
School: Middle School Students from I.S. 98 Bay Academy
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Project Themes: Education
About this Project
Nowadays, a lot of students slack off in school, don’t pay attention, or just can’t focus in class. StudyBuddy helps students learn on their own with assistance to make sure that they can understand something without having answers directly handed to them.
Project Links
Professional Feedback
Hello Marwa and Safa!
Your project is very thorough and relevant. Being a student is difficult, especially with having to learn so many new things while dealing with the distractions of the modern world. I’m sure you have both experienced this firsthand as well, but I’m glad you reached out to your community to hear their perspective too. When designing an app, it’s important not to make assumptions and instead understand what your audience truly needs and wants. Some students turn to AI for answers, which can hinder their learning process, so it’s very refreshing to see your project using AI in a way that supports students without immediately giving them the answers.
Visually, the product looks great! The user interface (UI) is both intuitive and charming. The bear design is especially cute. Going forward, I would love to see that character become the face of the brand with a name and personality, similar to how Duolingo has its owl mascot. This could make the app feel more personal and engaging, especially for Gen Z and Gen Alpha users.
In the practice section of your app, including a difficulty feature was a very important touch. It allows users to gradually level up as they learn. I’m also impressed that you added a survey at the beginning to give the app insight into the user’s mindset, goals, and current abilities. To connect these two strong features even more, the survey could recommend a starting difficulty level for practice questions. Adding a point system alongside the score system you already outlined could also motivate users to learn in a more game-like way.
In addition to the interviews you conducted before developing the app, it could also be valuable to gather feedback throughout the design process. This would help ensure the project continues to align with the needs and wants of users as it develops.
Overall, your project shows fresh ingenuity and offers a great user experience flow. It just needs some refinement and a few connecting additions. Keep up the great work! I could really see this becoming something students would use in the future :)
Your project is very thorough and relevant. Being a student is difficult, especially with having to learn so many new things while dealing with the distractions of the modern world. I’m sure you have both experienced this firsthand as well, but I’m glad you reached out to your community to hear their perspective too. When designing an app, it’s important not to make assumptions and instead understand what your audience truly needs and wants. Some students turn to AI for answers, which can hinder their learning process, so it’s very refreshing to see your project using AI in a way that supports students without immediately giving them the answers.
Visually, the product looks great! The user interface (UI) is both intuitive and charming. The bear design is especially cute. Going forward, I would love to see that character become the face of the brand with a name and personality, similar to how Duolingo has its owl mascot. This could make the app feel more personal and engaging, especially for Gen Z and Gen Alpha users.
In the practice section of your app, including a difficulty feature was a very important touch. It allows users to gradually level up as they learn. I’m also impressed that you added a survey at the beginning to give the app insight into the user’s mindset, goals, and current abilities. To connect these two strong features even more, the survey could recommend a starting difficulty level for practice questions. Adding a point system alongside the score system you already outlined could also motivate users to learn in a more game-like way.
In addition to the interviews you conducted before developing the app, it could also be valuable to gather feedback throughout the design process. This would help ensure the project continues to align with the needs and wants of users as it develops.
Overall, your project shows fresh ingenuity and offers a great user experience flow. It just needs some refinement and a few connecting additions. Keep up the great work! I could really see this becoming something students would use in the future :)
What a cool app! I loved the inclusion of user flows for the application - it was helpful before clicking through the prototype.
I think the prototype could benefit from interactions between the screen so it could simulate how a user would go through the application. In the survey screen, I would also add elements that would allow the user to answer the survey question, because now it’s just the question and nothing else.
I think the bear(?) icon is cute in your mockups but I would maybe use it exclusively for the app branding and try another icon to indicate levels of difficulty like you’re doing in the “Choose a Difficulty” screen. Reason being, if they’re all indicating different levels of difficulty, it may be confusing for the user to differentiate between the levels because it’s all the same icon. I would also maybe add more buttons for navigation, or a navigation bar at the bottom.
It seemed like some questions regarding the design process was incomplete in the presentation. I would definitely include that in there, and include more research artifacts like a user persona or interview insights from those interviews with your brother/cousin.
Overall, I think it’s a great app with a great premise! I would love to see how it progresses.
I think the prototype could benefit from interactions between the screen so it could simulate how a user would go through the application. In the survey screen, I would also add elements that would allow the user to answer the survey question, because now it’s just the question and nothing else.
I think the bear(?) icon is cute in your mockups but I would maybe use it exclusively for the app branding and try another icon to indicate levels of difficulty like you’re doing in the “Choose a Difficulty” screen. Reason being, if they’re all indicating different levels of difficulty, it may be confusing for the user to differentiate between the levels because it’s all the same icon. I would also maybe add more buttons for navigation, or a navigation bar at the bottom.
It seemed like some questions regarding the design process was incomplete in the presentation. I would definitely include that in there, and include more research artifacts like a user persona or interview insights from those interviews with your brother/cousin.
Overall, I think it’s a great app with a great premise! I would love to see how it progresses.
