The UX of a UX Workshop by Anudeep Ayyagari — Can you learn UX from how your course is designed?

UX Case Study:

This study is based on how the principles I learned about UX have opened my eyes to design and user experience around me.

Part 1

In Part 1, I’m going to use the UX Workshop by Anudeep Ayyagari to explain why I found this course very useful and why Anudeep’s design has been thought through and beautifully executed to maximize the students’ learning.

1. When I saw Anudeep’s ad, the first thing I noticed was his Tshirt (I’m a very visual person. Colour, patterns, etc catch my attention first)
2. It was a very unique t-shirt. I haven’t seen one like that before!
3. Once the visual drew me in, the energy Anudeep brought to the table was amazing and riveted my attention to the ad. So much so that this is the first product that I’ve bought on Youtube since 2017.
4. Well, Growth School and Anudeep had me hooked to the workshop even before the onboarding call. A very well thought out way to capture the student market for the UX domain.

Once the visual drew me in, the energy Anudeep brought to the table was amazing and riveted my attention to the ad. So much so that this is the first product that I’ve bought on Youtube since 2017. I always used other online platforms for learning different skills in different domains.

1. Below are the UX principles I learned by observing the learning process with Anudeep
2. The course is designed with the following principles/laws/ways of thinking. Let us go through these principles in the context of UX Workshop’s and Anudeep’s coursework design as a case study. Let us see how Anudeep used Design thinking and UX principles to solve the problem and achieve maximum learning through an online learning platform.

Design thinking that’s at the core of UX design is used to solve a problem that the UX designer (Anudeep) has identified.

1. According to me and other students, the crucial problem they have solved is — how to promote real learning in students in the world of millions of tutorials on platforms such as Youtube, Udemy, Coursera, Pluralsight, etc. (whether paid or free)
2. Anudeep, Phani, and others in Growth School clearly understand that they are not the students(users). So they have designed this workshop so that anyone from beginner to expert as well as Growth School can derive value.
3. They have iteratively improved the course over several batches.
4. They provide solutions (such as Mentorship) that are not easily found in the marketplace. So this makes them career-oriented and student-focused.

Some of the UX principles I see at play with Anudeep’s UX workshop:

1. Jakob’s law: Intuitive platform for watching videos and completing assignments. This platform works the same way as other learning platforms
2. Fitt’s Law: The following screenshot exemplifies the Fitt’s law that the action element must be close to the user’s thumb and the button must be big enough for the user’s thumb to comfortably tap on it. In this case, it is the ‘Continue’ button.

3. The course is structured like play or the experience is gamified. According to ‘Playing to Learn’ article from Harvard Graduate School of Education, “It’s possible to play with a purpose. There is a difference between free play and playful learning. While both are important, a pedagogy of play is grounded in playing toward certain learning goals, designing activities that fit in and leverage curricular content and goals.” from ​​Playing to Learn | Harvard Graduate School of Education. The entire course work is structured so that the student is motivated to finish the tasks and the lessons have text with strikethrough styling once they are completed. The strikethrough and Mark Complete button gives the user satisfaction of having completed the task and the motivation to keep moving to the following tasks.

4. The law of common regions can be clearly seen in the above example. The coursework for the entire course is listed on the left. The coursework that the student is currently working on is on the right. Each is grouped so that visually they are together.

• The design of the UX workshop is very minimalistic:
• Watch videos do Drill Exercises i.e. Hands-on exercises to do as we are watching the videos. Through this approach, we learned the UX principles AFTER doing our exercises and also observing real-world examples of other apps.
• Low-fi, Hi-fi, and animation prototypes exercised our brain to learn while doing. Through this method, we learned the tool Figma (online, desktop, and phone app versions and Marvel phone app)
• We learned how to test these prototypes by engaging different kinds of user groups, different age groups, different skill levels, etc.
• The same webinars also used the principle of variable reward. Since we didn't know exactly all the topics Anudeep was going to cover, even when the session ran late, we were pumped to keep going and keep learning.
• The screenshots above are a great example of the Zeigarnik Effect. The UI induces the student to complete the incomplete tasks and by using the ‘Mark Complete’ button, the user is introduced to a gaming-like experience.
• How did I know Anudeep solved this problem to promote learning?

My personal completion rate: this metric is subjective since I have documented this only to one user, i.e. me. My average completion rate in other courses is 30 to 50% of online courses. But I finished this course with motivation, enthusiasm, and the satisfaction of acquiring crucial principles of UX design and putting them into practice. And this completion is spurring me on to the next level of UX course with Anudeep. What more would I want?

Part 2

Let us look at the prototypes that we built using these concepts. After all, the goal of the UX of the ‘UX workshop’ is to impart knowledge, put it into to practice, and complete the course so that we can move on to the next level.

Animated prototype:

Having observed other online instructors, I understand why Anudeep’s UX workshop stands out and why it yields measurable results.

The course provides an easy, consistent, fast, productive, and gamified user experience (UX) for the students. And this is where I found the value as a user.

• Anudeep was always high energy (even at 1:00 AM!) He spoke will good inflection and intonation along with engaging body language in order to draw the students (users) into the learning process.
• The music at the start and end of the video did well to wake me up before the video session. This was very smartly done to wake people up at a subconscious level.
• A plethora of questions was covered during the question and answer session. This far exceeded the scope of this workshop. This really boosted user satisfaction. Anudeep was willing to go above and beyond to equip the students.
• At last, all these factors came together for me to want to pursue the next level course and for sure, recommend this course to other students I know.
• Therefore, the UX workshop by Anudeep Ayyagari provided immense value to me and other students as users. At the same level, Anudeep also created extraordinary value for the business entity, Growth School.

Thank you Anudeep Ayyagari and Growth School! Job well done and a bang for my buck!