December 2024 - June 2025
The HCDE capstone project collaborate with Microsoft Azure Communication team
Designers and researchers from ACS team, 3 students
Overview
Problems
Fragmented Communication Across Platforms.
The rise of digital tools like E-mail, Slack, Canvas, and Zoom has made managing communication across them challenging for both teachers and students.
Solutions
AI Agent on Canvas to Streamline Communication Between Educators and Students.
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Results
Improve efficiency
Research
Research Questions
How can AI help streamline and support meaningful interaction between teachers and students across multiple platforms?
We conducted user interviews, literature reviews, and participatory workshop to gather user insights.
Research Findings
Similarities between students and educators
Finding #1
Multi-platform use
Students and educators use various tools (email, Canvas, Slack), but students bear the burden of adapting to each.
Finding #2
Missed messages
Both groups struggle with notification overload, leading to missed important messages, especially during busy periods.
Finding #3
Desire for Feedback
Educators want to know if messages are seen, while students seek quicker responses to reduce anxiety.
Different behaviors
Finding #4 Boundaries
Students expect quick responses and stay online longer, while educators often check messages less frequently to maintain work-life balance.
Finding #5 Attitude towards AI
Students are generally more open to using AI in education while some educators have some hesitation towards AI.
AI Capabilities
Finding #6 AI as an Assistant
AI enhances communication efficiency through real-time feedback, 24/7 support, prioritization, and automation. However, it should not replace educators, but rather empower them to focus on meaningful mentorship.
Concept
How can we address user pain points and meet their needs?
Centralize communication
Streamline all messages into one place, supported by an AI-powered system that prioritizes messages and sends smart reminders to reduce overload.
Minimize platform switching
Improve the Canvas chat feature, reducing the need for external tools like Slack and keeping interactions within one platform.
After analyzing the technical feasibility and business impact with stakeholders, we chose the second method.
Design Challenge
Ideation
Participatory Workshop
Co-created ideas that emerged from workshop
We gathered a wide range of co-created ideas during the workshop, and after organizing and synthesizing them, we translated the most valuable insights into actionable design opportunities.
Ideation
For each design opportunities, we brainstormed several solutions and then grouped them into three features.
Customization
Automation
AI agent to answer questions
User flow
We created the user flow based on the jobs-to-be-done.
Student — When I have questions for my instructor, especially urgent or sensitive ones, I want to get timely support, so I can address my needs without overburdening my instructor and get answers without feeling too anxious.
Educator — When I receive a large volume of messages from students, I want to reply to one of the repetitive questions and have AI automatically address similar inquiries, so I can save time and focus on supporting more complex or urgent needs.
Prototypes
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Testing
User Testing
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Findings
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Improvements
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Conclusion
Deliverables
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Responsive Design
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Design System
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Key takeaways
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