Singapore Prison Service - Refresh!
How we design an elearning app to engage and empower inmates in their own rehabilitation for society reintegration
Client: Singapore Prison Service Platform: Tablet Duration: 3 weeks (June 2022) Role: Liason, Product Lead, UX Research Lead & Presentation Designer
Brief
*To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case study. The information in this case study is edited and may not necessarily reflect the current state of the project.
Transition to community for offenders can be challenging. Under the Learning Prison Initiative, SPS hope to leverage on technology to create a continuous and vibrant learning environment that prepares them adequately for reintegration into society.
We were asked to explore and design an e-learning app called Refresh! with gamification features so that inmates would be motivated to engage in for consistent and independent learning as rehabilitation.
As the product lead and UX research lead of my 5-person team, my role was to use user-centered research to align my team and stakeholders around the vision for Refresh!
Transition to community for offenders can be challenging. Under the Learning Prison Initiative, SPS hope to leverage on technology to create a continuous and vibrant learning environment that prepares them adequately for reintegration into society.
We were asked to explore and design an e-learning app called Refresh! with gamification features so that inmates would be motivated to engage in for consistent and independent learning as rehabilitation.
As the product lead and UX research lead of my 5-person team, my role was to use user-centered research to align my team and stakeholders around the vision for Refresh!
APRIL, SENIOR ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
“...GA Team managed to take care of the inmates’ experiences and thoughts...”
Challenge
The fundamental goal of this project was to create a learning platform but it was not as simple as we thought. With only 90min of tablet usage time per inmate with no battery charging avenues, our team faced the following challenges:
- a USP (unique selling proposition) for inmates to adopt our app over other apps in the tablet
- delivery of learning content within intranet and tablet battery contraints
- learning content strategy that caters to different age group, education level, offence type and sentence duration
What We Did
Approach
Learning is important but not everyone enjoys or wants to learn. To encourage mass adoption of the app, there must be a pull-factor beyond the learning component.
With that, we sought to understand what really drives our users within the solitary cell through interviews with users and SPS psychologist.
We conducted 12 user interviews with inmates from 3 different age groups and risk profiles:
Key insights
- Need coping mechanism from mundane and repetition
- Desire to improve themselves
- Worry about future uncertainities
- Want a support system which they can trust and relate to
*Personas are representation of our group of users and do not refer to any specific individual
Comparative Analysis
To discover new opportunities based on parallels with SPS’s Psychological-based programmes (PCP)’s content materials, we researched into best-in-class from 3 domains:
- Education
- Mindfulness
- Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy (CBT)
Design Strategy
From our user research and white paper research on designing for learning, we identified these key aspects to guide our design:
- Interactive / Active Learning
- Bite-size content
- Learning in a real-world context
- Informative feedback
- Learning games and stimulations to align with learning goals
- Gamifications for instrinic motivation using Octalysis Framework by gamification pioneer & expert Yu-Kai Choi
Solution
We created Refresh! as an empowering tool beyond e-learning:
- Game-based/Interactive learning to increase engagement
- Gamification features to motivate less inclined learners
- CBT features to support hollistic growth and self-therapy
Results
Refresh! was presented to our clients in July 2022. We received very positive feedback and was asked to re-present our findings and prototype to the senior management team of Assistant Directors.
Next Step
We are still scratching the surface of designing learning experience. Proud to say we got the big bits sorted out for now but how can we use educational theory and psychology to further improve our design to help users of different age, level of content expertise and learning styles to learn even better and gain instrinic motivation.
Perhaps the most crucial next steps would be improving the visual style for a more universal age group and balancing gamification with learning goals in a sustainable method.
Takeaway
This being a real client project, it was challenging yet exciting to strategise how we could create better buy-in for our client with their management with our research and design. At the end of the day, it was rewarding when we are able to strike a good balance between our users and clients’ needs.
Throughout this journey of leading the team, I was reminded again of the importance of synergy and communication; and how important to have a common vision to align decision-making.
