Next World
Bridging education to a digital realm for a brighter future
UX Designathon Top 10 Finalist
Overview
Next World, a finalist project in Avocademy's UX designathon, is a supplementary virtual school designed to address educational inequity.
Created in partnership, this project leverages digital technology to provide students with an equitable, engaging learning environment free from financial constraints and discrimination.
By bridging the digital and real worlds, Next World aims to offer every child, regardless of their background, an equal opportunity for growth and education, contributing to a more just future for all students.
Role
3D Art Direction
UX Design
User Research
Tools
Figma
Adobe Dimension
Notion
Team
Duration
1 week
DESIGN CHALLENGE
“How might we intentionally create a better world through immersive technologies?”
Upon receiving this challenge, my partner and I discussed various problems that have been ongoing in the world.
We recognized that effective problem-solving requires deep understanding for those affected, so we focused on an issue we had both personally encountered.
Coming from diverse backgrounds, we discovered a common thread in our experiences: education. Our differing yet similarly impactful educational journeys became the foundation for our project.
THE SOLUTION
A universal access to interactive education.
Classes are run by AI teachers.
In order to keep the consistency of education materials, classes in Next World are run by AI teachers. Classes are divided by the user’s level, and levels in Next World are defined by figurative words such as, “Tulip” or “Daisy”. There are no numbered grades that are visible to other users. In Next World, success is not measured with numbers or standards.
Tutors are human buddies.
Tutors are human buddies who are available to help students outside of class. Students can ask questions from their virtual class or day school. As human mentors, they also provide emotional support for students.
XP & Currency Points run the economy.
Points in the Next World are divided into XP points and currency points. XP points are earned by attending classes and currency points are earned by taking quizzes and participating. XP points enable students to "level up" to the next tier. Currency points allow students to spend it on services such as tutors. Most importantly, points cannot be bought with cash.
PROCESS
DISCOVERY
Household income disparities affect the quality of education.
Among top academic students in 1st grade in the U.S alone, only 28% of them come from low-income families, whereas up to 72% are from high-income households. By the 3rd grade, 90% of the achievement gap is already present between students.
This is because children from low-income families attend low-funded schools where they are not provided the same quality of education and resources as schools in affluent areas.
Meritocracy is deeply engraved in our society.
Meritocracy is a social system that measures an individual’s success solely based on their skill and level of effort.
From the surface, meritocracy looks like a fair system for all. However, different individuals come from different backgrounds, which also means different starting points.
Furthermore, children from low-income families tend to have a negative outlook on life due to these gaps in society.
We took keywords that we found in our research and created a word cloud out of it to generate qualitative data. We concluded that meritocracy was built into our society to pursue equality, but not necessarily equity.
Gen Alpha and subsequent generations are Digital Integrators.
Commonly known as the ‘iPad kids’, Gen Alpha children are born between 2010 to 2025. Since birth, they have been exposed to advanced technology, meaning they spend more time being exposed to screens rather than engaging in traditional activities that do not involve technology, thus causing shorter attention spans.
Additionally, they have a clear preference for interactive content, with 77% of them reporting that they learn best when using technology. However, conventional teaching methods enforce passive learning, text-heavy material, and pencil and paper approach.
“Who would be affected by the product the most?”
Teachers
Do teachers think the school is receiving enough resources?
How can teachers help students improve their performance?
Students
Do students feel confident about what they learn at school?
Do they feel a learning gap among their peers?
Parents
How do parents feel about the education their children receive?
What are their thoughts about their children’s future?
“The current education system fails to provide an equitable opportunity to learn, resulting in an achievement gap from an early age.”
EMPATHIZE
Learning about personal experiences to understand on a deeper level.
To hear the voices of our users and fully understand their pain points, we conducted a questionnaire with 20 questions and received 25 responses. Our goal was to see if our findings were aligned with their real-life experiences. Doing so would strengthen our research and help us empathize with users.
Did you observe any educational/opportunity gap between your peers when you were in school?
If you answered yes, what do you think caused the gap? Please select all that apply.
Do you think your learning experience in school influenced your path in life?
This is Kayla, a 12 year-old living with her parents in Toronto.
She struggles with focusing in school due to a lack of motivation.
Kayla felt overwhelmed and disconnected from her studies, but NextWorld transformed her experience.
She finds relief, empowerment, and a sense of belonging among peers.
DEFINE
Creating a user persona and mapping out the user journey led us to revise our design challenge, which we needed to do to narrow our scope.
We wanted to accommodate the needs of more children like Kayla, so we defined the goals and expectations to execute a successful solution.
Find fun in learning
Don’t feel judged by their actions
Find a dream
Feel confident among peers
No bias or prejudice
In this digital world, users can meet and interact with each other, just like how they would in real life, except with avatars. As Gen Alpha struggle to focus on passive content, our goal was to provide interactive and social features to help them stay engaged in the platform. We wanted users to associate learning with fun!
Next World strives to offer accessibility for all users, regardless of their technological resources. Our platform provides seamless access across a range of devices, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and VR headsets.
The interactive content ensures multimodal learning by stimulating various sensory channels and accommodating different learning styles such as visual, auditory, reading, writing, and kinaesthetic.
IDEATE
Crafting the core of a virtual school by focusing on essential features.
During the ideation phase, we identified 3 MVPs that we thought were essential for a school in a virtual setting. Our thinking process was along the lines of “What is absolutely needed for the user?”, “Does this feature stay within the scope?”, and “Is this enough to satisfy the user?”. Then, we created a user flow to imagine at which point of the experience the users would use the features.
MVP #1: Virtual Class
As a student, I want classes that I can attend anytime, anywhere.
MVP #2: Tutors
As a student, I want tutors who can provide me help without judging me.
MVP #3: Points System
As a parent, I want a points system that doesn’t ask for microtransactions.
Next World is designed to be accessible across multiple devices while remaining free for users.
Our approach focuses on two key aspects: platform support and strategic monetization.
Next World is ready for…
Our ideal no-cost revenue streams:
In-app advertisements
Partnerships with schools
Data sharing for curriculum improvement
USER TESTING
Gathering insights for future development.
Last but not least, our final step was user testing. We took our hi-fi prototype and asked users for feedback. Most of the feedback we received was about additional features that would help enrich the educational experience, as well as establishing a detailed app economy so that Next World can be a sustainable app that continues to provide services to its users at no cost.
Last but not least, our final step was user testing. We took our hi-fi prototype and asked users for feedback. Most of the feedback we received was about additional features that would help enrich the educational experience, as well as establishing a detailed app economy so that Next World can be a sustainable app that continues to provide services to its users at no cost.
