Jack Shugrue | Odyssey

Project

Odyssey: An interactive, mobile, story-based approach to history education

Role

Product Designer, illustrator

Date

2021

Team

Aravindh Ramesh

Product Designer

Context

The educational system has not innovated effectively to match how students seek to be educated; this is especially true of history education. Often, teachers are tasked with introducing this innovation themselves. With Odyssey, we aim to lift that burden of innovation by providing teachers, students, & self-learners, the tools to supplement their history education in a contemporary manner. Odyssey is history made fun.

Delivering short, story-based content sparks deeper interest in lesson material

By delivering interesting stories, we shift behavior from just needing to get through it, to craving more.

Leveraging levity to create repeatable, memorable educational moments

By making history fun, it becomes more accessible. We achieve this through curated, bite-sized visual stories and interactive features like progression tracking and streaks.

Using interaction to promote stronger conceptual understanding of the material

Through active engagement, students drive the story forward, turning a typically static learning experience into a dynamic and participatory one.

Delivering short, story-based content sparks deeper interest in lesson material

By delivering interesting stories, we shift behavior from just needing to get through it, to craving more.

Leveraging levity to create repeatable, memorable educational moments

By making history fun, it becomes more accessible. We achieve this through curated, bite-sized visual stories and interactive features like progression tracking and streaks.

Interaction and levity create memorable, easily understandable lesson material

We simplify complex content with levity, clear visuals, and concise sentences. Engaging students in interacting with the material reinforces the information, making it stick.

Social, progress tracking, and validation

By making the experience social, students level up their skills with their friends

Engagement drives each story forward

By making history fun, it becomes more accessible. We achieve this through curated, bite-sized visual stories and interactive features like progression tracking and streaks.

Tech advancements & tech adoption are increasing at a substantial rate. As this increase continues, the way in which folks want to participate within certain ecosystems, like the education system will change dramatically. It's important that we keep this in mind as we design for a future that better suits the needs of those participants, & how our designs might indirectly affect those outside of our user base.

With Odyssey, we aim to demonstrate that many subjects of education are ripe for this kind of change - the need for which will only grow with the speed of new technology creation and adoption.

For more details on the process and research implemented for this project, feel free to reach out.