Minor Project The Night School
Minor Project: The Night School
Zhang Wan Ru 0368214
21/04/2025—08/08/2025 (Week 1-Week 14)
Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's University
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURES
Week 1: Module Briefing
We primarily learned about the module grading criteria and carefully read the module guide to ensure we understood the overall course flow and expectations. Afterward, we worked in groups to select a project to lay the foundation for our upcoming collaboration.
Week 2: Empathy
Week 2 focused on empathy. We learned how to truly understand user experiences and needs through direct interaction. The course emphasized that only by truly understanding users can we design solutions that address their needs. I deeply realized that assumptions often lead to failure, and that Design Thinking can transcend traditional design fields and promote innovation across various industries.
Week 3: User Research
This week, we gained a deeper understanding of the importance of user research. Through interviews and observations, we were able to gather firsthand data, enabling us to build more realistic and effective user personas. Skipping this step can result in a product that doesn't truly meet user needs. I learned that investing in user research early on not only improves product quality but also avoids costly revisions later on.
Week 4: Define
We learned how to extract findings and insights from the collected data and craft a problem statement based on them. This step helped us translate our research into solvable problems and ensure that the entire project was user-centric. The "how to do what, for whom" sentence structure training in the course also helped me more clearly express my design intentions.
Week 5: Ideation
This week, we began generating ideas, using various methods such as brainstorming, mind mapping, SCAMPER, and Crazy 8s. Through these exercises, I learned how to quickly generate a large number of ideas and filter those with potential. We also practiced creating user journey maps to gain a deeper understanding of user emotions and pain points during product usage.
Week 6: Design Proposal
In week 6, we wrote and submitted a project design proposal, clarifying the research background, target users, brand direction, and timeline. I realized that a complete and logical proposal not only helps the team reach consensus but also serves as a valuable tool for communication with clients and reviewers. We also learned how to prepare a professional proposal presentation, including how to establish visual hierarchy, use appropriate typography and color, and confidently present the design solution.
PROJECT
Week 1: The Night School Project
We chose the Night School project. Let’s start
with a brief understanding of this
project.
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| Fig. 1.1 Overview of the project, Week 1 (24/04/2025) |
Week 2: Project Briefing
During the second week of the project briefing,
we were asked to work in groups to propose an
innovative concept to support and advance the
Night School program. We received a project
proposal document, which included an executive
summary outlining the project's overall profile,
structure, mission, and goals. The project is
currently in its third phase, focusing on
technology adoption, Google certification, and
building impactful partnerships. During this
phase, the Night School program is committed to
deepening its educational impact, empowering
educators, and actively promoting changes in the
teaching environment and practices of refugee
educators. We also need to consider how to
convince sponsors to partner with Taylor
University and provide funding for the Night
School.
Fig. 2.1 Overview of the project, Week 2
(01/05/2025)
Week 3: Contextual Research
We began by doing some background research
on the topic. Since this was my first
exposure to information about refugees and
the role of Alternative Learning Centers
(ALCs), I researched and read relevant
content online. Since our understanding of
Alternative Learning Centers (ALCs) and how
night school programs operate is limited, we
initially simply proposed some ideas we
wanted to research, as the proposals were
the only information we had.
Since our group's topic was related to
Alternative Learning Centers (ALCs), I
searched for organizations that provide
education for refugees and entered the
information into Miro. I also looked into
relevant news and legal protections for
refugees.
I also learned about some of the
situations in refugee schools through my
friends who studied education and saw some
photos of refugee students.
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Fig. 3.1 Contextual Research, Week 3 (08/05/2025) |
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| Fig. 3.2 photos of refugee students, Week 3 (08/05/2025) |
Week 4: User Persona Creation
After discussing our user personas, we
created 3 different personas :
- 1. ALC Principal
- 2. Education students
- 3. Adults who know about ALC and want to help (ALC-aware supporters)
I was assigned to do the user persona
creation for the second education
student.
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| Fig. 4.2 User Persona Creation, Week 4 (15/05/2025) |
Week 5: User Persona Interview
This week, we addressed Mr. Mike’s
feedback, noting that our questions were
not specific enough to support our
subsequent data analysis. We are now
focusing on refining our interview
questions so we can leverage the real
data we collect to create solutions and
support the night school project.
Fig. 5.1 Interview questions_minor
project, Week 5 (22/05/2025)
We then discussed assigning different
tasks, requiring each of us to
interview one of the user personas. I
approached a student who was a
full-time Bachelor of Education
student of mine, and during the
interview I took down important
information based on her
responses.
Fig 5.2 User Persona Interview
Response, Week 5 (22/05/2025)
Week 6: Post-Interview
After I collected the respondents'
responses, we needed to analyze them and
extract the key points. Based on the
requirements provided by the team
leader, I summarized the key points of
the respondents' responses and made them
into slides for better presentation.
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Fig. 6.1 User Persona,
Week 6 (29/05/2025)
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We created 3 different personas:
- 1. ALC Principal
- 2. Education students
- 3. Adults who know about ALC and want to help (ALC-aware supporters)
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Fig. 6.2 User Persona,
Week 6 (29/05/2025)
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Week 7: Empathy Map
After completing the interviews and
collecting user personas, we created
empathy maps to help us gain a deeper
understanding of our target users'
feelings, thoughts, and behavioral
patterns. By visualizing what users see,
hear, say, and do, as well as their
needs and pain points, we were able to
more clearly grasp their true situation
throughout the entire user experience.
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Fig. 7.1 Empathy Map,
Week 7 (05/06/2025)
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Week 8: Analyzing Findings
We focused on analyzing the data
collected from our interviews. Each team
member was responsible for summarizing
five key findings to extract valuable
insights based on first-hand user input.
After identifying our individual
findings, we came together to group
similar points, allowing us to
categorize them into broader key themes.
This process helped us recognize
patterns in user needs and behaviors.
Following this, we developed insight
statements for each theme, which allowed
us to reflect on why these themes may
have emerged and what underlying user
motivations or challenges they reveal.
This activity significantly improved my
ability to synthesize qualitative data
and turn it into meaningful insights
that inform design decisions.
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Fig. 8.1 Insight Discovery, Week 8 (12/06/2025)
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| Fig. 8.2 Insight Discovery (Findings), Week 8 (12/06/2025) |
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Week 9: Proposal Slides Making
We're focused on creating a proposal for
the night school project and will
present it to the night school judging
panel next week. Each of us has been
assigned different tasks, and my primary
responsibility is to write the project
overview and objective. I need to
understand all of our group's goals and
key areas.
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Mr. Mike said that our solutions were
not supported by case studies, so in
order to support the solutions to the
“HMW” questions we proposed, we added
case studies to support these
solutions. To ensure the reliability
of the proposed solutions, I searched
for relevant case studies on the
Google Scholar search engine. E.g.:
Refugee children and the English
language; challenges of refugee
teachers in Malaysian community-based
learning centers; digital teacher
log prototype research (Spain).
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Fig. 9.1 Case studies
research, Week 9 (19/06/2025) |
Week 10: Proposal Presentation
This week, we will present our
proposal to Mr. Mike and the evening
school judges. I was honored to
participate in this presentation, even
though my presentation was very brief.
After the presentation, the judges
provided suggestions for improvement.
Feedback:
- How we convert design done into Figma prototype
- Feasibility of including extra lessons such as language and cultural classes
- Timeline and budget to develop the application
- The logo made can be improvised to suit the theme
This week, our team held a virtual
meeting to discuss how to refine our
proposed solution and make it more
feasible. Following Mr. Mike's advice,
as he told us we didn't know their
primary curriculum, we adjusted our
proposal by removing the additional
course, as it didn't align with the
proposal's requirements. Furthermore,
we adjusted our initial proposed
solution to ensure that the remaining
solution met the proposal's
requirements and was feasible.
Because the content needs to be
revised, the content I need to
modify is
1. HMW1: Add functions, such as
teachers must complete interactive
quizzes/tasks, which are language
and cultural quizzes, to unlock
lesson templates, videos, and
cultural guides, etc.
2. Goals: State the benefits
I integrated it based on our meeting
and the content we revised.
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| Fig. 10.1 HMW1, Week 10 (26/06/2025) |
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Fig. 10.2 Goals, Week 10 (26/06/2025) |
Fig. 10.3 Proposal presentation
slides, Week 10 (26/06/2025)
Week 11: User Journey Map
In Week 11, our team focused on
product development and began creating
a user journey map. To ensure the
map's content aligned with actual user
experiences, we held an online meeting
to discuss key milestones and
interactions to include. By
constructing a user journey map, we
were able to more systematically
analyze every step of the user's
journey, from initial product contact
to actual usage. We identified
potential pain points at each stage
and considered how to optimize the
design to enhance the overall
experience.
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Fig. 11.1 User Journey
Map, Week 11
(03/07/2025)
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We officially entered the project's
development phase. Each team member was
assigned specific tasks to collaborate on
various aspects of the final product,
including poster design, social media
content management, logo optimization, and
UI/UX prototype development. I was
responsible for designing the web UI/UX
prototype and worked with my teammates on
the desktop interface. Since I'm more
comfortable sketching, I started by
sketching the pages and sent them to my
teammates for further visual design and
refinement in Figma. We successfully
completed the design of the login page and
class toolkit pages, ensuring they met
user needs both functionally and
visually.
Fig. 12.1 Sketches, Week 12 (10/07/2025)
Then my team member Vincent started
working on Figma and made a digital UI/UX
presentation.
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| Fig. 12.2 Sketches, Week 12 (10/07/2025) |
Week 13: Microsite Design
My leader assigned me a new task. I need
to do a microsite design for our The Night
School project. The content should include
the key projects we can provide, emergency
workshops, and first aid 3-phase.
I started looking for some references on
the Internet for my mood board.
Then I developed some main pages.
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Week 14: Improve Microsite Design
I shared my completed microsite design
with our group and asked for suggestions
for possible changes. I incorporated their
advice and made changes to make it more
design-focused. My leader also provided a
lot of inspiration and support.
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| Fig. 14.2 Microsite Design prototype (Iphone), Week 14 (24/07/2025) |
View the Microsite Design Iphone on Figma [HERE]
| Fig. 14.3 Microsite Design (Iphone), Week 14 (31/07/2025) |
Week 15: Final Presentation
After we finished all the projects, we
asked Mr. Mike to review them and give us
some feedback. His feedback on my project
was that I couldn't just create a
microsite for mobile perspectives, but
that I needed to create a microsite for
desktop perspectives. So I created a
desktop perspective as well.
We designed everything in the style of My Microsite Design, Minimalist in High Contrast，and using the fonts of inter.
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| Fig. 15.3 Microsite Design Prototype ( Desktop), Week 15 (02/08/2025) |
Fig. 15.4 Microsite Design (
Desktop), Week 15 (02/08/2025)
View the Microsite Design Desktop on Figma [HERE]
| Fig. 15.5 Microsite Design (Desktop), Week 15 (02/08/2025) |
Place the Microsite according to the needs of our user journey, pain and touchpoints, but present it in the form of mockups in our final slides so that it can be presented beautifully during the presentation.
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This presentation was attended by all our team members. We held an online meeting the night before and conducted a presentation part. The next morning, we also conducted a simple timed drill. Because we only had 15 minutes to present, we had to grasp all the time to introduce our main content.
On August 4th, we held our final project presentation, reporting our final results to Mr. Mike and the night school project judges.
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Link to Main Website Figma: HERE
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Link to Instagram Page: HERE
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Posters & Flyer：
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REFLECTION
The Night School Project not only honed my design and project implementation skills, but more importantly, it gave me my first real understanding of the many refugee students struggling to access education around us. The challenges and realities they face have deepened my understanding of the concept of educational equity and prompted me to prioritize empathy and feasibility when designing solutions.
During this collaborative process, I gradually realized that effective communication isn't always easy; it requires patience, understanding, and the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. When team members offered different suggestions, I learned to listen carefully, consider their perspectives, and adjust my presentation to foster better collaboration. Not only should I consider everyone's perspectives when developing my own ideas, but I should also maintain a holistic perspective on my tasks, as all tasks are interconnected. An hour before the presentation, our team urgently adjusted the proposal slides based on Mr. Mike's feedback. This process made me deeply appreciate the power of teamwork at critical moments—we worked together, supported each other, and ultimately delivered a successful presentation.
I am also very grateful to our team leader Phang Ann, who has always led the team forward with clear direction and calm judgment; I would like to thank my mentor Mr. Mike for his professional guidance and valuable feedback throughout the process, which allowed me to continuously optimize my thinking and design methods; I am also grateful to every teammate for their trust and support. It is our joint efforts that made this project a success and also allowed me to grow a lot in the process.
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