Videocation: User Insights and Exploration

About the Project

Videocation is an e-learning platform built around video-based learning content. To better understand how customers and end users were engaging with the platform and what could improve the learning experience, we conducted comprehensive research and explored new directions.

Research & Understanding

We ran a multi-method research phase combining different approaches. We visited customer locations to conduct in-person superuser and end-user interviews, understanding how the platform fit into their real workflows. We also ran in-office user testing sessions to explore how people interacted with the core features.

The research revealed both what was working and where friction existed. One insight stood out: unless there was an established culture around sharing and learning together in the organization, most users burned through the content while doing other things—working, commuting, making food. Essentially, the video content was becoming background noise rather than an active learning experience. This wasn't a platform problem; it was an organizational one.

Exploring AI-Assisted Learning

With those insights in mind, we explored whether conversational AI could enhance the video-based learning experience. Rather than assume one approach would work, we decided to test properly.

We built and tested two different concepts:

Approach 1: Game-Based Interaction An AI companion using gamified interaction—audio responses, visual feedback, and game-like mechanics—to guide learners through concepts related to the videos they'd watched.

Approach 2: Conversational Chat A more straightforward chat interface where learners could ask questions and have conversations about the content. Built on ChatGPT 3.5, it was a crude prototype but functional.

Key Findings

The chat-based approach outperformed the game-based one. Users preferred the simplicity and directness of being able to ask questions in their own words rather than navigating game mechanics. That said, both approaches revealed that the real barrier to effective learning wasn't the format—it was organizational culture. Tools can only do so much when the underlying conditions for learning aren't in place.