KiesMBO.nl
For the Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) S-BB has developed KiesMBO.nl to help young kids (age group from approximately 12+) make their choice for their MBO education. It has grown to the biggest platform in the Netherlands for MBO study choice information.
In Januari 2021 I joined the team as Lead UX and Art Director with the assignment to improve overal user experience, start research and implement changes according to WCAG 2.1 and to grow the amount of yearly users by adding peer stories and the use of new channels (like social media, newsletters, video’s and google display ads).
We’ve conducted research on our target audience with the resulting outcome that some children did not understand the relevance of visiting kiesMBO.nl far in advance of making their educational choice. Since this is quite an important part of the career path that follows later in life who’s better to tell the importance of this decision than old students who’s already made this decision! At the same time we wanted the teachers to start using the website even more during classes that involve follow up education.
We started filmin
g peer stories on 2 schools across the Netherlands where we interviewed lots of kids and their experience on making a choice for education and what they would advice the kids that still need to look for more information on the topic.
At the same time we interviewed the teachers where they motivated and explained to other teachers how and why they should use kiesMBO.nl as the tool of choice.
KiesMBO “discover” game user tests
Last year we where running beta tests on our freshly developed game “discover” where kids can drive a tram through a virtual city and talk to inhabitants about their professions, learning more about different professions in a playful way.
Through a series of user tests we’ve done in collaboration with Youngworks we received a lot of constructive feedback and learnings before going live with the actual product. Here are some of these learnings and the solutions we’ve provided:
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Game onboarding
USER LEARNINGS:
The goal of the game is not immediately clear.SOLUTION:
To counter this we have added a 3 step mini tutorial before entering the game in the load screen.
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Giving clear directions
USER LEARNINGS:
Navigating a passenger to their work place with the tram is difficult.SOLUTION:
We have changed the color of the line directing the route on the road ahead of the tram as well as on the mini map on the bottom right to clarify where a player needs to go.
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Adding a clear CTA
USER LEARNINGS:
For a lot of kids it was unclear that they could leave the tram and freely navigate / fly over the city and inspect buildings and workplaces.
SOLUTION:
To clarify that the user can do this we have added a call to action below the minimap
We are currently at the stage where we have gathered all user feedback and mapped out all user experience and accessibility improvements from both a technical and design standpoint and are adding these to the backlog. The goal is to get an WCAG 2.1 AA approval rating before the end of 2022 for kiesMBO.nl and have a roadmap with all remaining items marked and logged for further improvement.
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Flyer
Based on the KiesMBO branding we’ve updated the flyer with a new look and up to date information, also directing the user to the just launched video dashboard with explanatory peer video’s.
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Game launch article
When the game launched on KiesMBO we made assets for an article in the Biyond magazine which explains the usage and possibilities for the game which teachers can use in their lessons concerning follow up education.
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Posters
Every school in the Netherlands receives a poster from our campaign to drive more users to the website and create a top of mind product.
