The Leaf
The Leaf focuses on delivering contextual content to children in Dharavi, India
Duration 14 Weeks
Project type Sponsored project by Google
Role Product design
Team Dennis Dang & Kevin Liangcy (Graphic), Aska Cheung (Interaction) Tyler Gabriel (Product)
Our mission is to deliver relevant education everywhere in India
Origami was designed with an Indian child in mind. A developing country with 423 million children and the shortage of 1 million teachers cannot advance with archaic educational institution and methods.
Persona
Aditi Sharma is 10 years old Indian girl trying to pursue an education in Dharavi
Due to India's culture of obedience, Aditi is expected to drop out of school to marry at a young age. With her demanding life of doing house chores and work, she is severely lacking proper education which restricts her from pursuing any career.
Educational materials, guidance, and especially time to study are difficult to access.
Since Aditi works so much, she is only able to attend a few hours of school. With overcrowded classrooms and inexperienced teachers, she is not going to learn much during her time at school either. Her responsibilities cause her to be running all over Dharavi 24/7.
Problem with an app-focused OS for education
Having apps takes children away from central goal; Learning
In app-focused OS, installation of an app is required and children can have access to unnecessary apps that can distract them from learning; only a fraction of an app is utilized. In addition, educational apps are fragments of content that children need to dig through.
Our solution
The Leaf : interface puts all content into a context-driven continuous feed, streaming content and apps as they are needed.
The 'Leaves' interface is driven by a child's surroundings, interests, peer activity, and progress. It uses artificial intelligence to canvass the internet and continually surface new and relevant content to heighten engagement. By reducing time spent on discovery and app onboarding, learning time is maximized.
A leaf is a single element among a stream of leaves
The leaf is a direct link to the educational content most immediately relevant and beneficial. All apps and content are packaged within it. While the traditional onboarding process requires discovery, onboarding, accounts, and figuring out, the leaf strips content back to the essentials.
Origami assists children
When Aditi makes grammar mistakes, Origami will let her know a right answer with an explanation instead of autocorrecting it for her.
Responsive change
When leaves are opened, they responsively adapt to the origami's physical state and also a situation. The interface can be changed in 3 different modes; Pocket, book/tent, and full mode.
Self-organized learning
Aditi can also generate new leaves by sharing things she’s read, and make comments on other children’s leaves. They can and will teach each other, so sharing and commenting are tightly integrated into leaves. The ease of accessing, creating, and sharing leaves is central to the origami experience of self-organized learning.
