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What is JotRoom?
JotRoom is a note-taking app for high school and college students seeking to make their note-taking experience more engaging and useful by adding all kinds of notes (example: photograph of written notes) in their work space.
Targeted Users
For high school and college students, they are looking for more advanced note tools so they can have an improved studying experience.
The goal
My goal was for students to include JotRoom as part of their useful study tool in school. Growing up, I only had my physical note book and pen to write my notes before a test. I wanted my experience of studying to feel more enjoyable.
User Personas
“My friend/classmate can’t show up to class today, so I want to find a way to share my notes with them and maybe even annotate on it too.”
“My friend/classmate can’t show up to class today, so I want to find a way to share my notes with them and maybe even annotate on it too.”
- Paris, 21 year old college student
“My goal is to keep my notes organized and work smoothly with classmates so we can all stay on track for our assignments and tests.”
- Nina, 15 year old high school student
“My final exam for Chemistry is around the corner, and I need to find an app to take notes and study on.”
- Derek, 16 year old high school student
"I need to quickly catch up on my history course material before a major exam that’s happening later that day. I need somebody's notes to look over before the exam."
- Jed, 23 year old college student
The users
For high school and college students, they are looking for more advanced note tools so they can have an improved studying experience.
What is JotRoom?
JotRoom is a note-taking app for high school and college students seeking to make their note-taking experience more engaging and useful by adding all kinds of notes (i.e. photograph of written notes) in their work space.
The goal
My goal was for students to include JotRoom as part of their useful study tool in school. Growing up, I only had my physical note book and pen to write my notes before a test. I wanted my experience of studying to feel more enjoyable.
UX Design Insights
Photo to Text (OCR) Usability
Insight: Users photograph their notes, but wants to digitize them to save time.
Solution: Making sure OCR results are an easy-to-use function that should accurately reflect the words appeared.
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Collaboration Needs
Insight: Students are obsessed with sharing notes with their peers, but wants to add more into it.
Solution: Developing a "collaborate" option located in the specific note board.
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Notes Being Read
Insight: Users value the ability of having their notes read to enhance their studying.
Solution: Tapping on a "text box" to enable a "Read Aloud" function.
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School Connections
Insight: Students are afraid of sending notes with unknown users by accident.
Solution: User profiles that displays profile picture, name, and email, to help users connect with their peers studying the same topic.
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Note Organization
Insight: Users are often exhausted looking for the right notes to be working on.
Solution: Introducing search bars, and filters like "Pinned", "Shared", "Locked".
Design Process
Sketch (Low-Fidelity)
First Draft
Final Draft
Before heading into using Figma to design our prototype, I sketched our low-fidelity frames based on the important screens our users will encounter such as the note space, or the main tab full of written notes. It took me two drafts for the sketching process because I figured the prototype should be more focused on the user's actual needs or goals rather than adding unnecessary design features like video call or chats.
Grayscales (Mid-Fidelity)
After sketching the low-fi wireframes, I went in Figma to start designing our frames based on what we drew. One of my goals was to focus on featuring the useful note-taking tools that are see in the note space, such as designing an Photo to Text (OCR) usability where users can have the ability to apply the photograph of handwritten notes from their photos, and tapping the button to scan the text featured in the written notes.
Final (High-Fidelity)
![JotRoom_ Version [Final].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/32d0d2_18d91dd6f08940c0b486a33aaec88eb5~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_365,h_434,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/JotRoom_%20Version%20%5BFinal%5D.jpg)
First Draft
Final Draft
Highlighted Features
Write On Your Notes
Share Your Notes
Capture Text using OCR
Apple App Store Layout
Review & Thoughts
Review & Thoughts
Overall, this case study was about my process designing a simple study app for students in high school and college who are seeking collaboration of notes and who are struggling with prepping before an exam.
What Went Well:
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My personas show relatable goals.
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Listing the needs for users based on my research insights.
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Starting from paper before heading into Figma.
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Coming up with innovative UI solutions (OCR, Sharing Notes, Handwritten Notes).
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Designed a video, app store layout, and prototype.
What Did Not Go Well:
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Not much in depth into user testing.
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Redoing the low-fidelity sketches every time.
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Original ideas getting scraped due to overload of elements overlapping each other.
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Time constrictions (getting stuck on low-fidelity wireframes for a long time).
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Difficulty of trying to fully understanding a user's need.
CUNY Lehman College
Student Thesis Exhibition 2025
Artist Statement
