Notability
CONTEXT
Notability is an Ed-Tech company focused on creating accessible, comprehensive note-taking and learning tools. They recently launched Learn, an AI feature streamlining studying with smart notes, summaries, transcripts, quizzes, and a chatbot that understands your content.
ROLE
UI Designer,
Research and Prototyping Lead
DURATION
September 2025 - December 2025
(10 weeks)
TEAM
Sophia Clancy
Mikayla Acosta
Grace Zhang
TOOLS
Figma
COMPONENTS
THE PROBLEM
Many students struggle to take effective notes with current tools.
One-size-fits-all study apps often leave students with learning differences behind and lack personalization.
INTRODUCING
Notability Learn
Learn is Notability's AI study tool aimed at helping students summarize and easily study their note content — it includes smart notes, summaries, live transcripts, quizzes, and even a chatbot for your content!
OUR GUIDING QUESTION
How might we evolve Learn to create a personalized and accessible learning experience that keeps students motivated and focused?
WE IDENTIFIED THREE RESEARCH GOALS:
Hone in on learning differences and how digital tools can best support/alleviate pain points.
Analyze current competitor landscape within educational products and AI integration.
Understand what creates an engaging digital learning experience.
OUR CHOSEN RESEARCH METHODS
📖 Secondary Research
Understand our target audience, especially users with learning differences.
👥 Competitor Analysis
Research existing features to improve and identify Notability’s market advantage.
💬 User Interviews
Understand how students with learning differences study and how digital tools can better support their workflow.
📊 User Insights Survey
To gain an overview of broader AI usage trends within a general student population.
🖋 Diary Study
Understand how users use Notability’s Learn feature over a period of time.
📢 Focus Groups
Explore differing student experiences and diverse study workflows, ideate features for their ideal study tool.
After speaking with students from all backgrounds and learning experiences, we zoomed out to look at the bigger picture.
WE USED AN AFFINITY MAP TO COMPILE OUR INSIGHTS
We then used our findings to create three unique user personas.
OUR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT PERSONA, CONCEPTUAL CHERYL
FROM OUR SYNTHESIS, WE DREW THESE MAIN INSIGHTS
Students manage overload best through clear structure and small, focused tasks.
Students stay motivated by clear progress tracking and simple, social rewards.
Students value AI that adapts to their learning styles and weaknesses, offering tailored explanations and formats that enhance understanding without reinforcing biases.
CRAZY 8 IDEATION
Splitting up the HMW into smaller statements to focus feature ideation on exact pain points
We organized features that students shared in focus groups, as well as brainstormed additions to these features
WE HAD A LOT OF IDEAS, SO WE
Revisited our HMW to make sure our ideas maintained relevant to our scope and insights
Given time constraints, we decided to prioritize two features:
Profile Personalization
AI-assisted goal setting
WE USED AN IMPACT-EFFORT MATRIX TO DECIDE WHICH FEATURE TO FOCUS ON IN OUR PROTOTYPE
Since we were building into an existing product, we re-evaluated Notability Learn's existing features and where our features would uniquely fit into a user's Notability workflow.
COMMUNICATING WITH OUR CLIENT
We prepared a written feature proposal during our meetings
Since we had different designers at Notability (with differing levels of familiarity with our project) giving us feedback, we wanted to contextualize our solution.
OUR SOLUTION
PROFILE PERSONALIZATION
Profile Personalization shapes Notability Learn around each student through a fast onboarding quiz that collects learning styles, challenges, and language preferences.
COLOR CODED SECTIONS
AI uses this personal learning profile to adjust explanations, visuals, and study tools
Tailors the Notability experience so each student learns in the format that works best for them.
TAILORED LEARNING PROFILE
Preferences appear on a simple profile page and can be updated at any time.
Students can also set preferences for individual notes, allowing each subject to get the support it needs.
STUDY SESSION
Study Sessions provide a guided, structured study mode inside Notability Learn.
AI GOAL SETTING
Have AI suggest which topics need attention, reducing cognitive load
Notability Learn utilizes user data — user progression through material, quiz scores — and suggests content to review based on previous user performance.
Type in any goals, and have AI transform them microtasks based on level of familiarity with content and what will best support effective learning and memorization.
BUILT-IN POMODORO TIMER
Be in charge of your own session: set a focus goal
Set a pomodoro timer within Notability, and enable an optional "Focus Mode" to turn off potentially distracting notifications from other apps.
DONE WITH USING AI?
Toggle Enhance to swap between
Notability Learn utilizes user data — user progression through material, quiz scores — and suggests content to review based on previous user performance.
