Reading platform
COREAD: Redesign Perusall to focus on optimized annotation workflows and peer-to-peer discussion rooms
📖 Overview:
Perusall is a shared annotation platform for academic readings. COREAD evolves this model by optimizing annotation workflows and introducing on-demand discussion rooms to help students deconstruct complex texts together—resulting in faster synthesis, deeper insights, and a more interactive path to academic mastery.
📒 Research & Opportunity
How Perusall address academic reading:
From a survey where I asked what features are helpful for readings:
71.4% students think "reading other students' annotation is very helpful
42.9% students feel "having discussions with peers are helpful".
This collaborative learning style reading requires students to "work in groups and mutually search for understanding, solutions, or meanings" (Smith, B.L., & J. MacGrefor, 1992). From a social constructivism view, students can learn better through this process because they co-construct knowledge by sharing experiences and ideas.
Students value the platform because peer insights and collaborative discussions provide the diverse perspectives and real-world examples needed to demystify complex concepts and spark deeper critical thinking.
Limitations/Opportunity:
In the follow-up interview, students mentioned that the platform displays all readers’ annotations at once, making the reading page appear cluttered and distracting. This often compels students to read through numerous comments and discussions, which might be not useful, significantly slowing down their reading pace.
Opportunity 1: Optimizing annotation workflows
Eliminate the cognitive overload caused by Perusall’s cluttered interface by designing a more organized, filterable annotation system that preserves focus without sacrificing peer insights.
Opportunity 2: Bridging the synchronous interaction Gap
Perusall only facilitates asynchronous comments. Having a system to support synchronous discussions can maximize collaborative learning.
🗺️ User Journey Map
🎨 Design Highlights
Optimizing Annotation Workflows by adding "Display" mode to filter comments
Students can choose to turn "Display" ON/OFF all the annotations
Display "Only Followed Annotation" or "only Questions": When students enable the display, they can choose to view only the comments made by peers they follow or only the annotations marked as questions.
Before:
After:
Adding "Discussion Room" feature to support synchronous discussions
Click "Discussion Room" to freely join established discussion groups and set up meeting time/location
Establish your own discussion room to wait for peers to join
Join Discussion group:
Establish your own Discussion group:
📈 Usability Test:
We have recruited 6 potential target users to participate in our usability testing and sort out their comments by 3 categories: Finding a reading, Using Display Feature to read and join Discussion Room.
Display Feature
✅ The process of writing annotations and notes is easy to follow.
✅ Selective display mode helps them efficiently absorb others' annotations.
❓Some users talks about more filters for annotation, i.e. "Only Professor Upvotes"
💡 Reflection
