ePermitTest
An eLearning tool that prepares Americans to take their driver’s permit test
Idea
Innovation in e learning app development continues to grow. To remain competitive, businesses should align their products with user needs. The CEO of ePermitTest, decided to improve his existing software and requested e-learning app development services from Steelkiwi. ePermitTest is e-learning development software preparing teenagers in the US to take their driver’s permit test. Our client came to us with part of his project and asked us to make it better in terms of both the code and the user experience.
We enhanced the website’s UI/UX by choosing a brighter color scheme and made the site’s tests and learning materials more entertaining. We also created a mobile version in order to attract more users. The mobile version of the website ensures that ePermitTest works on any device. All of our changes were meant to increase the average time users spend on the website and to attract more people to the platform.
Analysis
Out of 320 million people living in the US in 2015, 218 million were licensed drivers. Since more than two-thirds of the total population drives, passing the permit test is more of a necessity than a privilege in the US, making ePermitTest an invaluable tool for many people.
What’s truly special about ePermitTest is that it’s aware of all the different traffic laws in different states and acknowledges that passing the permit test is more complicated in some states than in others. To account for these differences, ePermitTest offers tests and manuals specific to each state, some containing more in-depth explanations of particular difficulties. Close attention is paid to the differences in road signs and markings. ePermitTest is completely free, making it a great resource to help people learn the rules of the road and test their knowledge so they can pass the permit test and start driving their own vehicle.
Results
Our main UI/UX task was creating a brighter and more concise design.
First, we needed to develop a new UX strategy so that the service would appeal more to 14- to 16-year-olds. To make the service appealing, we made sure that all tests and quizzes are given in a challenging game format that allows users to compete with each other. Our color choices suggest that studying with ePermitTest is interesting and fun. All information is shown using bright illustrations and infographics, which helps users memorize facts and figures more easily.
ePermitTest is written in Python and is based on the Django framework. We used Amazon Simple Storage for all content storage and Amazon CloudFront for content delivery, as our audience is more or less evenly spread across the US.
We used PostgreSQL for our database and integrated Sentry for tracking bugs and errors. Rosetta made the process of translating from English to Spanish much easier. We also integrated Google Analytics and set up detailed event tracking.
Implemented features
In order to create a more fulfilling educational experience, we added more tests, including for a wider variety of vehicles. We also added functionality to save test progress automatically and made sure that users can restart tests whenever they want. We even added a feature so users can rate the tests they take, helping the website’s owners gradually improve the quality of ePermitTest.
Users can track their progress and compare themselves with others. Trying to reach the top score list is a great motivation for anyone with a competitive side. This feature was added to make ePermitTest more of a fun game and less of a boring learning platform.
There are 50.7 million Spanish speakers in the US. To make ePermitTest available to this wide audience, we added Spanish versions of some of the books and tests.
ePermitTest offers a wide variety of books to help aspiring drivers prepare for all types of tests: road signs, traffic signals, motorcycle knowledge, and so on.
A Frequently Asked Questions page improves the user experience and gives people a better understanding of ePermitTest’s features.
We added a Facebook sharing feature and designed unique images for each of the states: when a user shares a test or a book for a particular state, their Facebook post has a state-themed preview.
Technology Stack
Links
Client's feedback
We have collaborated with SteelKiwi on design and development tasks. While working on design projects, the team was attentive to our user stories and we were able to build user experience around them to meet user's expectations and help them achieve their tasks in a more efficient manner. Having a dedicated project manager was quite useful as it helped to mediate communications between different team members and bring it all together.
