Pirna OCS Messaging Capstone
Integrating a groups messaging system into OCS to improve collaboration and engagement.
Design-Based
Research Capstone
Design-Based Research Project Brief: Groups Messaging System (OCS)
Improve group-level communication and engagement on OCS through an integrated messaging system, while generating practical design principles for scalable, analytics-informed collaborative tools in educational platforms.
Groups Messaging System (OCS)
Integrated Messaging for OCS
✓
Modal-based groups messaging
✓
Low-friction interaction design
✓
Frontend-only implementation
✓
Usability and flow validation
✓
Backend schema proposal
✓
Planned analytics integration
Figma Prototype
Frontend Implementation
UI/UX Design
Backend Schema Design
Data Architecture
About
Student collaboration on OCS is fragmented and largely occurs off-platform (e.g., Discord, text, email). This reduces visibility into group participation, limits actionable feedback, and weakens learning-aligned collaboration. An initial groups feature lacked persistent messaging, backend structure, and analytics, resulting in limited adoption.
Impact
Intuitive and functional interface
Validates usability independent of backend
Identified need for persistent messaging
Defined backend organization requirements
Transferable design insights