MIT Horizon was born from MIT Open Learning, an initiative to transform teaching and learning through innovative digital technologies. The goal was to harness and translate MIT's expertise in cutting-edge tech to educate modern professionals. They had authored an incredible library of expert content, but Horizon was searching for what was next.
Working to build a 360-degree understanding of Horizon's learners, buyers, and customers, our team conducted in-depth qualitative research and immersed ourselves in existing quantitative research. As a large enterprise product with diverse audiences, we aimed to understand Horizon's unique mixture of stakeholders and users.
-Horizon Learner
Identifying patterns in research, we painted a holistic view of the platform and helped reframe the Horizon team's understanding of their learners. How people learn depends highly on the "what" and the "why." Are they searching for a new topic or deep-diving into one they already know? Are they learning to expand their breadth of knowledge or trying to solve a tactical problem? A robust understanding of a learner's needs defines whether the learning experience should be structured, unstructured, broad, or focused.
With a new understanding of learning modes, Other Tomorrows articulated a strategic product vision for Horizon that evolves its content library into a learning platform. We focused on new ways for learners to discover and navigate cutting-edge content, and our team created an end-to-end experiential prototype that connects touchpoints within the future Horizon experience.
Kyle Wing
Jen Ashman-Stauss
Monique Fuchs
Lee Moreau
