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Who Knows What: An Icebreaker game

Who Knows What: An Icebreaker game

Moderated Usability Testing

Focus Group

Mixed-Methods Research

Moderated Usability Testing

Focus Group

Mixed-Methods Research

Imagine it's the first day of class. You don't know anyone, conversations are awkward, and building meaningful connections in just a few minutes can be challenging. One of the first goals of a great teacher is to help students break the ice, feel comfortable with one another, and collaborate naturally.


To make those first interactions easier, the company Nomie created 'Who Knows What', an educational icebreaker game that helps students discover shared interests and start meaningful conversations through playful activities.


As the game prepared for use in real classrooms, Nomie wanted to ensure the experience was intuitive, engaging, and easy to facilitate for both students and teachers.

👤 Role

UX Researcher & Presentation Designer

🏢 Client

Nomie Startup (Educational Technology)

🗓️ Timeline

10 Weeks (Jan - March 2025)

👤 Role

UX Researcher

🏢 Client

Nomie (EdTech Startup)

🗓️ Timeline

10 Weeks (Jan - March 2025)

👤 Role

UX Researcher

🏢 Client

Nomie (EdTech Startup)

🗓️ Timeline

10 Weeks (Jan - March 2025)

As part of a four-person UX consulting team at Tech3Lab, HEC Montréal, we partnered with Nomie to assess how 'Who Knows What' performed in a real classroom and identify opportunities to improve the experience for students and instructors.


To evaluate the experience, we focused on three key dimensions of usability:


💡 Learnability: Can first-time players understand the game quickly with minimal guidance? Teachers can't walk every student through it individually!


⚡ Efficiency: Can teachers facilitate the activity within a typical class period? They have plenty of other things to do during the first session!


🎯 Effectiveness: Does the game successfully achieve its educational and social goals while keeping the experience fun?


As part of a four-person UX consulting team at Tech3Lab, HEC Montréal, we partnered with Nomie to assess how 'Who Knows What' performed in a real classroom and identify opportunities to improve the experience for students and instructors.


To evaluate the experience, we focused on three key dimensions of usability:


💡 Learnability: Can first-time players understand the game quickly with minimal guidance? Teachers can't walk every student through it individually!


⚡ Efficiency: Can teachers facilitate the activity within a typical class period? They have plenty of other things to do during the first session!


🎯 Effectiveness: Does the game successfully achieve its educational and social goals while keeping the experience fun?


This is our team presenting the final research findings to Nomie.

This is our team presenting the final research findings to Nomie.



Curious how we arrived at these insights?

Feel free to explore the full research report. It walks through our full research process, from participant recruitment and methodology to analysis and final recommendations. It also tells the story of how we uncovered meaningful insights and translated them into design decisions.


We combined qualitative and quantitative methods to build a complete picture of the experience. Participants played 'Who Knows What' in a real classroom setting while we facilitated four groups of three students. Alongside interviews and post-session discussions, we collected personality measures, task completion times, error rates, and video recordings, helping us understand not only what participants did, but why they did it.


Every recommendation in the report is grounded in evidence from real users, demonstrating how research findings were translated into practical, actionable design improvements.


Curious how we arrived at these insights?

Feel free to explore the full research report. It not only walks through our complete research process, from participant recruitment and methodology to analysis and final recommendations, but also tells the story of how we, as researchers, uncovered meaningful insights and translated them into design decisions.


We combined qualitative and quantitative methods to build a complete picture of the experience. Participants played the game in a real classroom setting while we moderated four groups of three students. Alongside interviews and post-session discussions, we collected personality measures, task completion times, error rates, and video recordings, helping us understand not only what participants did, but why they did it.


Every recommendation in the report is grounded in evidence from real users, demonstrating how research findings were translated into practical, actionable design improvements.