SmartNote

Concept Statement

We are designing an intelligent educational aid that is designed to help college students understand and organize course content more efficiently. The software allows students to access PPTs (in PDF format) uploaded by professors online and provides automated knowledge visualization. Students can select different types of mind maps, such as hierarchical structure diagrams, relationship network diagrams or timelines, etc. The system will intelligently analyze the content of the professor's PPTs or the PPTs uploaded by the students themselves and convert them into the selected visualized mind maps, flash cards, quiz mode, collabortive notes, Through this function, students can organize information more intuitively, enhance learning efficiency and optimize the knowledge construction process.

User Need Statement

User: High school students, college students, workers, etc. who need to organize and understand course content efficiently.

Need: Want to be able to quickly access a professor's course materials and convert them into visual mind maps that fit their learning style.

Reason: Traditional PPT access can lead to information overload, while manually organizing notes is time-consuming and laborious.

Automated knowledge visualization can help students build a knowledge framework faster, improve learning outcomes, and adapt to different learning styles.

Problem Definition

Traditional study methods don't always meet the needs of different students.

• Struggle to retain information from lectures, especially when materials come in different formats.

• Many high school and college courses are fast paced and content-heavy.

  
  

Result: Individual learning preferences, we aim to make studying more efficient, engaging, and personalized.

Problem Scoping

• Many student use external tools like Notion, Quizlet, or ChatGPT, but often feel overwhelmed managing them all.

• Studies show that active recall, spaced repetition, and visual learning significantly improve memory and understanding.

• Professors often use varying question formats and styles, but students don’t get enough personalized practice aligned with that.

Hypothesis

Our belief:

students will study more effectively and retain information longer with a tool that automatically generates mind maps, personalized practice questions, and intelligent reminders using spaced repetition.

Justification:

• Mind maps support visual learning and concept organization.

• Custom question generation encourages deeper understanding.

• Spaced repetition is a proven memory technique for long-term retention.

  
  

  

  
  

  Design Execution

  
  

  1. Uploading Mode – turning lecture material into mind maps.

  2. Professor Mode – generating questions tailored to content and teaching style.

  c. Memory Tracker Mode – planning study sessions using spaced repetition.

  

  
  

Testing Refinement 

We tested: 

• Usability of uploading different file types

• Clarity and helpfulness of generated mind maps

• Overall navigation and design

We refined: 

• Added style options for mind maps based on feedback

• Simplified UI flow to reduce friction when uploading materials