Competitive analysis of 10,000-word long articles - Yuantiku, Honghe iXue, and Zuoyebox

Some people say that online education is the most promising industry in the future. I wonder if people who make online education products have a good chance of making money... Oh, I've strayed off topic. Let's get back to the point: The author of this article has conducted a competitive analysis on three products: Yuantiku , Honghe iXue and Zuoyebox. The article is long and the insights are profound.

Version number: V1.0
Revised by: Yin Jianli
Revision date: 17th, 2017
Version description: No profit analysis was conducted, as profit has a significant impact on the positioning and functions of the APP and requires a separate and extensive analysis. As our company's product Sea Eagle Operation is still in the design stage, this article weakens its introduction.

Table of contents:
1. Market analysis
1.1 Market size
1.2 User habits
2. Competitive product selection
2.1 Reasons for choosing competing products
2.2 Trial version
3. Usage scenarios and user needs analysis
4. Product logic and function analysis
4.1 Product Architecture
4.2 Business Logic
4.3 Business Process
4.4 Product Structure
5. Visual Interaction Analysis
5.1 Visual Analysis
5.2 Interaction Analysis
6. Annie and ASO114 Review
6.1 Annie Rating
6.2 ASO114 analysis
7. Analysis and Summary
7.1 Product Summary
7.2 Thinking and Development Suggestions
8. Appendix
8.1 Functional content distinction and comparison
8.2 Target User Differentiation and Comparison

1. Market analysis

1.1 Market size

The in-depth development of the Internet has lowered the threshold for users to use the Internet for learning. China's Internet education has penetrated a wider range, and the user scale of the Internet education market has also increased year by year. Judging from the revenue scale of China's Internet education market in the past seven years, the revenue scale of the Internet education market has maintained a relatively good growth trend, and the revenue scale of the Internet education market has been increasing.

According to data from Analysys, a third-party big data analysis website, China's Internet education market revenue reached RMB 160.15 billion in 2016, a significant year-on-year increase of 17.2%.

With the further integration and deepening of online and offline education, the improvement of various scenario-based applications of Internet education, the opening up of educational resource channels, and the mutual connection between teaching resources and user needs, the Internet education market will continue to maintain its growth trend in the next three years. Analysys predicts that the scale of China's Internet education market will reach RMB 268 billion in 2018, and China's Internet education market will maintain this growth rate and continue to develop steadily in the next few years.

Since education has clear stages, the Internet education market can be divided into sub-markets such as preschool education, K12 education, higher education, vocational education, and corporate E-Leaning according to the age groups of target users. Our target user group mainly belongs to the category of K12 education. In the distribution of market share of various segments of China's Internet education in 2016, K12 education accounted for 14.2%, ranking third, which leaves a lot of room for imagination.

1.2 User habits

The popularization of the Internet has promoted the continuous improvement of various Internet education products and teaching methods, and various mobile smart terminal devices and application software have been launched into the market one after another. Looking at the usage of educational mobile apps, we can see that they are favored by a large number of student users due to the rigid demand for education.

According to the data from the China Education App Industry Development and User Behavior Research Report, existing education app users have a strong habit of using education apps, and 85.8% of existing users are willing to continue using education apps in the future. Among them, about half of the existing users have a very strong willingness to use them, with a willingness score of 4.3 points (out of 5 points).

Specifically for K12 education apps, according to Analysys Qianfan monitoring data, in the November 2016 education TOP10 list, Zuoyebang still topped the list with 24.732 million monthly active users. Xiaoyuan Search ranked second with 9.137 million monthly active users, and YiQiZuoye student version ranked third with 8.666 million monthly active users.

It can be seen that the K12 Internet education market is not only large in scale, but also user habits have been cultivated and formed. Users have accepted and even tend to use various mobile devices and application software for online learning. Therefore, the focus of later educational apps entering the market is no longer on cultivating user habits. Product design should focus on enhancing services and improving user experience.

The most important factor that users consider when choosing K12 education apps is the abundance of learning resources, followed by the ability to achieve learning goals. In addition, free/no need to purchase in-app services is also a factor that users value.

Users are highly satisfied with K12 education apps, with a satisfaction rate of approximately 74.9% and a satisfaction score of 3.9 points (out of a total of 5 points).

The average current spending of users on primary and secondary education apps is 90 yuan. In the future, about 83.0% of users will choose to continue using them, with a willingness score of 4.2 points (out of 5 points), and the average amount that may be spent in the future is about 135 yuan.

2. Competitive product selection

2.1 Reasons for choosing competing products

There are many K12 education products on the market. The competing products studied this time are mainly concentrated on answering questions, homework and other types of apps, including Honghe Ixue, Yiqizuoye, HomeworkBox, Xiaoyuan Search Questions, YuanTiKu, Baidu College Entrance Examination, Baidu Homework Helper, Xuebajun, Xuexibao, Afan Question, Homeworktong, Magic Cube, Ask Him Homework, Happy Learning, etc.

According to the differences in product positioning and core functions, the above apps can be divided into four categories:

Take a photo to search for questions : Xiaoyuan Search, Baidu Homework Helper, Homework Pass, and Study Bao.
Question bank answering categories : Baidu College Entrance Examination, Magic Cube, and Happy Learning.
System Q&A categories : Xuebajun, Afan Questions, Ask Him Homework.
Homework for teachers and students : HomeworkBox, TogetherHomework, Honghe Ixue, and YuantiKu.

Although the above four types of APPs have different product positioning and focus, they have many similar structures and functions. In order to obtain more comprehensive comparative information, understand the products, and better select suitable competitive products for analysis, we first conducted two types of simple functional analysis. One was based on functional content, and the selected competitors were Baidu Homework Helper, Baidu College Entrance Examination, Xuebajun, and Yuantiku; the other was based on the characteristics of the target user group, and the competitive products were the fourth type of APP, namely Homework Box, Together Homework, Honghe Ixue, and Yuantiku. The functional analysis is detailed in the Appendix of this article.

Our company’s latest product, Haiying Homework, is positioned as a homework-related teacher-student communication APP, which includes both the teacher side and the student side. The selected competitive products should be similar to it in product form and functional form. Currently, the homework APPs on the market are mainly to B, and the products with two APPs, teacher side and student side, mainly include the following: Together Homework teacher side and student side, Homework Box teacher side and student side, Honghe iXue teacher side and student side, Yuantiku teacher side and student side, Tongcheng Review (teacher side) and Code School (student side), Moka Tribe teacher side and student side, Shengxuetang teacher side and student side, Teacher Says teacher side and student side, Zhixue.com teacher side and student side, etc.

The competitors finally selected for analysis are Yuantiku, Honghe iXue, and Zuoyebox for the following reasons:

The three products' download volume, user usage time, user reviews and other data indicators are all relatively high.
Yuantiku has accumulated a large amount of user data, and launched "one-on-one question setting" based on the detailed display of student homework results. This is similar to the recommended exercise function of Haiying homework and is of reference value.
Honghe iLearning has relatively complete functions for communication between teachers and students, and adds functions such as voting and liking in the message window. This is related to the targeted reply function of Haiying homework and is worth reference.
HomeworkBox is relatively outstanding in user operation and subject classification, and is comparable.

As the company's product Seahawk Operation is still in the design stage and has not yet been internally tested, this competitive product analysis will temporarily focus on the above three competitive products, focusing on the information flow of "publishing-answering-submitting-reviewing" between students and students, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each competitive product in terms of business processes and structural functions.

2.2 Trial version

In this competitive product analysis, the target apps are all the latest Android versions released on their official websites. The experience environment is the mobile phone system Android4.4.4 KTU84P MI3W. There is no IOS system comparison (each app has an Android version and an Apple version). In theory, the experience environment is lacking, but the two are highly consistent in product experience status, and the analysis results are still convincing.

3. Usage scenarios and user needs analysis

In actual scenarios, traditional forms of homework pose great pain points between teachers and students that need to be addressed. In general, the needs of teachers and students are complementary and closely related. Students completing homework quickly can facilitate teachers' marking of test papers, and teachers' efficient understanding of students' learning situation is conducive to improving students' academic performance. Therefore, this demand relationship between teachers and students should also be highlighted in the design of relevant products.

From the perspective of user search index, taking the period from January 9 to January 15, 2017 as an example, the overall search index of Yuantiku was 2399, of which the mobile search index was 1754, the indexes of Zuoyebox were 759 and 569 respectively, and the indexes of Honghe iXue were 228 and 88 respectively. It can also be found that user demand increases significantly between major exams in June and December.

In the demand maps of the three products, their respective features and focuses are also different. For Yuantiku, there are relatively many searches for question bank, tutoring, Xiaoyuan, etc. There is also a certain demand for diversified forms of the PC version of Yuantiku, such as Yuantiku computer version and Yuantiku web version, which is of great reference significance for the subsequent iteration and update of Yuantiku products; while the demand for homework box tends to be more focused on the interaction between teachers and students, as well as between teachers and students. The product positioning of homework box can be clearly understood from the user search needs; for Hony iXue, in addition to the APP, there is still a great demand for its electronic whiteboard and all-in-one touch screen, which reflects Hony iXue's concept of diversified educational products.

The demographic attributes of the three products are not very different, all of which are mainly in the 10-20 age group and the 30-39 age group, which is consistent with the age of students and teachers. This shows that the main users of these three products are still teachers and students, and the demographic attributes are very clear.

4. Product logic and function analysis

4.1 Product Architecture

(1) Yuantiku

Yuantiku has two APPs, the teacher side and the student side. Teachers assign homework on the teacher side, and the homework will be displayed on the student side APP. After students submit their answers on the student side, teachers can view and mark the students' homework on the teacher side.

(2) Honghe i-learning

Honghe iXue has three APPs: teacher side, student side, and parent side. Parents can communicate with the school at any time and understand the students’ learning situation, forming an integrated closed loop of home, school, and students. However, our company's product Haiying Homework has not yet planned a parent-side version, so the related product design discussions on the parent-side will be weakened in the future.

(3) Homework Box

The product architecture of HomeworkBox is similar to that of YuantiKu. Teachers assign homework on the teacher side, students answer and submit homework on the student side, and teachers review and mark students' homework on the teacher side.

(4) Summary

From the perspective of product architecture, the three are extremely similar. The teacher assigns homework and publishes it, the students submit their answers, and the teacher reviews and marks the homework.
In terms of display format, Yuantiku is an APP and IPAD, Honghe iXue is an APP and PC, and Zuoyebox is an APP and web version. Overall, the three companies still focus on APP and are strengthening their mobile layout.
Honghe iXue has added a parent version, expanded its user base, and formed an integrated closed loop of home, school, and students, leaving room for subsequent product expansion.

4.2 Business Logic

(1) Yuantiku

The business logic of Yuantiku is very clear: choose the question setting method - assign homework - publish - students answer questions - homework report, with this main content line running through the entire process. Yuantiku has a wide variety of options for students to answer questions and for presenting homework reports.

(2) Honghe i-learning

The business logic of Honghe iXue is basically the same as that of YuantiKu. The main content line has not changed, but there are differences in the specific display content of individual content modules. Honghe iXue chooses different types of question-setting methods, and the corresponding homework assignments are completely different. Compared with Yuantiku, Honghe iXue has much fewer types of answering methods and homework report presentation formats.

(3) Homework Box

Compared with Yuantiku and Honghe iXue, the business logic of HomeworkBox lacks a question-setting method and uses a unified question-setting method by default. The subsequent functional modules are the same as the two.

(4) Summary

From the main content point of view , the key data is the published homework information, which is published by the teacher and displayed through the platform. Students submit their answers and teachers review and mark the test papers.
From the user perspective , both teachers and students need to register, and only after identity verification is passed can they answer homework and mark it on the platform. Whether in the early or late stages of the platform, the important role is the teacher. Basically, it is initiated by the teacher and used by the students. So in a broad sense, this type of APP should belong to a to B product. In Yuantiku and Zuoyehezi, a user can be both a teacher and a student at the same time, but in Honghe iXue, a user can only choose one identity.
From the perspective of channel terminals , Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox have PC and mobile terminals, and both can perform operations (registration, authentication, publishing, answering questions, etc.); Yuantiku only has a mobile terminal, and the PC terminal is only used for display to guide the download and installation of the APP.

4.3 Business Process

(1) Yuantiku

Yuantiku's business process is divided into the teacher side and the student side. After registration and verification, the teacher selects the question-setting method and assigns homework. The draft can be saved when publishing the homework. Students answer the questions after seeing the homework and can also save the answers when submitting the homework. The teacher's publishing process and the student's answering process are in a sequential relationship.

(2) Honghe i-learning

The business process of Honghe iXue is generally consistent with that of YuantiKu, but there is no draft save function when teachers publish assignments or students submit assignments. They are all published or submitted at one time without any warnings or reminders, and any incorrect operation cannot be withdrawn.

(3) Homework Box

The business process of HomeworkBox is very similar to that of Honghe iXue. There is no function to save drafts when posting and submitting homework, and the operation cannot be undone without reminders. In addition, the process lacks the step of selecting the question setting method, making it more simplified.

(4) Summary

From the perspective of business processes , the teacher-side homework publishing process and the student-side question answering process of the three are almost the same, and the overall business process differences are not very large.
In terms of the question-setting methods , Yuantiku and Honghe iXue provide teachers with two question-setting methods, which have certain selectivity for different user scenarios, while Zuoyebox defaults to one question-setting method, which is relatively simple.
Compared with Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox , YuantiKu provides a draft save function when teachers publish homework and students submit homework. Although it increases the business process, it reduces the impact of user erroneous operations that cannot be undone, and provides a good user experience.

4.4 Product Structure

(1) Overview of product structure

In general, the three have similar product structures, clear functional modules, and basically the same layout and structural hierarchy on the APP.

On the teacher side, Yuantiku focuses on the display of homework and homework groups. On this basis, Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox have added message entrances to strengthen communication between teachers and students. However, there are also differences between the two. Honghe iXue has added functions such as likes and voting in teaching, which is more user-oriented, while HomeworkBox is very distinctive in terms of test composition and knowledge points, and has a trend of deepening the question bank.

On the student side, Yuantiku recommends sister products such as Yuanfudao and Xiaoyuan Question Search to students through "Discovery", providing a one-stop service of "homework - question search - tutoring"; Honghe iXue launched a "class circle" similar to WeChat Moments to strengthen its social attributes; Homework Box added a "level breakthrough" entrance, which allows students to learn through entertainment by completing tasks and winning coins.

(2) Detailed product structure and function analysis

1) Detailed structure of three products

Whether it is the teacher side or the student side, the overall structural layout of the three APPs is very similar, but there are still great differences in the specific presentation of the subdivided modules. Next, we will elaborate on the homepage, question setting method, release page, answer form, homework report, special functions, messages, personal and other aspects.

All the screenshots below are from left to right of Yuantiku, Honghe iXue, and HomeworkBox. In addition, since the product forms of the teacher side and the student side of each product are relatively consistent, each subsequent module will choose either the teacher version or the student version for introduction, and special explanation will be given when there are differences.

2) Home page

The homepage structures of the three are similar, all of which are tab navigation switching pages at the bottom. Honghe iXue adds left and right navigation switching at the top. Each page has an entrance to the next level. Overall, there is no difference from the popular APP structure on the market, but there are some differences in details.

The display format is mainly entries. Yuantiku and Honghe iXue are both in the form of entries with clear entries. Details need to be clicked to enter the next level, which is in line with the viewing habits of most users; while HomeworkBox is in the form of cards with a variety of information mixed together, which does not quite conform to the homepage display format of mainstream APPs, but is more suitable for usage scenarios with fewer homework assignments.
The assignments are dynamic and outstanding. Yuantiku and HomeworkBox highlight "assign homework" in a prominent position at the bottom right of the homepage in the form of a floating button, which is conducive to teachers (especially new users) to quickly assign homework; while Honghe iXue's homework assignment entrance is on the second level. This design needs to be discussed because for homework apps, assigning homework is a rigid demand on the teacher's side and is used frequently. It is not displayed on the first level, and the user experience is poor.
Secondary function entrances should be fully utilized. In the upper right corner of the homepage, both Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox have secondary function entrances, while Yuantiku hides this important navigation and focuses on the question-solving business. This practice is relatively rare, which leads to the relative singleness of the APP functions. Other functions are not recommended enough, and the entry steps are relatively cumbersome. The app’s homepage resources are limited and space is precious. To make full use of it, the design should consider relatively diverse aspects.

3) Questioning method

In terms of the way of setting questions, HomeworkBox defaults to a unified question-setting mode. YuantiKu and Honghe iXue both provide two options, but the determination of different modes for different products should be in line with their respective product positioning.

Personalized recommendations rely on powerful big data analysis capabilities. Yuantiku has launched intelligent and personalized 1-on-1 question setting based on each student's mastery of knowledge points. This is a good reference for the recommended exercise function of Haiying Homework. However, the basis of 1-on-1 question setting is big data analysis and precise matching. Therefore, when the number of users is small in the early stage, how to recommend exercises based on data analysis results is also a big test. It can be considered to gradually launch this function.
Different question-asking methods will also lead to different focuses in product evaluation. Regarding the customized question-setting method, both Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox have the function of taking photos and uploading them, which makes it convenient for teachers to set questions independently. Therefore, the screen adaptation for taking photos and the number of uploaded pictures must be carefully considered. All questions in Yuantiqu come from the question bank, and customized questions must also be selected from the question bank. Therefore, there are very high requirements for the capacity and update frequency of the question bank.
The hierarchy of the navigation bar should be consistent with the user scenario. The newly added "Objective Questions" Tab in Honghe iXue has little significance in distinguishing the subjects, and it overlaps with the subject classification content of the previous Tab. The classification of homework box at the knowledge point and chapter levels is relatively clear, and Haiying homework can be used as a reference when building the tree structure of the knowledge graph.

4) Publish the assignment

Regardless of the question-setting mode you choose, the three products all require you to enter different pages to select questions, and then organize and publish them to the corresponding homework group. However, there are many factors to consider when publishing homework.

Assignments should have backup options. When designing the function of publishing homework, Yuantiku and HomeworkBox both provide the function of saving drafts to remind users before publishing, while Honghe iXue publishes directly. If the user accidentally clicks to publish, it cannot be undone, and the user's usage scenarios are not fully considered.
Diversified needs must be met before posting an assignment. Yuantiku and HomeworkBox have added secondary function navigation in the upper right corner of the page, which is in line with the operating habits of most users. The functions provided, such as homework export and order adjustment, also meet the diverse needs of teachers.
Bugs that occur after the product is launched seriously affect the user experience. When experiencing Hony i-learning, there are often operation delays (the page keeps showing "publishing, please wait...") or information asynchrony (after the teacher publishes the homework on the teacher's side, the students do not receive the homework notification on the student side). Publishing homework is a core operation link for users. If similar bugs occur, the user experience is very bad, which has a very bad impact on the product.

5) Question format

In terms of answering methods, the overall patterns of the three products are very similar, and there are no differences in the general direction, but there are many differences in some small details. There are innovative points, as well as areas that need improvement.

The answer format should be set to restore the actual answer scenario . Yuantiku has richer formats. It not only has screen drafts, but also time prompts and pauses for breaks. It fully considers the various needs of students in actual answering questions and is more user-friendly.
The entrance to the answer sheet should be clearly visible. It is difficult to find the entrance to view the answer sheet when answering objective questions in HomeworkBox, and there is no way to know one's progress. HomeworkBox and Honghe iXue cannot submit unanswered questions, while YuantiKu can submit the paper in advance, and the submission operation is completed on the answer sheet.
The design of students answering questions by voice is not practical. As for the way to answer subjective questions, all three provide the function of taking a photo and uploading it. On this basis, Honghe iXue has added the functions of uploading pictures and uploading voice. However, these two designs are a bit cumbersome. Uploading pictures and taking photos are redundant. Uploading voice answers seems to provide students with more choices, but from the teachers' point of view, they are reluctant to mark voice answers. What's more, the answers to subjective questions are difficult to explain clearly by voice.

6) Work report

After students answer the questions and submit their homework, both the teacher and the student can see the student's homework report display. There are differences in the specific display and extension of the three products.

The information in the work report should be as comprehensive as possible. In terms of the coverage of information displayed in homework reports, Yuantiku and HomeworkBox are richer and more comprehensive, including homework accuracy, question accuracy, difficulty, completion status, etc., analyzing students' mastery of knowledge points in multiple dimensions; while Honghe iXue only provides information on student submission and non-submission, which is not conducive to analyzing homework status.
Improve the data structure of wrong questions. Students can clarify their mastery of the entire knowledge structure by looking at the questions they have answered. Yuantiku does a good job in this regard. These personalized data are very important and can not only improve personal grades. If we take this as a starting point and open up learning social channels so that collections of wrong questions, notebooks, and test results can be circulated between students and in the time dimension of students, then it will have a greater effect on the promotion and stickiness of the APP.
Related function entries can be added to the job report page. The homework box displays the number of gold coins on the homework report, and adds an entrance to "earn gold coins by passing levels" on the page. The entry point is not abrupt and the design is well-reasoned, so the student click rate is also very high. After completing the homework, a certain amount of gold coins are given as rewards by passing levels, which increases the frequency of students' use of the APP.

7) Special features

After realizing the core functions of "assigning homework - submitting answers - marking homework", the three products have developed their own special functions in different dimensions on this basis, but there are also areas that need to be improved.

Leaderboards should be set up based on location and circle of friends. Yuantiku has added many functional entrances to the "Discover" navigation, including Xiaoyuan Daily, Ranking List, Ancient Poetry Assistant, etc., and has added guided downloads of brother products such as Xiaoyuan Search Questions and Yuanfudao. The amount of information is very rich, and let's focus on the ranking list. The ranking page based on answer big data is the highlight of Yuantiku, which ranks students according to their overall answering situation. However, there is still room for improvement, such as adding rankings based on location and classmates’ answers. Such rankings will be more intimate and cohesive. The original rankings of these unfamiliar academic classmates have limited stimulation to personal learning motivation.
Information posted in class circles should have a blocking function. The class circle of Honghe iXue is its special feature. The class circle is similar to the friend circle of WeChat. After students post something new, other students in the class circle can like and comment, which helps communication among students. However, there is no blocking function when posting information, which makes it impossible to post some personalized information. This still needs to be improved. On this basis, Honghe iXue has also launched functions such as leave and voting, which are combined with homework and simplify the offline process of this scenario. This design deserves recognition.
To win coins by passing levels, you must grasp the difficulty level. HomeworkBox combines education with entertainment in the form of passing levels to win coins, which not only strengthens students' grasp of knowledge points, but also increases students' stickiness to the APP. However, the difficulty level must be controlled well, otherwise it will backfire and cause users' disgust.

8) Message

In terms of message settings, the differences between the three are obvious. Yuantiku does not have an independent message tab navigation bar. Although Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox have message entrances, their specific forms of expression are also different.

Yuantiku is not an independent product. The messages of Yuantiku are incorporated into the notifications, and the levels are very deep. It can be found that Yuantiku intentionally weakens the communication between teachers and students on the APP, and focuses on the business of setting and answering questions. In fact, this is not difficult to understand from its product positioning. Yuantiku is not an independent product. It hopes to expose students' weaknesses through Yuantiku, guide users to Xiaoyuansouti and Yuanfudao, and then complete the one-stop service of "homework-question search-tutoring". Therefore, the possibility of communication between teachers and students on Yuantiku is almost zero. From the perspective of Yuantiku itself, this design experience is poor, but from the perspective of corporate strategy and profit model, this design has a very broad vision.
The news settings of Honghe iXue are very instructive. Firstly, its message types are clearly classified and hierarchical, including messages and address books, contacts and class groups, homework messages and system notifications, etc.; secondly, it can communicate with contacts and classmates in class groups one-on-one, providing both text and telephone methods; finally, the message Tab is located in the first navigation bar, and the overall message is displayed in the most prominent position on the homepage, which is in line with the product positioning of Honghe iXue that emphasizes communication between teachers and students.
The message settings of HomeworkBox are quite standard. There is an independent message entrance at the bottom of the APP. Different types of messages are displayed on the page, including class groups, homework, excellent homework, teachers, etc. Separating homework from excellent homework can stimulate students to actively make up for the deficiencies in knowledge points.

9) Personal settings

In terms of personal settings, since this is the place that best reflects the product positioning, the differences between the three can be clearly seen.

Personal settings highlight the two development directions of the product. The personal settings of Yuantiku focus on two aspects. On the one hand, it is the user portrait description of answering questions and the big data analysis of homework reports, the two complement each other; on the other hand, it is the bundled marketing with sister products Xiaoyuan Search Questions and Yuan Question Library, providing guidance for downloading other products. From these two aspects, we can clearly see the product positioning and development direction of Yuantiku.
The personal settings of Honghe iXue are very unreasonable. There are three main points. First, the "Logout" button occupies an important position. Users need to log in again if they make an error. Moreover, this button should not be placed here. There is really no reason to put this button here. Second, operations such as resetting passwords and changing mobile phone numbers should be combined in one "Settings". Third, an entrance related to the previous pages should be added here, such as question completion records.
The setting of inviting and being invited is a bit abrupt. The overall personal settings of HomeworkBox are relatively conventional. A guide to the "Activity" page is added at the top, which not only echoes the previous "Level", but also improves the user's stickiness to the APP; but the settings of "Invite" and "Inviter" in the middle are a bit abrupt, and you have to enter an invitation code, which costs too much for users, and the invitation scene only appears for new users. It is not appropriate to keep it in the middle.

5. Visual Interaction Analysis

5.1 Visual Analysis

All three apps use darker colors as the main color, giving people a calm and composed feeling. The pages are simple and clean and will not distract users, which meets the requirements of learning apps.

The interface of Yuantiku is mainly blue, which gives people a calm feeling and increases users' sense of trust. In addition, blue icons are used to guide users on some important function buttons.

The homepage of Honghe i-learning is mainly green, and some cartoon elements of CNOOC are added to the background picture, making the whole page more lively, which is in line with the product's positioning of focusing on communication between teachers and students, and also makes the product tone closer to primary and secondary school students.

The homework box uses a mix of purple and blue as the background color, giving people a feeling of wise thinking. In this interface, a gallery-style layout is adopted, and richer color combinations make the page appear more lively.

It is recommended that the backgrounds of these three products can be rotated in a carousel manner, with one background being changed every few hours to achieve the change of time. This approach will give users a sense of freshness and increase their positive impression.

5.2 Interaction Analysis

(1) Posting a job

When it comes to posting homework, Yuantiku is smoother to operate, while Baidu Homework Helper and Xuebaajun have more comprehensive ways of defining homework independently.

The homework published by Honghe iXue does not have any textual reminders on the photo-taking rules, and cannot effectively prevent users from making mistakes.
The pages of Honghe iXue and HomeworkBox will turn gray when publishing homework, which is different from the operation pages changed by clicking other buttons, and the consistency experience is not good.
All the homework questions assigned by teachers on Yuantiku come from its own question bank. Yuantiku cannot provide other effective solutions for teachers who want to customize the assignments, such as taking photos and uploading test papers.

(2) Students answer questions

When it comes to students answering questions, HomeworkBox has better consistency, while YuantiKu and Honghe iXue provide poor guidance and feedback to users.

The two icons of draft paper and answer sheet at the top of the questions in Yuantiku are not common icons and have no explanation, which will bring cognitive burden to users and high learning cost.
Honghe iXue did not explain the number of questions in the entire test paper around the question, which made it unclear to users about the overall test situation.
Yuantiku lacks text descriptions when uploading photos. What does it mean to upload photos? This will cause certain doubts to new users and will result in a bad experience.

The interactive design of an APP needs to consider many factors, such as the style of the APP interface, the style, color and size settings of the interface elements, etc. It is important to agree on unified design specifications with the design and front-end developers. Agreeing on design specifications can reduce the communication costs among products, design, and front-end developers; it can make the interface design neat and unified and reduce the repeated design of interface elements.

6. Annie and ASO114 Review

6.1 Annie Rating

(1) Yuantiku

On App Annie, Yuantiku Student Edition has 300 reviews and an overall score of 4.8 (out of 5). Overall, user feedback is very good.

Some real user reviews:

@余角45度: This is the first time for a college entrance examination candidate, and I feel so happy doing the test!
@Su : It’s a great app. My mom doesn’t stop me from using my phone when she sees me using Xiaoyuan [Like]
@笨蛇: To be honest, when I was in the third year of junior high school, I used this software to directly get into high school from a hopeless state. The effect needs no explanation.
@14年中大新生: All the questions are complete, including questions for junior high school, high school and college entrance examinations~ Beautiful interface, completely free! I would feel bad if I don't recommend such a good app.

(2) Honghe i-learning

There are very few user reviews for the Honghe iXue Student Edition, with only one. Although the rating is very high, at 5 points, it is not convincing because the sample size is too small. This also indirectly shows that the market share of Honghe iXue is still relatively low compared to other products.

User review @he_iPhone: This is a software app related to teaching work. It has many functions and truly realizes digital teaching. fine. You can try...

(3) Homework Box

There are a total of 78 reviews of HomeworkBox on App Annie, with an overall score of 4.3 (out of 5 points). It is generally average and the evaluation results can be used for reference.

Some real user reviews:

@高登阳: This software is very good and the children can learn a lot of knowledge.
@段文琪: That’s great!
@冷月1973 keeps up with the times and makes homework interesting!
@ HG, Hishi: Students are already under a lot of pressure, and through this software, teachers can also assign homework online. This is simply too tiring for students, after all, they also need rest.

6.2 ASO114 analysis

In order to have a clearer understanding of the market situation of the three products, we analyzed their downloads in various Android markets (including 360, Baidu, Wandoujia, App Store, Lenovo, Huawei, Meizu, OPPO, VIVO, etc.) through ASO114. The data showed that the student version of Yuantiku had 109,151,557 downloads, the student version of Honghe iXue had 47,631 downloads, and the student version of Zuoyebox had 2,355,795 downloads. Overall, Yuantiku's market share is much higher than that of Honghe iXue and Zuoyebox, with Honghe iXue having the lowest share.

An analysis of the 90-day period from October 16, 2016 to January 16, 2017 found that although the number of downloads of Yuantiku was large, the daily downloads remained basically stable; the growth rate of Honghe iXue was relatively large, with a month-on-month increase of up to 100%, especially in mid-December 2016, which may be related to its marketing activities; the average daily downloads of Zuoyebox have steadily increased, with no major fluctuations overall; the downloads of Yuantiku and Zuoyebox on Baidu fluctuated greatly, indicating that the two chose different Baidu promotion methods in different time periods.

7. Analysis and Summary

7.1 Product Summary

(1) Focusing on solving the homework needs of teachers and students is worth learning

Yuantiku has always focused on being a platform for teachers and students to do homework. There are currently 51 versions of various sizes, all of which are focused on optimizing and improving the process of posting homework and students answering questions. Other auxiliary functions are also to pave the way for better posting and answering questions.

There are 3 versions of Honghe iLearning. Although there are not many updated versions, its business needs have always been centered on the work of teachers and students. It enhances the smooth progress of the work process between teachers and students by enhancing the communication between teachers and students.

There are 26 versions of HomeworkBox. Judging from the analysis of many negative reviews, some users hope that HomeworkBox can focus on the core function of doing homework, rather than continuously adding fancy and useless functions. It should pay more attention to user feedback and attach importance to the practicality of the functions.

(2) The core functions are concise and clear, and worth learning

The product structure and business logic of Yuantiku are very clear and concise. When teachers log in, they will know that they can assign homework, and students can easily complete the answering process. This is good enough at the current stage. Next, we will continue to optimize and improve the core function page process, etc.

Although Honghe iXue is very similar to Yuantiku in product structure and business logic, it is not clear enough in comparison and is more like a community-based teacher-student homework platform. In addition to basic tasks, there are also likes, voting, leave, posting new things, etc. Although the functions are rich and diverse, users are easily confused.

The level-breaking games in HomeworkBox need to strike a good balance. Also, judging from the analysis of negative reviews, users still hope that this is a platform that focuses on homework, because there are still too many core function-related demands to be met, and it is very important to have a clear introduction to the core functions.

(3) Big data analysis and intelligent recommendation are worth learning

Yuantiku launched the "one-on-one question-setting" service based on big data analysis. It relies on big data to intelligently formulate questions for students and provide functions such as data statistics and rankings, and has a huge market demand. Big data can be widely used in areas such as user self-learning status cognition, user learning rankings, and intelligent recommendation of question banks. As an important part of the Internet-based educational tools, it should become the core technology of question bank companies. By establishing rich labels for question bank resources and user behaviors, each label can represent a phenomenon with a large number of repetitions. The more effective the combination of tags is, the more accurate the user model will be and the more realistic the big data statistics will be. And then provide users with high-quality test questions. The label data of high-quality question banks are more valuable for reference, reducing errors caused by repeated and inefficient data and forming a virtuous circle.

On the basis of making full use of big data, combined with intelligent design concepts, we can provide users with more valuable functions. Intelligence makes users accustomed to and dependent on products, helping products expand market space. For example, intelligent statistics of learning status and ranking, intelligent recommendation of learning messages and materials, intelligent human-computer interaction, intelligent reminders, etc.

(4) The development of social feedback products is worth learning

Honghe iXue strengthens its social attributes by improving its messaging function, and social attributes have now become an important part of Internet tools. It is difficult for users to remain interested in a tool for a long time without human interaction. Social interaction makes users dependent on tools. Therefore, it is worth referring to apply it to educational apps.

The social interaction in educational applications is based on mutual learning and mutual progress. The media of social interaction are personal learning files, learning notes, learning rankings and learning materials.

Therefore, social interaction is not just a simple communication between teachers and students of Honghe iXue. It can go a step further by enriching users' personal learning homepages and establishing interactive channels, allowing other users to reach other users' homepages through rankings, geographic locations, friend relationships, learning tags, learning notes, etc., thereby achieving deeper social interaction.

7.2 Thinking and Development Suggestions

(1) Target users and product positioning should be clear

Different target users lead to great differences in product focus and subsequent development direction. For apps that take photos to search for questions and apps that answer questions with a question bank, their user groups are students, and it is students who actively come into contact with the product, so the focus of the product is on the full variety of question banks; and for apps that do homework for teachers and students, their users are teachers and students, but it is teachers who drive students, so the focus of the product should be on solving the pain points of teachers in the process of setting questions and marking them. The differences in product target users and positioning lead to differences in subsequent operational strategies and development directions.

(2) Improvement and expansion of core functions

After determining the target users and product positioning, we should focus on developing the core functions of the product. On the basis of the core function of teacher-student homework, there are many other expansion functions that can be considered:

Not sure about "Function Keys". When students are doing questions, an "uncertainty" function key is launched on the student side. This key allows students to jump to the next question, avoiding students from answering questions by guessing the options. This can accurately identify the knowledge points where users have problems.
Memory curve review function. Add a review function based on the user's memory curve to improve user control, support test question downloads, offline test taking, and collect user data after connecting to the network. The APP can generate user behavior records.
Learning plan function. Add a user planning function, users set goals, and the APP generates a systematic and comprehensive online and offline learning plan and solution based on the user's level.
Extension of operational strategy

Products and operations complement each other. After the functional design of the product is gradually improved, the product needs to be assisted in its development from the perspective of operational strategy.

Improve the question evaluation system. Open up as many evaluation systems as possible, allow questions to be input into the question bank, obtain multi-faceted data, and then sort them. For example, it provides question push, question-solving PK, etc.
Expand the source channels of question banks. Try to provide various value-added services to attract students to expand the question bank. For example, when students are doing their homework, they can take photos of questions they think are important and upload them. The question bank will edit them into a Word version, give the answers, and reward the students with certain points.

8. Appendix

According to the differences in product positioning and core functions, the above apps can be divided into four categories:

Take a photo to search for questions : Xiaoyuan Search, Baidu Homework Helper, Homework Pass, and Study Bao.
Question bank answering categories : Baidu College Entrance Examination, Magic Cube, and Happy Learning.
System Q&A categories : Xuebajun, Afan Questions, Ask Him Homework.
Homework for teachers and students : HomeworkBox, TogetherHomework, Honghe Ixue, and YuantiKu.

In order to obtain more comprehensive comparative information, two types of competitive product analysis were conducted. One was based on functional content, and the selected competitors were Baidu Homework Helper, Baidu College Entrance Examination, Xuebajun, and Yuantiku. The other was distinguished by the characteristics of the target user group, and the competitors were the fourth type of APP, namely HomeworkBox, TogetherHomework, Honghe Ixue, and Yuantiku.

8.1 Functional content distinction and comparison

The main competitors include Baidu Homework Helper, Baidu College Entrance Examination, Xuebajun, and Yuantiku, which are analyzed from the perspective of basic functions, content analysis, and extended functions.

(1) Functional analysis - basic functions

summary:

The core function of Baidu Homework Helper and Xueba Jun is to search for questions by taking photos. For questions that no results are found, both apps provide two solutions: seeking help from Xueba and teachers. Both apps have a high degree of recognition for printed text, but the recognition effect for handwriting is generally low.
Baidu College Entrance Examination and Yuantiku focus on question bank practice. They set up middle school entrance examination and college entrance examination practice according to the examination syllabus, and set questions based on the examination syllabus list to facilitate students to practice systematically.
The knowledge diagnosis function of Baidu College Entrance Examination and Baidu Homework Helper can discover weak knowledge points by doing questions, but the ability analysis results must be based on a large number of questions, otherwise they will not be of reference value.

(2) Functional Analysis – Content Analysis

summary:

The four apps generally provide comprehensive coverage of K12 education. Baidu College Entrance Examination and Yuantiku cover all subjects, Baidu Homework Helper covers all grades, Yuantiku’s statistical information on question analysis is comprehensive, and Xuebajun’s question search format (search, translate, and answer questions) and answer methods (teachers answer questions, ask others) are very comprehensive.
The four apps have obvious personalized features in content operations. Baidu Homework Helper launched a feature that provides detailed video explanations of test points, which greatly improved the user experience; Baidu College Entrance Examination feedback provides statistics on incorrect knowledge points, making it easier for users to know their weak knowledge points and increasing user participation; Xueba Jun has a teacher analysis function that provides manual guidance and good interactivity; Yuantiku's practice reports provide users with targeted recommendations on special courses, so its market entry point is not abrupt and also solves user needs.
There is still room for improvement for the four apps. Xueba Jun is automatically set according to the school location, saving the user the trouble of setting up, but it is also not convenient for users to control; Baidu Homework Help cannot ask the teacher if you get the questions wrong, but you can ask the teacher by taking a photo to search for the questions, and the functional consistency is not good; Xueba Jun adopts a level-breaking mode to improve the user's sense of accomplishment in the form of entertainment, but too many levels cause psychological pressure on students, and they must practice through the levels one by one, which is not conducive to adjusting the progress according to personal circumstances; Baidu has a rich college entrance examination question bank, but lacks surrounding social interaction such as question answering.

(3) Functional analysis - expanding functions

summary:

Baidu Homework Helper has focused on building a classmate circle community to increase user activity and stickiness through social networking.
Yuantiku has connected with teachers to launch automatic test paper generation. Students join homework groups to complete their homework, connecting teachers and students in an effort to create an ecological closed loop of teaching and training.
Xueba Jun has become a tool assistant for students' learning, with many assistant functions.
Baidu College Entrance Examination strengthens user stickiness by rewarding users with wealth points for completing tasks, and thereby explores a more mature profit model.

8.2 Target User Differentiation and Comparison

There are two types of APPs under this type, namely the teacher side (Honghe Ixue also has a parent side) and the student side. Competitive product analysis focuses on the question bank on the teacher side, the messages on the student side, and the overall process information flow of "setting questions - answering questions - marking".

(1) Functional analysis: source and form of question bank

The question banks of HomeworkBox and YuantiKu have rich sources and categories. They also provide question export functions and support question sharing. There are multiple forms for teachers to refer to and choose from, which improves the user experience.
The overall functional coverage of YiQiZuoye is not wide enough, but this is also related to its target user group, which is elementary school and junior high school students, which is relatively young.
Yuantiku uses intelligent algorithms to analyze and mine student data, accurately assess the ability of each student, and intelligently set questions one-on-one based on the ability to meet students' personalized learning needs, which is worth learning from.

(2) Functional analysis: job reports and messages

YiQiZuoye is relatively flexible in its class management settings, fully considering actual business scenarios such as class transitions and teacher changes.
Honghe Ixue has expanded the messaging in depth, launching functions such as likes, leave, and voting, strengthening the social function of the APP and facilitating communication between teachers and students.
The homework report presentation format of HomeworkBox and YuantiKu covers relatively comprehensive information and can provide teachers with multi-dimensional student homework completion status, making it more convenient for teachers to review and evaluate.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by @尹剑利 (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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