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Brief
Enhance the user experience of tutors interacting with the company portal of Maths Words Not Squiggles (MWNS).
Details
2 week duration.
Partner: Alex Fabri, UX Designer
Role
Research: Interviews
Synthesis: Affinity mapping, empathy mapping, personas, journey map, task/screen-flows
Ideation: Sketching, feature prioritisation
Prototyping & testing: Interactive prototype (Figma), usability testing, iteration
Personalisation is key
Understanding the business
As an ex-teacher, the owner and founder's desire to create meaningful academic progress for each student is visible in every aspect of the business.
Small class sizes
(max 3)
Flexible content delivery based on students' needs
One regular tutor for each class
This business model enables tutors to establish meaningful, supportive relationships with students, have the time to deeply understand learning needs and provide personalised tutoring based on these needs.
Central to the business's operations is the company portal, used by tutors, administrators and parents for coordination and communication.
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The only problem is....the portal is taking time away from tutors.
"The current dashboard isn’t helpful."
"There’s a lot of pages to navigate to get to the info you need."
"The portal is very messy."
Cluttered, cumbersome and complex.
Understanding the user experience
With our project focusing on the tutor instance of the portal, 7 tutors were interviewed regarding their usage behaviours, preferences and experiences.
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Synthesis of the data was carried out...
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...which revealed...
...3 main areas of activity...
Lesson preparation
Attendance management
Student evaluation
...by 2 primary personas...
click to enlarge
...with some shared pain points...
It takes many steps to complete any action in the portal which slows down preparation, attendance checks and evaluation.
The user interface is poorly laid out and has unclear controls.
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Information not specific enough to give tutors 'at-a-glance' picture of student progress / situation.
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Duplication of effort giving feedback via portal and also face-to-face.
...and some unique ones based on the differences in their journeys.
Must rush to prepare for students rescheduled into her classes as only checks portal 30 minutes before class at the learning centre so finds out about them at that moment.
Must complete evaluations in personal time as inefficient portal and lack of experience result in not being able to complete them during class.
Getting into the flow
Understanding the portal
Given the portal's usability was identified as cause or contributor to many of the users' pain points, the portal's structure was examined and task/screen-flows mapped out for each key area of activity to identify any inefficiencies within the information architecture, navigation and user interface.
Current portal structure
Usability challenges
Content required to prepare for each class is dispersed throughout the portal.
Student profile is a commonly accessed page but is many levels down in the hierarchy, with no shortcut to get there.
Some pages do not add value, e.g. Curriculum summary and Lesson evaluation.
Lesson preparation
click to enlarge
Usability challenges
Dashboard always immediately skipped, serves no purpose.
No visual indicator of rescheduled students when viewing the day's classes.
User must navigate to separate sections of portal and input search filters to access 'student profile' and 'previous evaluations' for students in their classes that day.
Information not oriented around classes.
Layout sometimes wider than screen and no indicators for users that they need to scroll right / left.
Attendance management
click to enlarge
Usability challenges
'Mark attendance' unnecessarily linked with 'evaluation' flow. User forced to navigate down this flow rather than returning to student list to mark off next student's attendance.
User must navigate through multiple screens to get back to student list to commence marking-off next student each time. Needs direct navigation back to student list.
Student evaluation
click to enlarge
Usability challenges
Search functionality only allows for one topic / objective at a time and forces user to scroll through irrelevant year levels. More flexible search functionality needed to speed up this task.
No direct link back to 'select student' area. User unable to quickly swap between students / work on evaluations during class.
Curriculum item status can only be either 'not started' or 'complete'. Tutor unable to know if student is working on an item but not yet mastered it.
No function to mark off homework.
Finding solutions for the most pressing problems
Understanding the priority
It is the goal of both users and the business to carry out tasks in the portal as efficiently as possible so that users can be better prepared for classes, spend more time with students and less time working at home.
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With portal inefficiency being the core issue, a range of solutions were generated around streamlining usability and prioritised into phases.
NOW
User interface: update layout to be simpler and more logical, with more obvious controls
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Orient portal structure, functionality and information around daily classes, displayed primarily on a single dashboard
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Streamline navigation / screen-flows
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Update functionality to enhance information capture & search
NEXT
Message notification when students are rescheduled into user's classes.
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Enable parents to opt out of receiving written evaluations if they do not want them from tutors.
LATER
Add 'verbal feedback meeting' booking option which parents can use to have a discussion with tutors on student progress in lieu of written evaluations.
Sketches were then used to explore and discuss different approaches...
...and an interactive prototype created incorporating the best performing ideas.
(see key screens below)
Dashboard
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
1) Class schedule displayed
on dashboard.
2) Incomplete evaluations list added to remind users.
3) Alert for rescheduled students.
4) Students list easily visible for any class that day.
5) Direct link to student profile
6) 'Mark attendance', 'start evaluation' functions and 'previous evaluations' information accessible in same area and displayed based on selected class and student.
Evaluation - update curriculum
(1)
(2)
(3)
1) Easily selectable / clearable search filters.
2) Flexible combinations of multiple subjects, years, topics and statuses for more powerful search.
3) 'Working towards' status options added for more exact representation of student progress.
4) Updated curriculum items auto-populate fields.
5) Previous evaluations on-hand for reference.
Evaluation - comments
(4)
(4)
(6)
(5)
6) 'Tutor notes' field added, only visible to them.
The prototype was tested with users and some key themes emerged:
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"Dashboard's a bit overwhelming, just need to see the one lesson without distraction of multiple days.
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"Some of the visuals need to be more obvious, like who you've selected and when you've completed an evaluation so you don't do the same process twice."
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"Love 'Outstanding Evaluations' list!"
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"Only to see last 1-2 evaluations when prep'ing for a class."
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"The 'working on' status is useful in the curriculum area cause next time I'll know I need to focus on that topic with the student."
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"I don't need to see previous evaluations when I'm making a new one."
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"The new student profile info is great but would be good to display student's other tutor name if they have one as well."
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Users wanted to be able to flag that homework has been assigned for next class, not just being able to mark if it is complete (as this relies on tutors to remember).
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Extending on a theme
Iteration
Feedback indicated that rationalising the structure was beneficial...
New portal structure
...and the look, feel and interaction with the portal was heading in the right direction, but there was more that could be done.
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To achieve this the next iteration drew on a minimalist approach to screen composition, styling and interaction, designed to decrease the visual weight of the UI, prioritise display of information relevant to user's current selection and keep their attention on one task at a time.
The result
Latest iteration
easily switch between related screens when completing evaluations
only current day's classes visible, access other days via calendar
update student evaluations as class progresses using quick access from dashboard
clearer selection & task status
lightweight visuals
Looking forward
Learn, build, measure
Test latest iteration with users to further refine design.
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Prototype remaining 'Next' features (from Now, Next, Later), test with users and iterate / implement.
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Explore viability and feasibility of providing parents with option to book a verbal feedback session with tutors through a Business Model Canvas and Service Design review.
Thanks for taking a look at my work.
If you like what you see drop me a line!
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