Teacher Portal Evaluative Research & Design (Phase 2)
Building off the findings from the Teacher Portal Generative Research (Phase 1) study, this study included secondary research that resulted in the teacher interface design, as well as the usability of the interface to ensure it was classroom-friendly, intuitive, and a supportive resource for teachers.
Project Overview
The Problem
Puberry is an Edtech startup with the goal of making learning about puberty enjoyable and fun for kids and teens through a gamified website.
After conducting interviews with teachers during my previous project adapting the mobile gamified website to desktop, I discovered the need for a Teacher Portal so teachers can easily integrate the Puberry website as a supplemental health education tool in their classes.
The Solution
Create a Puberry Teacher Portal based on teacher needs and current pain points with edtech dashboards they’re currently using.
Ensure the teacher portal is minimalist and is intuitive and efficient enough to use to accommodate for the fast-paced and busy schedules of teachers.
Project Duration
12 weeks
My Role
UX Researcher and UX Designer
Team
UX Designer
Software Engineer
Puberry CEO
Tools
Figma, Asana, Canva, Maze, Looppanel
My Process
Impact
As Puberry is an early-stage EdTech startup, the pace is fast and decisions are made quickly. At the beginning of this project, it was projected that Puberry would initially launch in schools, especially since product piloting was primarily being conducted in schools. Further legal research resulted in Puberry changing the scope of the initial launch to parents instead of schools. For this reason, there is yet to be any data on long-term impacts this research has had on Puberry as a whole.
An impact that this research did have was spearheading the importance of an interface for secondary users, especially since the ideal primary users are 9-12-year-olds. This research on the usability of the design of the teacher interface resulted in key stakeholders looking more broadly at the necessary buy-in of the adults in the primary users’ lives, as well as their own needs and how Puberry can meet them.
Discovery Research
I conducted a literature review on research results from previous projects and gained a better understanding of user needs by creating a user survey, which informed the comparative analysis of popular Edtech teacher portals.
Competitive Analysis
What do we already know about Puberry’s competitors and how can our solution make this tool stand out?
Puberry is offering a product that sets it apart by being gamified, education-focused and inclusive compared to other puberty education websites and applications.
Competitive Analysis Chart
By including a teacher portal, the Puberry website will continue to be set apart from other puberty websites and apps by making it more school and classroom-friendly.
User Survey
Goal: identify the primary features teachers value in their edtech teacher portals, why they use them, and pain points around their most used edtech tool and teaching health to help understand what the Puberry Portal should include to meet teachers’ needs.
9 teachers with little to a lot of experience teaching health topics completed the survey.
Key Takeaways: The portal needs to…
Prioritize the ability to quickly and efficiently assign assignments.
Prioritize the ability to effectively view student progress and reports.
Include features that offer support for teachers around teaching health and puberty topics.
Comparative Analysis
As a result of the user survey, teachers highlighted the following Edtech tools as their most used:
Goal: We know what features teachers need in a teacher portal, but how can these features be designed in a way that best fits their needs? A comparative analysis of these features on popular teacher portal interfaces was conducted, as well as how they accomplish good design heuristics to meet teachers’ needs.
The following are some main takeaways that influenced the Puberry Portal design:
Assigning Assignments
Key Takeaways:
Teachers tend to have very busy schedules and need tools that allow them to quickly and efficiently complete necessary tasks and view relevant comprehensive reports.
Assigning Assignments: a “quick assign” button should always be accessible and visible when navigating the interface to accommodate for teachers’ needs to complete this necessary task at a moment’s notice.
Viewing Student Progress and Reports
Key Takeaways
Viewing Student Progress and Reports: it is necessary to show a quick and digestible overview of important data to show student progress. Using colors, images and percentages are eye-catching and can communicate this information in a more effective way.
Teacher Support/Resources
Key Takeaway
Teacher Support/Resources: this feature needs to be included in the global navigation and have a clear and static position as the user navigates through the website. The resources should include supplementary classroom planning materials.
Defining the Users
After synthesizing results from the discovery research, a primary and secondary user persona were created to represent the target users of the teacher portal with the goal of ensuring their needs remain central throughout the design of the interface.
Primary User Group: Ms. Luna - The Health Teacher
About
Ms. Luna is a health teacher in a private 6-12 school in a suburban neighborhood in New York. She teaches a semester-long health class for 7th graders, and mainly uses videos, websites and health books to supplement her health lessons.
Needs & Goals
Wants students to get the health education they need in more comfortable and less stigmatized spaces.
Wants students to be comfortable asking questions about health and puberty without embarrassment.
Needs EdTech tools that allow for an easy way to assign assignments and review progress reports of student learning.
Frustrations
Students not having more health education outside of the 1 semester of health class.
Not having an engaging Edtech health resource with dependable content for the grade she teaches.
Students receive little to no health products from the school.
Problem Statement
Ms. Luna needs a reliable puberty and health Edtech tool that allows her to easily assign assignments and view student progress while also creating a safe space for students to ask questions.
Secondary User Group: Ms. Cosmo - The Unofficial Health Teacher
About
These teachers are in schools that don’t have designated health teachers, and health topics are expected to be covered by the fitness teacher and school counselor.
Needs & Goals
Need educational materials and tools (preferably online) to help teach health topics.
Need Edtech tools that allow for an easy way to assign assignments and review progress reports of student learning.
Need an easy and efficient way to learn health topics that she will teach, as well as how best to teach these topics.
Frustrations
Don’t feel 100% confident teaching health topics.
Their school offers little support around health teaching.
Finding a way to incorporate consistent puberty and health education in a fitness curriculum.
Problem Statement
These teachers need an Edtech teacher dashboard that offers them support when teaching and supporting students with learning puberty and health topics.
Usability Testing
Based off of results from the discovery phase, I defined 4 user tasks in line with teacher needs. I then conducted moderated and unmoderated usability tests on the lo-fidelity prototype and presented these findings to the product team and stakeholders to influence design decisions in the final hi-fidelity prototype.
Usability Testing Overview
Usability Test Goals
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
Avg. SUS Score: >80.3
Tools
Moderated
Unmoderated
Due to a strict project timeline and conflicts with teachers’ busy and unpredictable schedules, only 2 usability tests were moderated.
I introduced Maze as a cheap unmoderated option to my team and stakeholders. The remaining usability tests were unmoderated and conducted using Maze.
Roadblocks
Participants
Teachers with minimal to a lot of experience teaching health topics.
Hi-Fidelity
Lo-Fidelity
8 Participants total
5 Participants
Task #1: Assign Lesson 4 to your 1st and 7th Period classes.
Connection to Research Findings: Most teachers highlighted the need for an easy assign feature
Lo-Fidelity Prototype
Usability Test Goals
Lo-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~1.18 mins
~1.3
5/8
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
I made sure the “Select Class” dropdown menu, along with the other interactive fields, were responsive by creating variants. This ensured that participants were receiving an expected response from their interactions, which wouldn’t disrupt their flow.
Usability Test Goals
Hi-Fi Usability Test Results
~40 sec
0
5/5
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
Task #2: Locate which students completed the most recent assignment late in your Period 3 class.
Connection to Research Findings: Most teachers highlighted needing quick ways to view student progress
Lo-Fidelity Prototype
Usability Test Goals
Lo-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~27 sec
~0.6
8/8
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Users now have 2 entry points for accessing most recent class and student progress, which increases efficiency.
Usability Test Goals
Hi-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~20 sec
0
5/5
Task #3: Locate the questions most students from Period 3 struggled with on the most recent assignment.
Connection to Research Findings: Most teachers highlighted needing quick ways to view student progress
Lo-Fidelity Prototype
“The color of that button really popped, and I remembered it when you said to find the trouble questions.”
Usability Test Goals
Lo-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~23 sec
~0.3
8/8
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Since participants shared Task 2 influenced their decisions during this task, this task was placed before Task 2 during the Hi-Fidelity usability tests to ensure ease of navigation without having viewed the “See Trouble Questions” button in a prior task.
Usability Test Goals
Hi-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~28 sec
~0.3
5/5
Task #4: Locate suggested Discussion Questions for educators to use when teaching about oestrogen and testosterone.
Connection to Research Findings: 0% of teachers feel 100% confident teaching health topics
Original Lo-Fidelity Task
“You need more support surrounding teaching oestrogen and testosterone. You know these topics relate to lesson 3; look for visual aids offered to teachers on the topic of “oestrogen and testosterone.”
Lo-Fidelity Prototype
Usability Test Goals
Lo-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~34 sec
~2.3
8/8
“Look for suggested Discussion Questions for educators to use when teaching about oestrogen and testosterone.”
Hi-Fidelity Task
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
In the middle of this project, my team received more information from the CEO and stakeholders about what kind of materials will be included under “Teacher Training”. Since no training materials were going to be included, the title was changed to “Teacher Resources” and the wording of the task was changed to better accommodate for what kinds of materials teachers would find here.
Usability Test Goals
Lo-Fi Usability Test Results
Avg. Time: <1 min
Avg. Errors: 1 minimum
Task Completion: 100%
~32 sec
~.3
5/5
Conclusion, Learnings & Next Steps
Final Hi-Fidelity Prototype Deliverable
Average System Usability Scale (SUS) Scores
Lo-Fi Prototype
90 = Excellent
Hi-Fi Prototype
98.3 = Excellent
After each usability test, participants took a System Usability Score survey that measured their general satisfaction with the usability of the website. Comparing the average percentage of satisfaction between the low fidelity usability scores to the high fidelity scores, the there was an increase of 8.3 percent, meaning the design iterations applied on the high fidelity prototype based on usability findings were successful.
Conclusion
Primary User Persona: Ms. Luna - The Health Teacher
Health teachers like Ms. Luna now have a straight-forward and accessible tool to accomplish their most important needs of assigning assignments and easily viewing student progress and trouble questions through the Puberry Teacher Portal.
“Easier than many dashboards. There’s no need for extensive training and is fairly intuitive and visually clear.”
“I like that there's not a lot of chap, just like extra bells and whistles and things put in. The faster that I can do one or two clicks to get to what I need, the better.”
Unofficial health teachers like Ms. Cosmo now have a tool that supports them with implementing health topics by providing supplementary resources and materials.
Secondary User Persona: Ms. Cosmo - The Unofficial Health Teacher
“I think this is really good and would be great for middle and high and probably third through fifth grade, actually.”
“I like the ease of using the product with basic/no background knowledge.”
What I Learned
Always be open to learning new tools and methodologies to accommodate for limited timelines and resources.
Always ask clarifying questions to stakeholders and teammates.
Pilot usability tests with colleagues not involved in the project to ensure the order of the tasks and the wording are clear and in line with research goals.
Next Steps
Continue usability testing on additional features, such as checking anonymous questions and adding and deleting students from a class.
Use data and results collected from feedback and performance once Puberry is launched in schools in the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.
