Teacher Toolkit
overview
Teacher toolkit is a service that allows teachers to easily create, save, and share custom content using an existing library of interactive math tools thereby empowering them to infuse lesson plans with digital activities. The work detailed here resulted in a prototype that was used to secure funding for the project.
Problem
K-12 educators are increasingly turning to tools and services that facilitate the creation of digital content. To meet the trending demands, the client wanted to add functionality to an existing set of interactive math tools that would enable teachers to build custom problems and store them for later use. Previously, users of the tool library could create content for one-time use, but they would not be able to reuse or retrieve their content again. As a result, the usage of the tool library was lower than desired.
My Role
In collaboration with the CEO, the head of product development, and the engineering team, I led the design process to produce an MVP design for the Teacher Toolkit by delivering wireframes, user flows, mockups, technical specifications, and a prototype that was used to secure funding for the project. The work was completed during a three-week time frame.
Research
The client had already decided on the save functionality approach when I joined the team. Accordingly, I decided to perform competitive and comparative research, looking into apps for general consumer use and for teachers to identify common patterns and flows.
Insight 1: Task flow depends on Entry point
There were two common entry points in the products I researched - the user could get to content creation by moving through a library first, or the user could access the tool directly. The entry point had noticeable impacts on the task flow.
- Saving occurs after creation when the user enters a tool directly.
- Metadata entry (for saving) occurs before creation when the user enters a library first.
Insight 2: Saving is not always a requirement
When the user accesses the creation by entering a tool first, the user does not need to save the content in order to view and edit. Contrastingly, when the user enters creation through the library, the task flow often requires them to save before they can view the content.
INSIGHT 3: Sharing & creation go hand-in-hand
Products that enable web-based content creation always offered the user the ability to share their content with others directly. Share settings were also available (e.g. share with one person directly, share to a group, share to a content repository within the product).
Implications for Design
- MVP designs would use the "tool first" entry point as the primary task flow to get the user to creation faster.
- The task flow would not require saving in order to view content so as to allow the user greater flexibility.
- Basic sharing functionality would be included to connect the user to their learning communities.
Defining the functionality & Features
In collaboration with engineering and business stakeholders, we decided to support the following functionality for the MVP design: Save, Save As, Share. We would also build a custom library and build a menu into the UI of the existing tools.
mapping the task
Once we had decided that users would enter through the tool and begin creation immediately, I mapped out task flows for the Toolkit. I thought through expected use cases, considering error prevention/forgiveness as well as edge cases along the way. This work was then used to outline the screens required for the final prototype.
Design Phase
After distilling the research and exploring the flows, I moved on to creating designs by first finding a home for the library and the menu, both of which were required elements for the MVP. I progressed towards the prototype piece-wise from there, building out UI and visual elements to align with the task flow.
Anchoring the Menu & Library
I began with paper and pencil, sketching out different ideas for where the save menu and library could live within the existing product. Despite the fact that I was constrained by having to fit these features into a defined layout, I still explored more creative options during the sketching phase because you never know which ideas may gain traction in the future.
Modals, Menus & Error messages
For the MVP prototype, I quickly assembled a set of modals, icons, menus, and error in messages that could be readily dropped into different screen layouts as the designs matured.
invision prototype
After I designed the required screens, I turned the task flow into an inVision prototype. This prototype was used in pitch meetings to help communicate the idea to others and gain support for the development of the Teacher ToolKit. As a result, the client was able to secure funding for the project.
