Instructure
State-wide Testing Platform
Research / UX / DesignInstructure’s Learning Management Software (LMS) was built initially to serve on a per-school basis and was showing its age. As the company grew, the need to accommodate state-wide testing mandates became critical and several other quality of life improvements had become necessary enhancements.
State-Wide Assessment Solution Discovery
The initial design for the class-centric dashboard was done without user testing or research. As such, the solution was limited in its functional value and not able to accommodate the needs presented by state-wide testing.
To shore up these gaps in knowledge and ensure the solution I arrived at was suitable for large scale data sets required extensive research. I spoke with district and school administrators over Zoom and in-person when possible to identify requirements, pain points, and potential edge cases.
Research Methods
Card sortingUsability studiesKey Findings
The assessment process was riddled with friction and pain points. Teachers estimated it added hours to their workload.
Concept testingField studiesBulk actions were critical and, previous to this initiative, were not possible within Instructure’s experience.
User interviewsFocus groupsReporting granularity was an important part of teacher and administrator benchmarking.
The school-centric administrative assessment dashboard was noted by users for its difficulty in locating relevant information. Being able to single out assessment types, their scheduling or completion status were all cited as adding on extra hours to our users' workload every week.
The new assessment dashboard improved ease of use by creating consistent scanning patterns, sorting functionality, and scalability.
Assessment Builder
Academic professionals’ ability to create and deploy assessments was a central part of Gauge’s offering. User validation was conducted as I iterated on the ideas until arriving at the MVP.
Screenreader, tab order, ARIA declarations were all factored into the design of the builder tool. No critical functions were gated behind hover actions. Despite the complexity of the tool, I was able to ensure accessibility for sighted and unsighted users alike.
Additional features
Class-level performance metrics of a single assessment.
The moderation tool allows teachers and administrators to view previous and ongoing assessment progress by classes and districts.
Additional Delivered Projects
Reporting Suite
Designed reporting suite that allowed users to track the progress of state-mandated assessments from individual classes to county-wide performance. Included dashboards and individual reports.
Item Banking
In order to make testing efficient and consistent, Instructure offered item banking where a teacher could create testing elements which were then stored for use in other tests, classes, or schools.