This project represents user experience work completed in the early stages of vision and product development for a suite of products, now called ClassFlow, that is making its debut this week at the Bett educational technology trade show in London. Later design process for implementation of the mobile app for teachers and the tablet app for students are also shown in this portfolio.
Situation
Promethean, Inc. provides interactive education technology solutions. The company offers education software, interactive whiteboards, learner response systems, interactive tools, and classroom audio tools. Traditionally a hardware company with supplementary software offerings, Promethean wanted to take a look at all of the places where their software helps teachers and students, and create a visionary new offering that would take advantage of the multiscreen and touch device revolution happening in schools. They also wanted to provide teachers with a more seamless and cohesive way to get, store, organize, deliver and content; while collecting student performance data informally and enabling more enlightened, individualized pedagogy.
Task
Provide confidential UxD insight to a small task force of lead architects, product managers, and executive business stakeholders over a 15-month period to craft the vision and strategy for Promethean's software offerings over the next five years. Once vision is established, help determine and communicate minimum viable product. Draw upon school visits, personal teaching experience and degree, and knowledge of current software.
The team decided to tackle fragmentation in teachers' processes, a theme we saw recurring throughout the lesson cycle:
Action
Create storyboards, conceptual wireframes, internal marketing materials. Help with creation and application of personae, task flows, and cross-channel experience maps. Participate in multiple
week-long group strategy sessions in company's Atlanta and UK offices. Rise early for many an early morning Webex conference call.
week-long group strategy sessions in company's Atlanta and UK offices. Rise early for many an early morning Webex conference call.
Early conceptual wireframes for teacher planning module. (See PDF here.) Allows teacher users to find, collect, share, and organize assets to be used in lessons, as well as efficiently align them to performance standards. Based on teachers' mental model and best practice pedagogy commonly referred to as Backward Planning.
Cross-channel experience mapping to take users' movement through the life cycle of a lesson and across various products in the suite. Early conceptual wireframes to help business analysts and product managers to clarify and refine our ideas.
Common Craft-inspired video, created in a pinch over a weekend, to show board members the direction of the vision for a future suite of products. It explains the relationships between each element of the envisioned product suite from the perspective of a teacher user. A teacher who has been using the product sings its praises to a struggling colleague. Shown alongside numerous Powerpoint decks describing commercialization, pedagogical value, feasibility etc; this was meant to help everyone see the forest for the trees. (Note: Aerete was a provisional code name for the project while it was still company confidential.
Video stills. Kate created the imagery, helped write & record the script, and directed the sync of audio & visuals.
Higher fidelity storyboard designed collaboratively with marketing team using Pixton.com to show how a student persona might use the product.
Visuals created for a stakeholder meeting to elucidate the benefits of a possible commercialization model for different sets of features by user type.
Result
The board approved the team's product strategy, and development of the software suite began in earnest June 2013. First round of minimum viable product, a suite called ClassFlow, will include:
* An online planning module for teachers
* An online planning module for teachers
* A lightweight desktop presentation app used to project lessons to the interactive whiteboards
* A hybrid tablet app for students to interact with whiteboard content and answer questions
* A hybrid mobile app for students that controls the interactive whiteboard, sends questions to students, and displays basic formative assessment results.
* A hybrid mobile app for students that controls the interactive whiteboard, sends questions to students, and displays basic formative assessment results.
All of these products are currently being executed by development. Beta release of suite anticipated for January 2014. View Kate's work on the ClassFlow Learner app here and the ClassFlow Teacher Controller here.
