Design brief
NWEA’s literacy assessment tool, MAP Reading Fluency, gives educators a wealth of insights about their students’ reading development. Our goal for this project was to create a self-paced online learning experience to get teachers ready to administer the assessment, and start to interpret and use the results.
Services provided
UX design | Content strategy + copywriting | Multimedia production | Prototyping + user testing
Empathizing with the educator experience
Our biggest takeaway from our empathy work is that teachers have no time to waste. Our solution needed to fit into a teacher’s busy schedule, and help them to access just the right information at the right time.
UX design: Improve navigation and wayfinding
NWEA’s eLearning offerings before this project had some known user experience issues, which I addressed as the design lead of our new course.
Before: Three very different navigation methods (highlighted in orange), all within a single eLearning course
Challenges with existing eLearning
Users had to navigate multiple types of menus to find specific content
Branching and choice points gave little indication of the length, depth, or type of content that was to follow
Difficult to ascertain progress within the course
After: One simple navigation bar (left) allows users to access the learning they need and track their progress
Solutions
Researched and implemented a new eLearning authoring tool that provides a single, clear navigation menu that shows course progress
Wrote clear instructions for selecting and navigating course paths
Designed each piece of content to be completed in roughly 5 minutes or less, so users can pinpoint their learning targets
Content strategy: Provide information in the right place at the right time
In the empathy stage of this project, we learned that educators are likely to be assigned this eLearning course before they even log in to MAP Reading Fluency, and may not revisit it after they complete it. So we asked, how can we ensure that our users will have the information that they need, even after the course is over? That’s why we created the following framework for our content.
Using a storytelling, benefits-forward approach meant that the writing of the eLearning course content needed to be a little more personable and casual than it had been in the past. I led this charge by writing the majority of the course copy.
Multimedia production: Bring learning to life
Videos
The data output from MAP Reading Fluency is incredibly rich, but can be intimidating to new users. I quickly identified video as a medium that could introduce our learners to the data in a friendly and helpful way. I produced a series of videos where I:
Wrote scripts and delivered content using a conversational tone
Drew storyboards by hand to share and develop ideas quickly
Featured a “real” person (me!) rather than unknown narrator
Employed lightweight production methods to film all videos in a single day, using a core crew of two people (myself included)
Edited the footage and screencasts, introducing the use of shading and highlights on product images rather than arrows and visually disruptive graphics
This departure in style from previous videos efforts was so well received that I was asked to use this series as the basis for a department video style guide. We now apply it to all Professional Learning videos.
This video is featured at the very beginning of the course, showing users a quick overview of all the benefits MAP Reading Fluency data can provide.
Diagrams and Animations
Final Reading Framework graphic
Early literacy development is a fascinating topic, and one I was eager to learn more about as a designer on this project. In digging in to the research, and how it influenced the design of our product, I was able to surface opportunities to visualize key concepts for our learners. One example is the Reading Framework graphic, which shows how literacy skills develop, and how they relate to one another other. This graphic also addresses the differences between skills that are constrained—mastered and then no longer require development—versus those that are unconstrained, or ongoing.
This new graphic is used statically, as well as in animated slides and videos across a range of NWEA media.
Original graphic, and digital sketches of initial concepts
How do we measure success?
Prototype and test with users
In collaboration with the Partner Experience team, we were able to test an early prototype of the course with external teachers, and leverage those findings to improve the course design. This was a new process for the Professional Learning team, and this particular project illuminated just how important it is. As a result, we now incorporate prototyping and user testing into project schedules.
Keep the data coming
At the end of the course we included a survey that asked teachers to rate their experiences. Of over 1,000 respondents, 90% were either very satisfied or satisfied, and only 2% reported dissatisfaction, making this one of the highest rated courses that Professional Learning offers. We have used this rich pool of survey results and comments to inform design decisions on subsequent online learning experiences.
View the full course here.
(Requires NWEA Professional Learning Online login)