EVAN RUSHTON'S
LDT EXPERIENCE
USER-CENTERED DESIGN
The d.school at Stanford and the LDT faculty introduced us to user-centered design. Below are examples to highlight the process.
StickyUnit Design learning that lasts
We started our Master's project with an idea. We wanted to create something that introduced teachers to important content knowledge around the new CCSS-M. Through multiple iterations of the design process highlighted below, and three months of dedicated effort we eventually decided on a unit-design tool that helps teachers to internalize and use the backward planning process explicated by Understanding by design.
Through 15 initial interviews (9 math education experts and 6 math teachers ) and 3 learner studies with current math teachers we refined the learning problem and our solution.
We unpacked our initial insights from interviews to come up with a point of view statement to clearly define our target users and their needs: "2nd year algebra teachers in low resourced schools NEED to overcome the daily grind and be inspired to plan lessons with resources and experiences that exist. They know their personal need, but just don't know how to make it happen."
We brainstormed ideas to get a variety of potential solutions for our target needs. We came up with, 1) Resource Aggregator 2) StackOverflow for Math Teachers 3) Hook app for lesson openers 4) Lesson/Unit planning tool
Initial designs to put in front of users and get feedback on. This was a minimum viable product that took a week to code and run locally for user testing.
During our user testing of our final solution we received valuable feedback from teachers, design experts, and content experts on the design of our product. Particularly with regard to the design, wording, sequencing, and videos.
OUR UNIQUE APPROACH
The final project is no longer hosted, but the github repo is available.
Our approach offers the following benefits:
1) Time-Saving Videos: Rather than teachers having to read an entire chapter of a book in order to understand one component of backward unit design, s/he can watch a 1-2 minute video.
2) Learning by Doing: With work space directly next to the video, teachers are prompted to “do” right after they “learn”. No time is wasted trying to sift through a book in search of the part you need in order to create a specific part of a unit.
3) Bite-sized Modules: Bite-sized instructional videos allow teachers to tackle each stage of the process in manageable pieces. Teachers rarely have time to complete an entire unit in one sitting, but with bite-sized modules they can do one piece in a 5 - 10 minute break.
4) Creativity in Planning: Typically units are created in drab tables in Word documents or in Excel. This isn’t terribly inspiring. If teachers take a more hands-on approach, however, perhaps using stickies on their whiteboard, the effort to transfer information into some kind of permanent form for use the following year or to share with other teachers becomes an extra time commitment. StickyUnit stores all of the content virtually so it can be shared easily in its creative form with other teachers, or put into a standard unit template to hand to administrators.
5) Modern Web-Design Insights: StickyUnit utilizes a single scrolling page with convenient pop-up modals that provide for minimal redirects. There is no continual waiting for pages to load and flipping back and forth between multiple web pages. Additionally, all content that a teacher creates is stored automatically without needing a save button.
Thanks to Kerri Glennon and Michael Balint for the great teamwork.
Design Thinking for Schools Team Marshall
This popup class offered by the d.school put us in small teams that visited a school to conduct empathy work and needfinding. We then brainstormed ideas and prototypes our solutions to school leaders at a design workshop hosted at the d.school.
We held small group meetings with administrative and student school leaders to uncover needs at the school.
We unpacked our initial insights from interviews and came up with two point of view statements: 1)"Thurgood Marshall needs to rebrand the negative school image by specializing and becoming great at something." 2) "Immigrant students at Thurgood Marshall need their voices to be heard and to find acceptance among the general student population."
We brainstormed ideas to get a variety of potential solutions for our target needs. We came up with, 1) Coding specialization school pathway 2) Cultural awareness fair 3) Technology internship infrastructure 4) Immigrant student leadership participation
Initial designs for two ideas were drafted and paper-prototyped for a demo day.
The principal tested our prototypes, gave us feedback, and took our ideas back to her school site.
Thanks to Joanna Huang, Ross Lipstein, Carolina Lescano, Celine Oon, and Heejae Lim for this work.
Technology for Learners
This Fall quarter class introduced us to rapid prototyping anda user-centered approach. There were two design projects that we did in small teams.
Healthy Baby
Our interviewees expressed concern around the health of their babies.
Taking insights from our parent interviews we defined our user and their specific need.
We created a mockup for the wireframe prototype we eventually designed. Testing and iteration were beyond the scope of this project.
Our interviewees expressed concern around the health of their babies.
Veedback
Thanks to Michlle Lin and Kiana Sharifi.
The app mockup is a dead link.
There is a design doc and interview summary
Thanks to Meredith Downing, Anna Edwardson, and Stephanie Nicholson.