A platform for teachers
Problem
They were interested in the product but could't use it
“Et hav af følelser” – an educational programe/story, developed by Aarhus Musikskole. Educators love the concept. But. Even if the goal of the project is to enable anyone to use it, there was no tools, enabling independant use. Therefore, my task was to create a way to share programe materials in a structured and efficient way.
research
Teachers value adaptable and structured materials, that save time
With a focus on qualtative data I conducted interviews with primary school teachers and reviewed secondary data, relating to teacher’s digital habits, motivations and experiences, adapting new teaching resources. The insights suggested that materials that do not have “low floor, high ceiling” approach or lack structure and cohesiveness, stay unused. Another interesting insight showed that teachers prioritize reviews and recommendations from collegues. And lastly, preparation for classes need to be efficien because time waits for no one.
For who?
Educators around the world Denmark?
Target group
The general audience, for which the solution is designed, includes all types of educators for children aged 5-10 years.
Selected Segment
I decided to focus on Danish primary school educators (1-3 grades). According to research data, the average age is 45+ years and they have low/medium digital confidence.
value proposition
Implement "Et hav af følelser" in your classroom with ease
The solution solved the pain points of teachers and met Aarhus Musikskole vision for this teaching programe. It reflected what was said, felt, seen and done by the participants of the research. However, the goal was not to give the users a “faster horse” but consider the needs with thinking outside-the-box.
Step-by-step
Adaptable
Inclusive
Structured
Community
Teacher's Buddy
A platform with all you need for "Et hav af følelser"
I have decided to call the solution “Teacher’s Buddy”. It radiated friendliness, supportiveness and simplicity. This platform was intended to be an extension of already existing homepage of the teaching concept “Et hav af følelser”. The user journey would start on the homepage, where educators can get familiar with the teaching concept. After they already understand what it is and have furter interest to learn about implementation of it, they can proceed to “Teacher’s Buddy”.
Teacher’s Buddy can be accessed as a guest, however, creating an account will allow to access more personalized features. The registered user gets the benefits of being able to take and save notes, resoures and immediately access materials where they left last time.
Additionally, all users can benefit from step-by-step onboarding, helping AI chatbot, features for different teacher’s needs (downloadable and printable materials, in-class presentation mode), and suggested adaptations for special needs students.
During research teachers emphasized the importance of peer validation and collaboration. As Facebook was mentiones as the most common platform, “Teacher’s Buddy” offers to join a Facebook group for discussions and sharings, using a familiar tool. Besides that, users can leave comments and reviews.
Testing
Design for them
While some informal and undocumented testing was conducted with lower fidelity prototypes, only after completing an interactive Figma prototype I organized user testing with the targeted segment. It was an unstructured testing where participants had freedom of exploring the platform and they were encouraged to speak their thoughts out-loud. I observed how they navigated the platform, attempts to click and facial expressions.
The results showed that the prototype lacked accessability for older generation. They had to squint their eyes to read smaller text and did not understand some of the icons used (for example “save” icon).
In the further iterations I adressed these issues.