What it is
Teachers work really hard. It’s time we gave them a tool to connect and share their work load. With Common Core Finder (CCF) teachers are able to share curriculums that connect to the state standard. CCF needed help with user experience, user interface and branding. With my background in education I was excited to help out. This is a personal project I worked on with a team of mentors overseeing my process.
The Problem
Cloud storage applications are vast and overwhelming. There needs to be a platform just for educators that are working towards the same goal in teaching the state standard. The platform needs to hold these key features: find, share, create, and collaborate.
The Solution
Common Core Finder is the solution for educators to save time and connect with one another. The cloud storage market is vast, and CCF gives those who work in education a place to call their own.
Role
UX Research
UX/UI Design
Branding & Identity
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Tools
Sketch
Invision
Photoshop
Draw.io
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Deliverables
User Surveys
User Stories & Flows
Competitive Analysis
Wireframes
User Testing
Style Guide
Visual Design
Discovery and Research
Survey
To create an application for teachers, I needed to get to know the educators. I surveyed teachers and asked them about their cloud storage preferences. This way I was able to market the product to their needs as they are the target audience. Full survey questions and results.
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What are your cloud storage preferences?
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How do you find lesson plans and resources for the classroom?
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What frustrates you about lesson planning?
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What is the more accessible way to save and find lessons?
The Results...
There is a need for a cloud based storage application with reliable and organized resources that can be easily shared with others.
What the teachers said:
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It is most important to share a single item and to upload a file or document from a computer/mobile device.
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The most frustrating aspects of lesson planning are organizing, finding reliable curriculum resources, and hitting dead end links.
Get their curriculum resources from a
trusted source.
8%
Are frustrated by endless unorganized results in searches.
66%
Prefer link sharing over social aspects of cloud storage applications.
83%
User Flows


The Competition

Strengths ​
Visual imagery is easy to scroll through.
Weakness
Anyone can add to the site leading to dead end links, adds, and scams.​

Google Classroom
Strengths ​
Sharing online between students and teachers minimizes paper.
Weakness
No live updates.

Teachers Pay Teachers
Strengths ​
Opportunity for educators to sell
lesson plans.
Weakness
Copy cat lessons
are not regulated.
What these companies are not doing is connecting to common core standards within states.
There is a need from teachers to find reliable resources that connect to their curriculum in order to save time and share ideas.
Information Architecture
Wireframes


Adjustments made...
After my wireframes were complete I tested their usability on three educators. It was important to test teachers because I wanted to make sure it was the most functional and user friendly for our target audience. From the testing I learned that most functions worked as intended however almost everyone had a few frustrations or confusions.
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Landing page: needed to have a sign up field, so new users were more enticed and had less steps or clicks to join.
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Navigation: side bar needed to be visible on all pages.
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Size: needed to be decreased and designed at 100%, so viewers could see all elements of the page.
Hi-Fidelity Mockup

User Testing
After testing the first hi-fi mock up I received feedback that the interface looked bland and the buttons not clearly clickable. I made adjustments within the UI to reflect these changes. All of the user flows were easy for the testers except for organizing content. Most people wanted to drag content, but eventually clicked the add to folder icon.

Updates
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Added gradient color to top of display.
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Increased width of file display platform.
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Drop shadow included to create a layer for the files to visually fall into.
Visual Design and Branding
Branding was an ongoing task until the final touches of the high fidelity mock up were complete. I wanted to include an apple core to represent the common core standards of the state.
Apples also have an association with teachers and education in general. I added the magnifying glass to enclose the core and also incorporate the resource aspect of the platform. The final style guide can be found here.

Conclusion
The project was successful in many aspects. The L-shaped design was easy for users to interpret and understand. The side navigation bar was understood and easy accessible for people to move from page to page. All the testers understood that this was an application geared towards teachers and grasped the concept of the site.
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When I first started the project I was concerned about making a site with so many functions and still maintain a simple and user friendly experience. In efforts to do this I first created a site that was rather bland and overly simple. What surprised me the most was that my early testers did not understand what the icons represented. To rectify this I included the icons on the landing page with the function descriptions of the website.
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Organization for the user was an ongoing struggle. Most wanted to drag files into folders or into the nav-side bar. Some could not fathom how they would organize and gave up. If I had more time and resources I would have created a test for the users to drag files as this is the most intuitive way to organize. If that was not possible I would have spent more time creating a clickable organizational system. I would have also liked to play around with other visual layouts to incorporate more of a visual shopping experience for educators to choose curriculum rather than relying on file and folder name.
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During this project I learned how to fine tune my mock-ups and use testing not only for usability, but for feedback on design and preference testing. I also learned the importance of testing many demographics and ages. I’ll use this information in the future by testing early and testing often.