Overview | Design Systems | Teacher Marketplace | S&D Portal | Classroom Environment
Case Study: Redesigning the Classroom Experience
Background & Challenge
The classroom environment at Elevate K-12, serves teachers, classroom coaches, and students. Upon joining Elevate, the classroom interface was cluttered and outdated. It required an unnecessary cognitive load for simple task completion and did not engender confidence in our platform. The interface was overrun with unnecessary data, confusing visuals, and a lack of clarity on accessing critical tasks. Redundant and irrelevant information, like error codes and excessive color coding, created a poor user experience and made the platform feel overwhelming.
Over the course of several projects, we were able to streamline the user experience, integrate our design system, and add additional functionality to increase usability, utility, and accessibility.
Understanding the Users
To tackle these challenges, we embarked on a comprehensive research initiative to deeply understand the unique needs and preferences of our user groups. Our efforts included traveling across the country to conduct ethnographic research in live classrooms, observing teachers as they taught remotely from their homes, interviewing classroom coaches to uncover pain points, conducting multiple usability testing sessions, and analyzing usage data to gain insights into how our customers interacted with the existing interface.
Through this research, we uncovered several critical issues:
Teachers struggled with basic functionality, such as identifying which student was using the whiteboard during lessons.
Student content lacked accessibility features, making it difficult for all learners to engage effectively.
Classroom coaches faced significant inefficiencies, needing to navigate cumbersome processes for tasks as fundamental as entering student grades.
These findings illuminated the urgent need for redesigning the platform to address these pain points and deliver a more intuitive, accessible, and user-friendly experience.
While there was pressure to make the interface more playful and fun, our research revealed that students at these grade levels valued a more sophisticated, streamlined experience. The company’s desire to make the interface “cute” was a turn-off to students accustomed to more professional, feature-rich platforms.
Design Solution: Focusing on core tasks
We streamlined the interface to focus primarily on the core tasks that each user needed to accomplish—logging into the classroom, accessing class materials, and completing any assigned tasks. By removing irrelevant data and redundant visual elements, we ensured that the interface was functional and intuitive.
The design removed excessive red text, color coding, and unnecessary codes, which had previously distracted users from their tasks. We created a clean, distraction-free login screen that prominently featured the most crucial action: logging into the classroom.
For each user group, we tailored the interface to suit their needs:
Students: The login page was simple and direct, with engaging, rotating motivational quotes designed to inspire students. Quotes emphasized self-esteem and encouraged persistence in their studies. We also incorporated graphics aligning with student interests, making the experience more personalized and inviting.
Teachers: The teacher interface included a countdown timer to show how much time was left before the class started, helping them prepare efficiently. This feature was vital for teachers as they often had tight schedules and needed to ensure they were ready when students logged in.
Classroom Coaches: For classroom coaches, we focused on simplifying navigation and ensuring they could easily access reports and task lists, reducing cognitive load and enhancing their ability to support teachers and students.
Design Solution: Delight & Engagement
While the interface needed to be functional, we also aimed to introduce an element of delight without compromising usability. We added motivational quotes that rotated each time the user logged in. These quotes were tailored to the audience. For students, the focus was on self-empowerment and encouragement. For teachers, the focus was on appreciation and recognition of their hard work.
This small yet impactful feature created a sense of community and support, ensuring users felt motivated each time they interacted with the platform.
Usability Testing & Iteration
Once the new designs were ready, we conducted extensive usability testing with the core user groups to ensure the interface was intuitive and met their needs. We performed tests with teachers, students, and classroom coaches, collecting qualitative and quantitative feedback to iterate on the designs.
We rolled out the interface in phases, starting with a small group of users and gradually expanding to more school districts. During this phased rollout, we observed users in the classroom environment and followed up with surveys and interviews to identify any issues or areas for improvement. This hands-on, iterative approach allowed us to make minor tweaks and adjustments based on real-world usage.
Overcoming Stakeholder Challenges
One of the main challenges we faced was managing a wide range of stakeholder opinions. Different stakeholders, including product managers, marketing, and school administrators, had varying ideas on what the interface should prioritize. To address this, we helped onboard stakeholders to a user-centered design process. We emphasized that their input was important, but ultimately, the design needed to solve real customer problems and align with business goals.
By guiding them through the design process and showing how user research informed our decisions, we aligned all stakeholders and created a unified vision for the platform.
Results & Impact
The redesigned classroom interface was a significant success. The primary goal—making the login process more accessible and motivating—was achieved. Teachers, students, and coaches reported a much smoother, faster login experience with fewer distractions. The motivational quotes and intuitive design encouraged users to engage with the platform regularly, increasing logins and participation.
Key outcomes
Increased Logins: The simplified login page and motivational elements led to a noticeable increase in students logging in on time, with fewer reported technical issues.
Positive Feedback: Users across all groups provided overwhelmingly positive feedback, particularly about the reduced complexity and the added motivational aspects.
Improved User Engagement: Students felt more encouraged and excited to log in, leading to higher participation rates in classroom activities.
Enhanced Stakeholder Alignment: We successfully aligned stakeholders around the user-centered design approach, leading to smoother collaboration in future projects.
Conclusion
This project was a pivotal moment in transforming the classroom experience at Elevate K-12. We created a functional and engaging interface by focusing on the most critical tasks, removing unnecessary complexity, and introducing small elements of delight. The success of this redesign not only improved the user experience but also demonstrated the power of user-centered design in a highly collaborative environment. The result was a more sophisticated, accessible, and enjoyable platform for teachers, students, and classroom coaches.