Teachers had no view of individual students and their performance on state standards. I led 3 workshops with a cohort of 6 teachers and implemented their feedback to design a personalized report for students.

At BrainPOP, we conducted prior research which revealed that teachers needed a clearer window into how their students were really performing—not just aggregated usage stats, but insights at the individual student level.

Problem

With the existing reports focusing on class-level metrics, there was a gap when it came to understanding 1) student progress on assignments and 2) performance on state standards. This project was prioritized because of a stepping stone toward a district-wide overview that could really empower teachers.

The Challenge

Create a report that helps teachers track every student's progress and performance over time.

The high-level goals were to:

1. Address usability issues from past reports

2. Increase usage of reports

Approach

Research Methodology

We conducted a series of 3 workshops to collaborate with a cohort of 6 active teachers in the design process. We sought to answer the following research questions:

How does data enter a teacher’s worklife (literally, conceptually, etc.)?

What data do teachers prioritize? (And what does this tell us about their highest-priority tasks?)

Workshop 1: Prioritization of Metrics

During the first workshop, teachers shared and prioritized the metrics they use most. I facilitated a prioritization exercise, and together with our UX researcher, we analyzed the feedback.

We uncovered the following learnings:

• Benchmarking students against their own prior performance helps identify growth opportunities

• Effort metrics like time on task or number of retakes actually help paint the qualitative picture of a students’ learning journey.

• Building this report would be a step towards a district-wide overview of student progress against state standards.

Workshop 2: Design Review

I returned with mockups and ran a design review with the teachers to get their feedback on the design direction and areas of improvement.

Teachers want a student progress report that is:

• Clear and focused: Highlighting essential skills and standards with a logical information hierarchy.

• Actionable: Providing insights and clear next steps to support student learning.

• Concise: Presenting information efficiently and avoiding unnecessary text.

I incorporated their feedback in the next iteration and finalized the design.

Output

The end result was a personalized report for each student that provided an overview for progress on recent assignments and performance on key literary skill standards.

The report features:

A clear summary of recent assignment progress

An accessible, sortable, and searchable assignment list

Detailed insights into how a student is performing against state standards

View Interactive Prototype

Outcome

The launch of the new student performance data report had a tangible impact:

• Teacher adoption rate increased by 33% shortly after launch

• Teachers were able to quickly identify both strengths and areas needing attention, thanks to the clear, consolidated view of student performance

• The streamlined design and improved data presentation received overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers, confirming that we had hit the mark

The final workshop was a retrospective with the teachers to gather final thoughts and appreciate their insights:

There were 3 main themes that emerged from the last workshop:

• Strong Validation of User-Centered Approach: Teachers consistently praised the iterative process and the value of seeing their feedback directly translated into product development. They felt heard and appreciated, leading to increased trust and buy-in.

• Desire for Actionable Data and Student-Centric Insights: Teachers are eager to use data to inform their instruction and improve student learning. They expressed a strong need for tools that provide clear, actionable insights into student progress and performance, rather than just raw data.

• Emphasis on Collaboration and Community: Teachers valued the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with their peers. They expressed interest in features that facilitate data sharing and communication between teachers, while also respecting student privacy.

Key Takeaways

What I Learned

• Teacher Feedback is Invaluable: Direct input from teachers was essential to build a report that truly met their needs.

• Data Needs to Be Actionable: Presenting raw data isn’t enough; the insights must drive actionable teaching decisions.

• Iterative Design Works: Continuous feedback and rapid iterations helped fine-tune the report and ensure usability.

What I’d Do Differently

I would focus on improving the pathways to the report by integrating more contextual cues and in-app guidance. Also I'd explore with adding more insights on each student, like which standards they need support with and provide relevant resources, so a teacher wouldn't have to do as much analysis on their own.

Final Thoughts

This project was a product designer's dream – learning about the routines and needs, teachers shaping the requirements, and getting design feedback directly from the people who would use it. Thanks to the preparation of our UX researcher, the co-design workshops became the gold standard at BrainPOP for incorporating user feedback and was referenced often.