Chalk: designing a tool for English language teachers
Background
The challenge, for my final project at Ironhack Berlin, was to design an app or website that solves a problem. I chose to focus on the English teacher community because the industry is growing dramatically and teachers need tools to keep up. I noticed many teachers are hired with little experience or education and the resources and training that schools provide varies widely. This results in teachers being unprepared for class — a less-than-ideal situation for both the teacher and students.
The Design Process
I used many UX methods throughout the two weeks of the project, but I’ll outline the most essential to the final product here.
Empathize
I started my research by sending out a survey to teachers. I asked about their backgrounds and how they find and share resources, plan lessons and connect with other teachers. I also did qualitative interviews with six teachers who had different levels of qualification and experience. Here are some of my key insights from the interviews and survey:
- Teachers with less education, such as online TEFL certification, feel less prepared for class and have more trouble planning lessons
- 75% of teachers search for resources on teaching websites and 46% on Facebook groups
- 85% of teachers have some frustrations when looking for material online. Some of the most common reasons they’re frustrated are because it’s difficult to find materials for specific ages or levels, they can’t find adaptable materials, or the websites are poorly designed
- Teachers are often disappointed with the resources provided by schools and look for outside material to supplement their classes
I also conducted a competitor analysis on the websites teachers said they used the most when searching for resources. I found many of the websites lacked a filtering function, which made it difficult to find resources for certain levels, ages or other criteria. They also lacked a way to build lesson plans or to customize content.
Define
To analyze all of my research results, I created an affinity diagram. I grouped my findings and then looked at where the trends in problems and design opportunities were. Based on these findings, I created a user persona.
Carly is an English teacher from the UK. She has an online teaching certificate and recently started a job teaching kids in Thailand. She loves teaching and loves her students, but often can’t keep them occupied with the few resources provided by her school. She also struggles to find quality resources online that she can tailor to her students’ needs and interests.
This led me to the main problem I wanted to solve:
How might we help teachers efficiently find resources and plan lessons so they can be prepared for class?
Ideate
With the help of my classmates, I ideated on solutions to the problem. We used the crazy-eight method, each drawing up eight potential solutions in eight minutes.
I came up with a list of potential features and used the Moscow method to sort the features into four categories: must have, should have, could have and won’t have.
Once I had my prioritized list of features, I created a site map and user flow for the platform to start visualizing the layout and features. I decided it would have three main purposes: to find resources, to share resources and to plan lessons.
Prototype & Test
Once I had my site map and user flow, I sketched some low-fidelity prototypes. Testing them influenced me to change my categorization of features. I also changed the language of some features to make them clearer.
While creating my mid-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes, I continued testing and changed them based on feedback. I changed the layout of the header several times, as well as some of the language on buttons. I also created several versions of the calendar and main “find resources” page in the high-fidelity and tested them to choose which one was best.
I also started defining the visuals for the high-fidelity in this stage. I created a logo and decided on the colours and fonts I would use.
The Solution
My solution to helping teachers find resources and plan lessons is Chalk. Chalk has three main sections: Find Resources, Favourites and Calendar.
The Find Resources page features a feed of resources sorted into activities and full lesson plans. The user can search the resources and filter them by age, level, duration, materials available and the number of students.
The content is user-generated, so there’s a button to create a new activity or lesson plan. There is a template to fill out when creating something, so all activities and all lesson plans have a similar structure and include all of the necessary information. To promote sharing, the default is that resources will be public, but they can also be made private.
The user can also add any activity or lesson plan to their Favourites if they want to save it. Once an item is added to Favourites, the user can edit it to customize it for their students.
The user has a calendar to organize and plan classes. Classes can be added to the calendar and filled with a full lesson plan or a mix of activities and written descriptions.
Most teachers said during my research that they would find resources and plan lessons on their computers, so I prioritized the desktop website. Many of them also admitted they didn’t always lesson plan ahead of time though, and may plan on the way to school or outside the classroom before class. For those moments, I also designed a mobile app. The app has all the same functionalities, with slightly different navigation and filtering.
Final thoughts
This was the first project I was able to work through the whole design process from research to an animated, iterated prototype. I loved being able to work on every step of it and having a bit more time to practice my skills. I’ll continue testing and iterating on this project, particularly looking at lesson plans and into a way for teachers to connect with each other.
