Rene Diaz UX Product DesignerRene Diaz UX Product DesignerRene Diaz UX Product DesignerRene Diaz UX Product Designer
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Teach Share

    Home Teach Share

    ​

    Teach​ & Share

    Teacher

    Share

    Teachers Mentoring Teachers

    Teach & Share on Mac
    • More Then Just Connecting Mentors
       We're C​onnecting Lasting Relationships

    Client:

    ​Startup Weekend EDU San Jose


    The Brief:

    1. Design a product at a weekend startup hackathon.
    2. ​A networking platform that provides recourses by teachers for teachers.
    3. Match teachers to mentor one another in person or remotely.

    Must include features:​

    1. User Profile
    2. Question Post
    3. Find A Mentor
    4. Recommended Resources
    5. Search Global Resource Data Base
    Teach Share Team

    My Role

    UX/UI Designer and Researcher

    Lead Designer

    Lead Designer

    Calendar

    3 ​day sprint

    team

    4 Person Team


    • Duration

      3 ​days

    • ​My Team

    • ​4 person team
    • 2 Developers
    • 2 Designers                    


    • My Roles ​

    • ​UX Design​ & ​Research​

    • ​My Responsibilities

    • Surveys ​​24 Respondents
    • ​1​2 Interviews
    • Personas
    • Storyboard​
    • ​IA, Site Map
    • Wireframes, Mockups, 
    • UI designs, Prototype
    • Usability Tests
    • Affinity Mapping


    • Tools

    • Sketch & XD
    • ​Google Forms
      ​Marker, Paper, pen, Whiteboard

    • Methods

    • Survey
    • Usability Tests
    • Affinity Mapping
    • Design Studio
    • LoFi Wireframing
    • HiFi Wireframing

    Problem​

    Teachers lack time for collaboration and need a more efficient way to build inclusive professional learning communities.

    Teachers will get a mentor during their first year to help them through their new journey. But 1 year isn't enough because teaching is a life long journey with new challenges that come up every day.

    They also want a place safe from administration

    Solution​

    ​​Design an easy to use site that enables teachers no matter how long they've been working as a teacher to create meaningful and useful connections between multiple mentors, build communities, share valuable resources on all topics with various content materials. 

    This will empower teachers confidence with teaching, the ability to organize their curriculum and better help student dealing with challenges and over come personal struggles. Users will be able to easily create valuable content that will help them to learn new skills, follow current and relevant topics, organize academic research, and help them complete tasks.

    Discovering the Problem

    ​We conducted user interviews, card sorting, competitor analysis, and market research to identify the needs and uncover common problems.

    • Lack of Time - Teachers are busy teaching, hosting after school programs grading papers and supervising students during breaks, they don’t have the time to collaborate with other teachers.


    • “Some days, I don’t even see the teacher next door.”
    • ​
    • Lack of Collaboration- There’s not enough time during the day for teachers to collaborate and share ideas. Teachers that specialize in speech therapy or special education especially feel left in the dust since they have a different curriculum and standards from general classroom teachers.

    • Need a Support System- Entry-level teachers need a seasoned teacher that will share tips about lesson planning or share their frustrations.

    • “The first year of teaching, I didn’t know what to do. I needed a mentor, but our school didn’t offer any.”

    User Needs

    • 1 Easy to use and navigate design. "No Bells & Whistles."
    • 2 Connect with Mentors with similar interest and complement your learning and teaching needs.
    • 3 Simple Categorizing
    • 4 All user (teachers) wanted a Desktop and Laptop App and wanted to stay clear of mobile apps.  

    ​Strategy and Solution

    We focused on a solution to provide a safe online community that connects educators to share their best practices.

    Feature and Ideas:

    • Share lesson plans by topic and grade
    • Share video (10mins. max), pictures and links to trending topics
    • Rate and comment on videos, lesson plans and shared links
    • Q&A Forum
    • Mentor matchmaking
    • Follow teachers or categories
    • Search topics easily

    Main Persona

    Teacher Main Persona

    User Testing

    We tested or prototype with teachers and discovered:

    • We need a way to encourage teachers to contribute to the platform and consistently share new materials to keep the platform active.
    • Teachers want to save and organize their favorite lesson plans in their personal account.
    • Non-tech savvy teachers need a simple UI or a format that they’re familiar with such as Facebook or Teachers Pay Teachers.

    Wire frames

    Since the primary needs for the users was to get help from one another and finding matching mentors, we thought about how we can use interactions among teachers to fined resources and match mentors with mentees. ​Each page offers it's own unique features requested by the users while also connecting the AI to improve finding matches and providing easy access to resources for each teachers unique needs. Below are the wire frames for the 5 main pages of the site.

    ​The Question Post page​ is ​where teachers can support each other by posting question that other teachers with experience can answer, provide resource such as links and upload material such as lesson plans, presentations, tests​, quizzes, study material and media. Each question has it's own section for answers so that it is easier for the teacher to find content. Also the answers can be ranked and the ranking helps with the AI determine suitable mentors.

    Mentor Matching shows potential mentors based on question ranking on the Question Post page and comparability from the  uses Profile Pages

    Find mentors Wireframe

    ​Recommended Resources . By connecting to their calendar teachers can receive useful material provided days in advance so that they can have sufficient time to integrate it into their lesson plan.

    Resources Wireframe

    Profile Pages give details bout the teachers personal interest and teaching experiences. This data is also used to help with determining suitable matches for mentors and mentees.

    Profile Wireframe No Badges

    ​​The Resource Data Base provides teachers with even more resources and they can add their own to the database. Resources can be ranked, recommended to peers​. Teachers can also ​linked material directly to their Recommended Resources page.

    Search Page Wireframe


    Hi-Fi Prototypes

    We decided to create an all-in-one platform that:

      • Helps educators find mentors
      • Conn​ects educators worldwide
      • Deepens relationships through interest ​groups, guest speakers, book clubs, pedagogy parties, etc.  
      • Promote educator relationships in interactive spaces - chat, video conferencing, forum, etc.
      • Gamify by adding badges to motivate teachers to contribute

    Below are the 5 main feature pages:

    • User Profile, Question Post, Find A Mentor, Recommended Resources, Search Global Resource Data Base


    I focused on creating a minimal feel so to not overwhelm the users and make their experience delightful.

    Usability Test 2nd Iteration

    Massages And Calendar

    ​Users requested a calendar to set schedules, link course materials to due dates, and get reminders.

    Besides email users needed a way t​o communicate with one another​.

    T​o keep ​notifications and other features organized and ​quickly accessible in one location, I added a notification center at the bottom of the ​left ​panel which was open real estate.  ​

    Now users could assess their calendar​, ​ messages, and customizable notifications in ​one location by clicking on one of the icons in the footer. ​


    ​


    Iterations:

    - User badges were implemented into the user and teacher profiles. The visual and back-end algorithm improves matching teachers with mentors
    - Connecting teachers and sharing is the main user needs. I included share buttons on all profiles so teachers can recommend and connect peers

    User Profile

    Teachers can view your profile ​and ​request you as a ​mentor or protégé.

    Find A Mentor

    Users data automatically produces Mentor Matching from matching criteria.

    User Profile
    Find mentors 1

    Iterations:

    - To make searching and retrieving resources I categorized them. Now users can easily go through and pick Videos, Lesson plans, eBooks, etc.

    - Similarly I categorized the Recommended Resources by Posts, File types, Photos and Pictures.

    Recommended Resources

    Matching your needs are automatically provided through our Recommended Resources and can be set to your daily curriculum or as personal learning tools.

    ​Resource Data Base

    Find and share vast resources on course materials to improve your skills and your student's education and engagement in an organized and easy to navigate user interface.

    Recomened Resources
    Search Page

    Iterations:

    - Previously the Your Profile, Messages and Q&A seen here were together. They felt the Profile icon was enough because it would not be used often. 

    - Users were confused with both the Messages tab and Replies in the Q&As, So I dedicated User Messaging in the left panel as described above.

    Question Post

    Post questions and answers from fellow teachers. You can then rank on how useful the replies are. ​The ranking gives get points toward badges and improves ​matching teachers with mentors.

    Complete Package

    Teacher Share is an advanced social network created just for teachers needs. Teachers can connect, share, create long lasting relationships and support each other from an easy to use platform.

    ​​"​Teach & Share is ​the best solution to expand​ my personal learning network for sharing resources, support one another and matched ​me with ​​a life long friend and mentor ​for ​my growing needs​"
    - Jessica S

    Conclusion

    ​Being an instructor myself I could not help but be empathetic with the teachers I work side by side with to complete this project. Through  interviews and user testing I was able to clearly understand the pains and problem teachers were having​. The solutions came from the users themselves!

    ​My major role was ​to integrate the sites pages and design so that is was easy to understand and navigate 

    A learning experience was ​on how to deal with the ongoing conflict that was going on with one of the team members. He was not actively listening to the users needs. ​He was constantly set on his ​own goals that were not in line with the data based on the users needs or pains. I had to keep reminding the team that the project is not for our needs but for the needs of the users, ​In this case teachers. 

    Something I learned right from the beginning as a product designer is "I am not the user" Meaning that not mater how much I want or like an idea or feature, ​Now matter how right I may think I am, It's not about my needs or what I like ​​or want. It's about the users needs and their experience.

    As a Product Designer I bring to the table a holistic approach to creating products that offer people a better Life Experience.
    Drawing Sketches
    Like what you see right?
    Drop me a line to grab a drink, to joining forces on a project, or just say hi.

      • Case Studies
        • ULTIMATE EAR TRAINER
        • Delta In-Flight App
        • Teach & Share
        • Positive Grid Bias Pedals
      • More
      • About Me
        • Bio
        • More Designs & Music
      • Contact
      | All Rights Reserved Copyright 2020 René Díaz Product / UX Designer
      • Case Studies
        • ULTIMATE EAR TRAINER
        • Delta In-Flight App
        • Teach & Share
        • Positive Grid Bias Pedals
      • More
      • About Me
        • Bio
        • More Designs & Music
      • Contact
      Rene Diaz UX Product Designer
      Questions you’ve asked Wireframe
      Resources Wireframe
      Profile Wireframe
      Profile Wireframe
      Profile Page Prototype
      Find mentors Page Prototype
      Questions you’ve asked Prototype
      Search Page Page Prototype
      Resources Page Prototype
      Teach Share Desktop