LN

axis3 Timelines

Case Study

Project Overview

axis3, a platform to support Special Education teachers, was in need of a feature to help them manage their Due Process paperwork efficiently and without error.

Timelines is a feature to help Special Educators demystify Due Process so they can get back to what they do best -- teaching.

"Wait, what's Due Process?"

Due Process is the legally-mandated collection of tasks, paperwork, meetings, and reports that every Special Education teacher must adhere to for each of their students.

Role & Scope

As the Digital Experience Designer for Creatively Focused, I had the responsibility to conduct user research, lead ideation, develop prototypes, and conduct user testing.

Research and Definition

Research Plan

Teacher burnout is a problem throughout all of education, but especially so for those in Special Education. When I first began at Creatively Focused, I wanted to know: "Why Special Educators? What's unique about their story?"

To figure this out, I developed a research plan that involved interviewing 25 educators from various sectors of Special Education.

The educators held various roles, including:

After hours of interviews, it was clear that Due Process and all the paperwork associated with it was weighing down on Special Educators. This time sink had to be addressed -- enter, Timelines.

Hundreds of insights from the interviews allowed me to move forward with the data I needed to create an effective tool.
User Personas were crafted from the research to help drive my design decisions.

Problem Statement

How can Timelines help Special Education Teachers save time, cut down on Due Process errors, and allow them to spend more time with students?

Use Cases

As I began to whiteboard and discuss the development of the Timeline feature, I began to ask myself -- how can this feature serve all of the axis3 users -- not just those managing all of the paperwork?

Through my research, I identified three major user bases and three specific stories that I needed to ensure the Timeline feature adequatly addressed.

Prioritized journeys

  1. Special Education teachers need to be able to easily track their paperwork and monitor key upcoming dates for each student.
  2. Special Education coordinators and administrators need to be able to see all the Due Process projects at-a-glance to be aware of any compliance (overdue) risks.
  3. The parents and other non-department staff need to be able to understand what milestones their child or student are reaching.
User journeys from the personas helped me identify where Timelines will fit into the lives of the users.

Prototyping

When I sat down to design Timlines, I knew that axis3 was already a mature platform -- it had a foundation on which I would need to design around. This included where the feature could populate, how much space it could take, and considerations to be taken regarding the tech stack of the platform.

With these caveats in mind, I began to prototype to ensure I could reach my goal of successfully meeting the requirements of each of the stories.

Journey #1: Special Education Teacher

The Special Education teacher's priority is ensuring that all Due Process tasks are completed on time. The timeline management module ensures that this priority is met.

It was important to limit errors and provide context to the tasks so that educators could let Timelines handle the process.
Journey #2: Special Education Administrators and Coordinators

Although administrators and coordinators will need to edit timelines from time-to-time, it was most important for them to be able to view all active Due Process projects at-a-glance so that they can ensure that all due dates are met.

Filters and colors were chosen to mirror platforms and terminology that administrators and coordinators were already familiar with in their role.
Journey #3: General Education Teachers and Parents/Guardians

Lastly, it was important that the Due Process Timeline was able to viewed in more digestible formats. These views can be leveraged during meetings or when discussing a particular student.

The planning view helps educators discuss a particular due process timeline in a group setting.
The timeline view helps communicate the process chronologically for parents and general education teachers.

User Testing and Metrics

Testing

Three rounds of user testing were conducted to help promote usability and ensure that all content was accurate. The tested users were both internal, cross-team, and external users. I conducted the user testing in-person and remote using both unmoderated and moderated methods to ensure the feature didn't miss the mark.

Metrics

The crux of any education initiative -- how would I determine if the feature is ultimately doing what it's set out to do?

Thankfully, in this case, it was quite easy:

  1. NPS scores provided in-app.
  2. # of state-recorded compliance issues reduced district-wide.
  3. Periodic feedback surveys.
For more information regarding axis3, please visit Creatively Focused

And much more...

In designing the Timeline feature, I also performed the following tasks:

Ask me more in our interview!

Conclusion

Timelines is coming to axis3 for the Fall 2022 school year, and Special Educators around the nation will begin to take back the time Due Process paperwork has stolen.