In detail
Overview
A research- and design-led project to simplify student onboarding and increase retention. I facilitated group ideation, encouraging quantity over quality.
Problem
Multiple enrollment methods confused students about logging in and joining classes. Duplicate accounts and forgotten passwords left teachers choosing a method, explaining it, and resolving problems rather than teaching.
Research
The team redirected continuous teacher interviews toward onboarding, reviewed Product Board insights, and partnered with training and support to understand recurring problems.
Approach
The first design studio established a shared problem understanding and story-mapped four existing experiences:
- Teacher creates a student account.
- Teacher adds an existing student.
- Student creates an account using a class code.
- Existing student joins using a class code.
Following a work-alone-together pattern, individuals ideated for 10 minutes, shared feedback, then worked independently for another 10 minutes. Voting narrowed options to three solutions based on their potential to address the opportunity.
For each option, the team identified feasibility, desirability, viability, usability, and ethical assumptions, created story maps, and ran a pre-mortem. Prioritized assumptions guided tests and experiments. Scenarios included new students, existing students, and students already in the class.
Implementation
Color-coordinated story maps linked to user flows. The systems architect participated in flow design and used that context to design system changes. The feature shipped in time for a new school year. Class links enabled student account creation by default, with a class setting to turn it off.
Outcomes and lessons
Initial training/support feedback indicated teachers could onboard classes more easily. Later, the pilot program’s manual account-creation workflow exposed duplicate accounts when students used class links with account creation still enabled.
The portfolio proposes—not reports as shipped—two links separating account creation from login/join, removal of reliance on remembering a toggle, and a simpler two-path empty state.
No quantified retention or detailed experiment results are provided. The duplicate-account issue is an important limitation, not omitted from the outcome.
Adapted from portfolio text; images and navigation omitted.