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OVERVIEW
Introducing Instructional Insights
Real-time visibility into how instructional materials drive student engagement and outcomes.
Role
User Research
Product Strategy
End-to-end Design
UX/ UI
Team
1 PM
2 Software Engineers
1 QA Engineer
1 Data Analyst
Duration
2 months
Sector
Education
Professional Development
Curriculum Resources
OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT
Providing teachers with timely, actionable insights into how instructional materials are being used so they can adapt instruction in real time, drive student engagement, and continuously improve learning outcomes.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Painting By Numbers
Teaching In The Moment
Teachers can spot what’s working (or not) as it happens—allowing for immediate pivots that keep students engaged and on track.
Directed Energy
Educators are overwhelmed with responsibilities—clear, actionable data helps them focus their energy where it matters most, rather than guessing what’s working.
Continuous Growth
Relying on informal feedback leads to inconsistent improvements; data-driven decisions ensure curriculum evolves based on actual student needs and engagement patterns.
APPROACH
Look Ma, No Frames (Yet)
1. Discovery
User Research
Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Heuristic Analysis
Market Trends
Consumer Behaviors
2. Ideation
Strategy Development
Key Solution Elements
Brainstorming Findings
User Flows
Iterative Testing
Feedback Sessions
3. Design
Wireframes
Collaborative Iteration
Accessibility Considerations
Edge Cases
Prototypes
Final Usability Testing
CONSTRAINTS + TRADEOFFS
Coloring Inside The Lines
Layered Insights Framework
High-level summary cards with visual cues (e.g., color-coded trends, deltas vs. previous week)
Ability to click into filtered detail views.
This gave 90% of users what they needed, quickly, and allowed for low-risk expansion later.
Contextual Tips + Guidance
Chose not to push for advanced personalization or AI recs in V1, even though teachers wanted insights like “what to do next.” Instead, we added contextual tips and lightweight guidance to simulate support without expensive logic work.
Staggered Timeline
Structured the rollout in phases — focusing first on district admins and adding teacher views later. This staggered timeline allowed us to ship a thin slice of value early without creating fragmented workflows.
DESIGN STRATEGY + UX DECISIONS
A Shade For Everyone
Clear Visual Hierarchy
Color was used to signal urgency or success, not to overwhelm. I chose soft blues over aggressive reds/yellows to maintain psychological safety.
Empty States
Designed friendly, encouraging visuals that reframed missing data as opportunity. Instead of “No data yet,” we used phrasing like “Your students haven’t started yet — check back Friday after lesson 2.”
Microinteractions
Subtle hover animations, smooth card expansion, and progressive loading created a sense of responsiveness and care, without slowing the interface.
Role Awareness
Each user saw only what was relevant to them — no excess dashboards, no noise. That simplicity was the delight.
Tone
Labels and tooltips used clear, human language — no jargon. It felt like a product that respected educators' time and intelligence.
Easy Onboarding
Lightweight, contextual cues that guided them step by step — explaining what users were seeing and why it mattered.
EARLY CONCEPTS
Key Solution Elements for Users
LMS Integration
The feature integrates seamlessly with LMS to improve efficiency, grow productivity, reduce errors, and save time.
Connect with:
Google Classroom
Seesaw
Canvas
Schoology
And more
Get Started
AI Development
Acts as a friendly data sidekick—quickly generating answers so teachers can get instant, actionable answers without hunting through dashboards.
AI CHAT SUPPORT
How much did student engagement increase this week?
Generate
Fast
Reliable
Convenient
USER PERSONAS
Analyzing Portraits
Maya Carter
First-Year Middle School Art Teacher &
Grad Student
Profile
Fresh out of grad school
1 year of teaching
Slowly learning that middle schoolers are equally chaotic and creative
Still thinks every art supply will make it to June (Who's going to tell her?)
Needs / Goals
Build lessons that engage and actually land
Understand what's working (and what's not)
Gain confidence in classroom management and curriculum pacing
Survive Navigate upcoming semesters and likely many more years of teaching
Pain Points / Frustrations
Unsure of which materials are actually resonating with students ("Are they internally yawning or actually deep thinking?")
Struggles to adapt mid-lesson without clear data
Time constraints while balancing teaching with grad school work
Needs proactive feedback that's delivered before the tears have paint has already dried
Tech Literacy
Comfortable with basic LMS features
Working knowledge of data tools
Uses iPad for everything
Triples checks before deleting anything
Asks, "Is it me or the Wi-Fi?" at least twice a day
Personality
Curious
Determined
Eager to grow
Thrives with a bit of guidance
Powered by Pinterest, coffee, and hope
Benefits of 'Instructional Insights' Feature
Gives her clarity on what’s landing with students
Surfaces helpful patterns she wouldn’t spot alone
Builds her confidence as an intentional, reflective educator
Julian Reyes
District Art Instructional Coach &
Adjunct Instructor
Profile
14 years of teaching
3 years in curriculum leadership
Data nerd with a heart of gold
Survived more than a decade of tech glitches and students' shenanigans (Wait, that was due today?!")
Needs / Goals
Align curriculum with engagement data
Empower teachers with insights
Advocate for arts education using clear metrics
Hoping one day students will understand that "engagement" means more than showing up
Pain Points / Frustrations
Difficult to track the effectiveness of new curriculum initiatives (Once tried to track this with sticky notes and regret)
Teachers ghost his surveys like it's a bad Tinder date
Knows 80% of teacher feedback is just: ‘It felt fine?’
Wishes there was a translator between how admins think and teachers' reality
Tech Literacy
Confident with LMS
Data-savvy
Has a soft spot for elegantly designed dashboards
Has a personal vendetta against inconsistent color coding
Loves graphs and charts
Multi-tasks with 30+ tabs open at once
Personality
Analytical
Pragmatic
Enthusiastic
Eats educational research articles for breakfast
Can spot a missing data point from 30 yards away
Benefits of 'Instructional Insights' Feature
Provides clarity on how instructional strategies perform
Equips him with patterns to inform teacher coaching
Saves time aggregating data manually for reports
USER WORKFLOWS
Where Form Follows Function
01
Create Courses + Upload Materials
Teachers lay the foundation by structuring learning experiences—organizing units, aligning standards, and designing a creative arc for students to explore.
02
Assign Tasks + Track Engagement
Lesson plans, reference images, rubrics, and demos come to life here—this is where teachers prepare their digital “studio” with the resources students need.
03
Assess + Report Outcomes
Teachers generate and share reports that spotlight engagement trends and instructional impact, enabling meaningful, data-driven conversations with colleagues, administrators, and families.
JOURNEY MAPPING
Between Brushstrokes
INTERACTION FLOW
Painting By Numbers
Logs In
Views 'Key Insights' on Dashboard Homepage
Clicks 'View All Insights' to view types of insights
Uses Toggle to switch between insight types
Clicks on 'View Report' to see detailed metrics
MOBILE RESPONSIVENESS
Pocket Sized Performance
Home
Welcome back, Emily!
Active Courses
3
Total Time Spent
75 hours
Announcements
New Curriculum Updates
Explore the latest enhancements to our art curriculum, designed to inspire creativity and engage students.
View Updates
Quick Links
Course Catalog
Track Progress
View Insights
Resource Library
Home
Courses
Resources
Profile
ENGINEERING FEASIBILITY
Building The Feature Spec-tacularly
Area
Engagement data visualization
Accessibility (WCAG 2.1) |
Role-based permissions (teacher vs admin)
Notes
Charts, heatmaps, and summaries can be built using libraries like D3.js or Recharts. Data can be aggregated pseudonymously.
With proper attention to semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, color contrast, and screen reader support, the feature can be made accessible.
Most modern LMS integrations and user systems support granular permission handling.
Feasibility
High
High
High
AI-driven lesson recommendations
Real-time participation alerts
FERPA-safe data storage
Requires training lightweight models or rules-based engines on historical data while preserving privacy. Can start with rule-based MVP before introducing ML.
Needs backend listeners/webhooks to monitor student actions (e.g., inactivity, video not viewed). Feasible but requires integration with LMS event systems.
Data must be anonymized or de-identified. Clear audit trails and data governance policies are required. Cloud partners (e.g., AWS, GCP) offer compliant infrastructure.
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Personalized AI feedback generation (e.g., “Ask about video clarity”)
Cross-platform parity (desktop + mobile)
Requires NLP analysis of student work and patterns. Needs guardrails to ensure AI-generated suggestions are FERPA-safe and don’t mislead.
Must include robust consent flows, opt-in sharing, and strict access control. Storing or surfacing identifiable performance data adds risk.
Low
Low
FEEDBACK LOOPS
Feedback Loops
Teacher Feedback Loop
Embed quick feedback widget (“Was this insight useful?”)
End-of-term surveys on dashboard usability, clarity, and trust in data
Optional “Insight Request” form to surface what teachers want to know but can’t see yet
Adoption + Usage
Review patterns in flagged lessons across teachers and classes
Schedule 1:1 or small group interviews every quarter to assess how they use the data to inform PD
AI + UX Evaluation Loop
Track confusion rates or repeated requests
Weekly audits of randomly selected insight summaries for clarity and bias
Feedback Quality + System Performance
Monthly checks for data pipeline errors
Real-time alerting if PLL (Personalized Learning Tab) is ever included in summaries
Internal FERPA audit logs and encryption validation reports
Welcome, District Admin!
Feb 1
Jan 1
0
20
40
60
80
Quantitative
3× increase in dashboard usage post-launch, compared to the legacy exports and reports
30–40% reduction in weekly reporting time for district admins, according to customer feedback and support ticket analysis
2× increase in support team efficiency, as the dashboard reduced questions like “How do I know which teachers are falling behind?”
Qualitative
Admins said the feature gave them confidence to intervene earlier with underperforming schools or teachers.
Teachers reported it gave them insight they desperately needed, helping with pacing and classroom planning.
The CS team started using the dashboard as a renewal check-in tool: “Here’s how your school is doing this semester — and how that compares to last year.”
"I can finally adjust my curriculum and lesson planning from actually numbers instead of guessing. Thank you so much guys!"
Engagement Trends
Add people or emails
View Insights
Strategic
Scalable
Strategic + Scalable
The insights framework became the model for future data products — reused in a professional development dashboard and an assessment tool.
Engineering later built an Insights API directly from the patterns we validated in this project — saving ~3 months of exploratory design/dev work down the line.