Case Study —
Educators Empowering Educators
Future-state designs for an AI-powered coaching app.
Teachers rely on a network of support to do their jobs well. They seek wisdom and guidance from senior teachers at their schools, master teachers in their district, and university educators from their training and internships. Within schools teachers share classroom materials, lesson plans, tests, and quizzes. Teachers do not teach alone, they work together to teach students.
I designed a future-state vision of TeachFX's new community feature to augment existing support networks among K-12 teachers in order to drive app engagement and interaction.
Users & Audience
K-12 Teachers
Master Teachers
Educational Mentors
District Administrators
TeachFX Sales
TeachFX Customer Success
Master Teachers
Educational Mentors
District Administrators
TeachFX Sales
TeachFX Customer Success
Design
Sean Locke, Lead Product Design
Product
Jacob Klein, Head of Product
Rakiya Brown, Product Strategy
Brandon Yan, Product Management
Engineering
Berk Coker, CTO
EXECUTIVE
Jamie Poskin, CEO
Mobile social sharing screens for TeachFX
Business Context —
What is TeachFX?
Started in 2017 by two Stanford graduates, Jamie Poskin and Bert Coker, TeachFX is an AI-powered coaching app that helps K-12 teachers deepen student classroom engagement. The app functions as a teacher's coach, guiding teachers on best instructional practices, and a diagnostic tool, measuring and analyzing the impact of those practices. TeachFX's early and innovative application of Voice Recognition and Machine Learning technology have garnered $13.7M in total funding, and exceptional press.
How TeachFX works
By analyzing classroom audio recordings TeachFX's AI-powered app measures the ratio of student-to-teacher talk time and makes specific time-stamped suggestions for teachers to wait longer after asking questions and after students respond.
Business model
TeachFX's business model relies on school districts subscribing (and renewing) yearly contracts for teacher access. Although there's been great interest in the promise of the innovative technology within school districts and in the press, subscription renewal rates have averaged 35%. Teacher adoption and usage of the app is low, and CSAT scores have averaged in the low 50s. School districts cannot justify paying for technology that their teachers are not using. Simply put, when teachers don't use the app, renewal rates fall.
Problem —
Low subscription renewal rates.
TeachFX's business model depends on school districts subscribing to and renewing yearly contracts. Despite significant interest in the innovative technology from K-12 school districts and favorable coverage in the press, the subscription renewal rate has averaged only 35% over the past six years. This low renewal rate is attributed to poor user engagement and interaction metrics, coupled with Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores averaging in the low 50s. School districts struggle to justify the cost of technology that their teachers are not actively using or finding valuable.
K-12 public school districts in the US
Solution —
Build for engagement.
The brief for this initiative was to increase engagement and interaction by implementing a community feature on the TeachFX platform. During user research it became abundantly clear that a feed of generic helpful articles and tips would be a non-differentiated offer. In addition teachers are overloaded with in-school technology platforms.
To be successful, we needed to manage cognitive load and pivot towards augmenting the existing ways teachers support each other. There are several aspects to the solution. We’ll go into detail in a moment, but first I’d like to present four principles that guided the designs.
Design Principles —
Based on user research and best UX design practices, we identified four principles to guide the design decisions for the project.
1
Intuitive
Ensure that users, regardless of their technical proficiency, can navigate the platform effortlessly and focus on receiving and sharing coaching. By reducing the cognitive load associated with figuring out how to use the app, busy teachers can spend more time engaging with educational content. Additionally, an intuitive design fosters a positive user experience, increasing user satisfaction and retention rates.
→ clear affordances for navigation, buttons and links
→ color contrast choices that support accessibility
→ color contrast choices that support accessibility
2
Easy
Facilitate seamless access to educational resources, allowing teachers to concentrate on their instructional learning goals rather than on navigating the interface. Simplifying the user experience minimizes frustration, making the app more appealing and accessible to a diverse range of users. Furthermore, an easy-to-use design enhances overall engagement and retention, as users are more likely to return to an app that they find straightforward and enjoyable to use.
→ streamlined workflows for all tasks
3
Private & Secure
Set users at ease by putting them in control of their data. Prioritizing privacy and security in the app design is vital to protect sensitive user data, particularly for educational institutions. Ensuring robust security measures and transparent privacy practices builds trust with teachers, encouraging them to engage more fully with the app. Additionally, a strong focus on privacy and security can help the app comply with relevant regulations, reducing the risk of legal issues and enhancing its reputation in the EdTech market.
→ promote the creation of private groups for social sharing
→ be explicit about what data does and does not get shared
4
Friendly
Create a welcoming and engaging environment that encourages teachers to explore, try, and learn. By incorporating visually appealing elements and a user-centric approach, the app can foster a positive emotional connection, making users more likely to enjoy their educational experience. Additionally, a friendly design can reduce anxiety and intimidation, particularly for older users or those new to digital learning, enhancing their overall engagement and satisfaction.
→ delightful microinteractions that prevent errors and reward user activity see Dan Saffer
Feature ONE —
Grow the number of addressable contacts.
The core TeachFX workflow is a closed system, limited to the individual teacher and the TFX coach. Allow teachers to create private groups and add support contacts. Add guests, external mentors. Give group leads control over the sharing rules. Invite the support system into TeachFX, Deepen engagement and interaction by involving more people in the teacher development process. Augment existing support systems with TeachFX. Give them privacy & control.
User Research: Adjoining math classrooms at Roosevelt Middle School
User Research: Teacher-to-teacher support relationship
User Research: Extended professional relationships with external mentors and master teachers
User Research: Social features to support sharing, comments, and community features
These screens shows the home of a private group on TeachFX. Group admins can create the private group, customize the look and feel, manage membership, invite teachers and external guests (Teacher Mentors, etc.) and can set specific visibility rules for shared content. The goal is to allow members to privately share the results of their recorded sessions with the TeachFX app.
Screenflow to support private group creation
Feature TWO —
Reinforce interactions... make it sticky
Create meaningful interaction loops that return users to the app. Notify group members with every recorded lesson. Build feedback loops for support that include: push notifications to to remind users of new shares, features, updates, or personalized content.
Light, text-only emails to support user engagement
Prompt users to return to the app with push notifications
Feature THREE —
Partner with students.
What if students worked with teachers? What if students are directly involved in increasing their participation and engagement? What if there was a talk ratio scoreboard in the classroom that updated numbers in real-time? Let students help teachers achieve their goals by sharing talk-time analysis in real-time. Extend the support network to students to reach talk-time ratio goals.
Aerial view of Roosevelt Middle School
User Research: Transcripts of user interviews on Dovetail
User Research: Insight from user interviews on Dovetail
Mockup of in classroom real-time reporting
Feature FOUR —
Prove value.
What can we provide the Sales and Success Teams at TeachFX to prove value to school districts and make a case for subscription renewal? The solution, create light analytics reports of anonymized data to document usage an engagement. Make usage reporting easy and automated.
Example of light monthly analytics sent to Sales and CX team
DESIGN NOTES —
Visual Design
Current screens for the existing TeachFX app lack clear typographic hierarchy, fail to make use of helpful iconography, and use minimal color contrast. I sought to address these issues in the new designs: the typographic pairing choices, the modular type scale, an extended color palette, and a differentiated use of iconography.
Comparable screens: current app(left) and new designs (right)
Lato + Playfair Display vs Inter + Libre Baskerville
Modular typographic scale
Color palette as variables
Text style, iconography, UI components
Figma prototype
Results —
Validate the prototype.
Since this was a future-state vision of new features we don’t have metrics to examine. But here’s a lightweight A/B test with a small user base. If we can show a percentage of the metrics moving in a positive direction we can be more confidant in how new features are working and gather insights for next iterations or enhancements. The broad question we want to answer at this initial stage is: Does the introduction of social sharing features increase user engagement?
User Analytics: Proposed A/B testing spreadsheet
POSTSCRIPT —
Reflection
Ultimately this design effort is in service of engaging students for meaningful participatory learning. This quote from John Hattie encapsulates that spirit.
More Work
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