UX DESIGNER

Propello is a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) designed for K-12 educators and students. Unlike typical LMS platforms, Propello offers unique features such as original curriculum content, fully customizable lesson plans, teacher feedback tools, interactive learning experiences, and a progress tracking system tailored to state-specific standards. As a UX Designer on the Product team, my role was to work with stakeholders to solve complex problems for educators by creating functional solutions to their teaching needs via our platform. My UX design process showcases how user research, testing, and design helped improve the overall user experience of Propello to better serve both teachers and students.

User Interviews

To understand the needs of Propello’s users—primarily teachers, students, and school administrators—a series of digital and in-person interviews were conducted. Teachers from various states shared their challenges in monitoring student progress and ensuring that students meet state-specific standards and pass their state exams. Key pain points included the difficulty of personalizing learning plans to meet diverse student needs, the lack of visibility into individual student progress, and the time-consuming process of tailoring their lessons to match state-specific standards manually.

Students wanted interactive and engaging platforms to complete assignments. Students we spoke to often felt overloaded with several different platforms to complete assignments on, and found these systems to be boring and repetitive.

Administrators emphasized the importance of monitoring progress across classrooms and seeing results in both students and teachers improvement regarding educational standards in their state. The feedback from these interviews became the foundation for defining user needs and refining the platform.

Personas

Based on the interviews and feedback we received during our interviews, we set up three personas. We referred to them throughout the entire product development process, and designed the product based around each of their user needs.

Tom

School Administrator

Tom oversees multiple teachers, grade levels, and subjects of the district. He requires a clear dashboard that shows school-wide progress and classroom-specific data to ensure compliance with educational standards and monitor improvement across the district.

Lucy struggles while juggling lesson planning and classroom management. She needs a flexible system that allows her to customize lessons while ensuring students are meeting state-specific standards.

Lucy

5th Grade Teacher

Tina loves interactive, colorful lessons and needs an easy-to-use interface that guides her through activities. She sometimes struggles with longer assignments and benefits from visual rewards and feedback that help her understand how she’s progressing in real time.

Tina

2nd Grade Student

Matthew is a 7th Grade student who plays club soccer after school. He enjoys interactive lessons but sometimes falls behind and needs extra guidance to meet specific standards due to his busy schedule.

Matthew

7th Grade Student

User Journey

Our team mapped out our users’ steps to see how Propello could meet each user's needs and help them reach their most important goals with the product. With these journey maps, we mainly structured our design planning around the teacher experience, and then made modifications from that core design to fit the needs of the students and administrators.

Wireframes

Key components:

Teacher Dashboard: Customizable lesson plans, student progress tracking, feedback tools, and state-standard planning/monitoring.
Admin Dashboard: Visual data for student progress, comparative tools for different classes, state-specific standards compliance checklists.
K-4th Wireframes: Emphasized simplicity with large, touch-friendly buttons, minimal text, and vibrant colors, optimized for easy navigation on tablets.
5th-12th Wireframes: More complex wireframes featuring comprehensive student data, enabling students to view instructions, resources, and assignments simultaneously.

Low-fidelity wireframes were created to visualize the interface for both teachers and administrators. The teacher dashboard was designed with simplicity in mind, featuring a calendar view of lesson plans, a drag-and-drop lesson builder, and a real-time progress tracker for individual students. For administrators, the wireframes focused on a dashboard providing high-level insights into student and school-wide performance, making it easy to monitor adherence to state standards. We designed two interfaces for students: one for younger students age K-2nd using tablets and another for older students ages 3rd-12th using primarily laptops.

User Testing

User testing was conducted via virtual interviews after our initial wireframes with both teachers and administrators to ensure that the wireframes and initial design concepts met their needs. Teachers expressed enthusiasm for the drag-and-drop interface, but some wanted more options for feedback tools. Administrators found the progress tracking system useful but requested more specific monitoring options for individual students and classes. These insights led to the refinement of several features.

Improvements included:

Improved dashboards for students and teachers
Enhanced tools to monitor student progress with specific state-standards
Additional dashboard tools for teachers, including calendar view of upcoming assignments and a notification feed.
Administrator tools to sort and filter grades, classes, teachers, and students.

Information Architechture

The results of the User Testing also prompted us to adapt our Information Architechture to account for our users needs.

UI Designs

Color Scheme: A calm, neutral palette with pops of color for interactive elements and progress indicators to reduce cognitive load.
Use of Photography: High-quality photography was used in UI backgrounds and lesson content to create a more engaging environment for older students. This added visual depth and context to subjects, making the lessons more appealing.
Typography: Clear, readable fonts for both students and teachers, with emphasis on important data and key navigation elements.
Visual Feedback: Progress indicators, real-time notifications, and pop-ups to help teachers and administrators stay updated on student performance and curriculum adherence.

Key elements include:

The UI design aimed to create a visually engaging, user-friendly experience that complemented Propello's educational focus. Key design elements included:

UI walkthrough of feedback features available for teachers on student assignments.

Administrator Database of Students and Teachers

Learning Path Course Overview

Results of Student Performances

Reader for Students

Course Chapter Overview

20+

From district administrators to specialty teachers, we spoke to a diverse pool of users to understand the needs of educators across the states

Educators Interviewed

90%

Within the platform for each state in the USA, specifically Science Standards.

Of State Standards Met

5+

Propello has been working with several schools to integrate our product into their districts and schools since our launch in 2023

Institutions Engaging

Through user-centered research, testing, and iterative design, Propello's UX was enhanced to better meet the needs of K-12 educators and students. By offering fully customizable lesson plans, tools for tracking state standards, and an intuitive interface, Propello empowers teachers to focus more on educating and less on administrative tasks. The final design successfully balances functionality with ease of use, providing a seamless experience that supports both teachers' workflows and students' learning outcomes.