TEACHEASY APP
Context
- Master’s Degree in HCI,
“Design experience” course, final project - Group project (6 people)
IN A NUTSHELL
With the aim to design a tool that could help teachers in their everyday work, we collected data through interviews and a workshop to understand the school environment and teachers’ needs.
Starting from the data we designed the Teacheasy app and a paper prototype that we evaluated with the users. Once validated the structure and the functionalities of the app we created the Teacheasy interactive prototype and, finally, two paper tools for a scenario without the app.
IN DETAIL
THE PROJECT
Teacheasy is the final project of the “Design experience” course (“Participatory Design” module + “User Centered Design” module) of the Masters’ degree in Human-Computer Interaction of the University of Trento.
The aim of the project was understanding the school environment, in particular teachers’ needs and issues, by involving them in a participatory process, to design a tool that could help them in their everyday work. The activities within the school “Istituto Comprensivo Pergine 2” have been coordinated with the director of the Institute and involved sixteen teachers.
The project was divided into two main phases: [1] Data collection and [2] Teacheasy ideation. Data collection included four interviews (November 2017) and a workshop with 12 teachers (January 2018). Teacheasy ideation included: the design of the structure and the functionalities of the app, the creation of the paper prototype, the evaluation with the users of the paper prototype, and the creation of the interactive prototype.
DATA COLLECTION – INTERVIEWS
Understanding the context with 4 teachers
The issues addressed during the interviews with 4 teachers mainly concern six different areas: (1) bureaucracy, (2) communication, (3) weekly programming, (4) technology, (5) RAV and (6) INVALSI. The main considerations that emerged are summarized through teachers’ quotes.
Interviews outcome 2. Context vocabulary
Starting from the interviews we developed the “context vocabulary” to better understand and to summarize all the aspects of the school environment. It was used as a tool in the design of the workshop and the design of the prototype.
DATA COLLECTION – WORKSHOP
Eliciting information with 12 teachers and 5 tailored activities
The workshop, with five activities, involved 12 teachers and it was held at the “Scuola Primaria Rodari”. For each activity are reported: the typology (e.g. individual or group activity), the description, and the results (when present). The teachers were randomly divided into two groups, a “yellow” group, and a “green” group.
ACTIVITY 1. ICE BREAKING
TYPOLOGY
All together (teachers + facilitators).
DESCRIPTION
Round name activity in which a person has to repeat all the names of the people before him/her.
ACTIVITY 2. GROUP FORMATION
TYPOLOGY
Steps 1-2 individual activities, steps 3-4 group activities.
DESCRIPTION
step 1. teachers have to choose randomly one coloured paper;
step 2. teachers have to write some personal characteristics;
step 3. the group are formed by paper colours;
step 4. everyone receives a card from someone else and try to guess whose card is it.
ACTIVITY 3. TEACHERS’ OUTSIDE THE CLASS ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY 4. WEEKLY MEETING
ACTIVITY 5. RAV + INVALSI
A5 outcome. RAV and INVALSI artefacts
GREEN GROUP’S ARTEFACT – RAV CONCEPT
This is the Aztec divinity snake, you can see the head and a tail, it is obscure but meanwhile ambitious. It could be something nice, but it is improperly built. It could be something important, in the end, we are not yet done.
YELLOW GROUP’S ARTEFACT – INVALSI CONCEPT
It is a tower oriented to the sky. Positive aspects are overlooked by an excessive and disproportionate focus on evaluation. Evaluation-based misunderstandings and caused anxiety lead to more negative than positive considerations.
TEACHEASY IDEATION – DESIGN
From data to the ideation of the Teachesy app structure and functionalities
Starting from the information collected and analysed, both from the interviews and from the workshop, we developed the structure of a mobile application. The application is called Teacheasy, as its goal is to support the teachers’ work, trying to intervene in the most problematic aspects that can be addressed using a mobile device.
The app focuses on two key concepts of “team” and “weekly meeting”, to make communication between teachers easier, to help prioritize topics on the “weekly meeting” and to facilitate the drafting of minutes.
FUNCTIONALITIES DIAGRAM
TEACHEASY IDEATION – PAPER PROTOTYPE
Home
Personal profile settings
Team overall view
Joining or Creating Team
Create new Team
Join a selected Team
Write a new Post-it
Post-it wall
Weekly meeting archive
Current weekly meeting topics
Add a new topic
Minutes
Calendar
Minutes web editor
TEACHEASY IDEATION – INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE
Once validated the structure and the functionalities of the app, in the design of the interactive prototype we implemented the observation notes and the suggestions emerged during the testing phase of the paper prototype. The interactive prototype was developed with Adobe XD.
Splashscreen
Home
Team overall view
Post-it wall
Write a new Post-it
Team info
Weekly meeting overview and archive
Weekly meeting topics stats
Current weekly meeting topics
Add a new topic
Create weekly minutes
Weekly minutes
Minutes web editor
Minutes web editor (precompiled)
ANALOG TOOLS
Paper tools for a scenario without the app
Considering that the app would not have been implemented at the end of the project, we created a scenario, without the app, in which two paper tools to be printed and concretely used by teachers are proposed.
Scenario
Paper tools for the weekly meeting
1. Weekly meeting scheme
The scheme allows to easily manage the items on the agenda, divided by week, by assigning a priority and setting a time for discussion. Once completed, the document provides a general view of the issues addressed over 6 weeks.
2. Weekly meeting guidelines
The guidelines, adapted from the brainstorming guidelines and tested by our team, are simple rules to be followed in moments of sharing and listening by all the participants to facilitate the “weekly meeting”.
