iClicker Focus

Helping instructors manage digital distractions by providing insights into student device usage and encouraging students to stay focused

My role

UX Designer

Team

  • 1 UX Design Lead
  • 1 UX Designer (me)
  • 1 UX Research Lead
  • 2 Product Managers
  • 2 Mobile Developers
  • 1 Web Developer

Completed

2019

Background

iClicker is an active learning tool that instructors use to facilitate activities during class.

Students can respond to poll questions from the iClicker app, or from iClicker remotes.

Summary

Problem

Instructors were hesitant to let students use the iClicker app during class because they worried students would be distracted on their devices.

Process

  • Card sort with users
  • Team brainstorm and sketch session
  • Unmoderated user testing and surveys

Solution

  • A “focus” setting tracks when students leave the iClicker app, sending reports to instructors.
  • Students receive their own focus report after class.

Outcomes

  • Students reported the setting made them feel motivated to self-regulate device usage during class.
  • The process of adding the focus setting resulted in broader improvements to the course settings.
Keep reading for the details

Problem

Instructors were hesitant to let students use the iClicker app during class.

They worried it would lead to distracted device usage, and preferred to use iClicker remotes so they could enforce a "no cellphone" policy.

Why was this a problem?

Students and instructors were missing out on valuable functionality that the app provided over remotes.

With the app, instructors could ask a greater variety of question types to increase student learning, as well as use advanced attendance tracking features. The app also allowed students to save questions to study later.

This was an obstacle to increasing adoption of the app.

It was in the best interest of the business to increase adoption of the student app because it was a greater source of revenue compared to iClicker remotes.

How might we...

Help instructors feel more comfortable allowing the use of 
digital devices for iClicker activities during class?
Encourage students to remain focused during class when using 
their devices to participate in iClicker activities?

Process

Joining the project after initial discovery

The team was already pursuing a “focus” setting that tracked when students left the iClicker app during class, providing insights to instructors via reports sent after class.

I was tasked with helping solve...

  • How we present the focus setting to instructors
  • How we message students about the setting
  • How the setting can provide value to students
Example of the instructor reports designed before I joined the project.

Conducting card sorts to understand instructor mental models around course settings

Research goal

The team had never evaluated the information architecture of the course settings. Before deciding where to place the focus setting, we wanted to evaluate if the current organization aligned with user mental models.

Method

Virtual card sort via Mural
Participants were asked to think aloud as they grouped and categorized settings in Mural

Outcome

  • We learned the existing "restrictions" tab did not align with user mental models. Instructors thought about these types of settings as general device-related settings to manage how students participate with iClicker.
  • This led us to explore reorganizing the course settings around devices to better align with mental models.
The existing “Restrictions” tab. The team explored adding the focus setting here when beta testing a previous version of focus that was more restrictive.

Facilitating team collaboration to explore settings improvements and placement for “focus”

After reviewing feedback from the card sort, our team held a sketch session to generate multiple ideas quickly. We collected sketches in Mural, created groups based on themes, and discussed the ideas as a team.

A/B testing different course settings layouts

Ideas gathered from the team sketch session led us to explore 2 different directions for updating the information hierarchy of the course settings.

Research goal

Assess which design performs better (can instructors find the device and focus settings easily?)

Method

Unmoderated usability / click test

Study and findings created by user research team. I assisted with creating artifacts for the study, structuring the test, and translating insights to design decisions.

Outcome: We went with Design B because...

  • Instructors expected the “Course Type” setting to live under course details (this mirrored the course creation experience).
  • While users found the focus setting faster in design A, users still found the focus setting easily in design B. Additionally, the context of other device settings and more straightforward presentation of the feature in design B added clarity.
New "Devices" tab from chosen design (design B), where the focus setting also lives.

Gathering student feedback on the focus feature

Goals

  • Understand student sentiment toward the focus notification and what information is most useful to show.
  • Gather student feedback on the focus summary concept to understand perceived value.

Method

  • Students answered a series of survey questions related to each notification design concept.
  • Students reacted to a focus summary design, thinking aloud as they interpreted the different statistics shown.

Outcome

  • For the notification, we went with concept 1 because it was perceived as friendlier. We added a key piece of information from concept 2 that students found helpful.
  • We pursued the focus summary for the feature MVP after receiving positive reactions from students. They found it encouraging and liked the transparency.
Chosen notification design (concept 1)

Final design solution

Configuring devices

As an instructor, I need to configure device settings so that I can control which devices students use to participate during class.

Enabling the Focus setting

As an instructor, I need to enable the focus setting so that I can receive reports around device usage behavior and encourage students to stay focused.

Notifying students about Focus

As a student, I need to know what Focus is and when my instructor is using it so that I am aware of how it impacts my experience.

Providing a summary and encouragement to students

As a student, I want to see how I did staying focused during class so that I am aware of my own device usage and how I can improve my ability to focus.

Outcomes

Project impact

  • Updated information architecture for the course settings better aligned with user mental models, as supported by research activities (card sort and unmoderated tests).
  • During beta testing for focus, students reported they felt more motivated to stay focused during class when using their devices to participate in iClicker activities.
Feedback received from students (collected by client team)

Personal reflections

  • If I were to redo this project, I’d like to learn more about actual metrics. How many students were using the app before focus? What was our goal? Did the team see an increase in app users after? How many courses was the feature enabled in?
  • I got to learn more about a variety of research methods (card sorts, unmoderated testing, surveys) which helped expand my toolbox beyond usability testing.
allie.lozinak@gmail.com
© Allie Lozinak 2024