Data and Insights
Large scale project made up of three phases for the UK’s largest exam board, to enhance and improve their Enhanced Results Analysis tool, with richer insights and an augmented user experience to exceed their competitors.
Background
The Ask
The UK’s largest exam board currently provide a results analysis tool to allow schools and Multi-Academy Trusts (MAT) to see how Centres, and individual students have performed within formative exam series. For series 2024 the client is looking to further enhance this capability, with richer insights and an augmented user experience to meet and exceed their competitors. We were asked to help materialise this vision.
Approach
Our approach was to split the project into three phases Discovery, Design and Build to ensure checkpoints were always aligned for vision and requirements, as well as technical and data readiness. This approach reduced delivery risk and increased product design flexibility for the client. The focus of the Discovery phase was to understand the vision and feasibility of the potential solution and reaffirm the business case, with a view for a baseline MVP. Within the Design phase we focused on the detailed design, requirements definition and technology solutioning to create a user validated build-ready backlog. Finally, the Build phase, to rollout the solution, alongside testing in preparation for release.
Responsibilities
Throughout the project we used tried and tested design thinking methods, and a human-centered approach to creating the solution.
Working side-by-side with users we focused on understanding the context of the problem by conducting user research, and working closely with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). From our envisioning we then synthesised our learnings and created a set of refined personas and user journeys. During co-design sessions we then created key wireframes with SMEs, using their invaluable knowledge and understanding of the end users to create data views. After further wireframes had been created of a focused user flow a prototype was created ready for user testing. We ran three different user testing scenarios across the the multiple phases of the project, and refined our designs based on real user feedback. A set of high-fidelity designs were created to WCAG level AA, along with a atomic design system for easy handover to development.
The Process
We used a tried and tested iterative approach which made use of separate Discovery, Design and Build phases to ensure checkpoints for vision and requirement alignment.
Discovery
Within the Discovery phase we ran a range of envisions workshops with Key Stakeholders, and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to establish goals, define the types of experiences needed, agree on experience principles, define a smaller ser of personas based on refining a range of supplied personas, co-design key wireframes and finally create a prototype to bring to life the proposed experience, along with also looking at the data and technology requirements along the way.
After looking at the current ERA system, competitor analysis, and seeing the capabilities of partner tools (MERIT) we propose a new interaction model, which will help all user groups access data and insights relevant to their roles.
Design
The design phase then followed, where we ran user testing sessions with 15 participants across MAT and Centre levels. We asked the users a range of usability and perception-based questions through the test journey to determine the usability of the proposed solution. We ran a set a workshops every sprint with Key Stakeholders and SMEs while designing further wireframes to make sure a broad business consensus and input was consistent.
The high-fidelity design began to take shape, with a focus on creating not only a beautiful but also a fully accessible user interface.
Build
During our time in the final build phase, we continued to refine the wireframes, with further input across the business, and continued user testing.
A detailed set of annotated wireframes to aid the solutions front-end development were created, along with the finalisation of the high-fidelity designs and the atomic design system for handover to the development team to build the solution.
Workshops
Using design thinking methods we conducted a vast range of different workshops with the client, starting with envisioning to gain a deep understanding of what issues we were trying to solve. Co-design sessions with SMEs and key stakeholders to create wireframes of some of our key screens. Sprint by sprint reviews, and playback sessions of user testing findings to prioritise recommendations and suggestions for the solutions MVP design.
The Interaction Model
Current Interaction Model
The existing navigation and interaction model involves significant backwards and forward navigation and constant re-querying when changing tasks or focus. There is limited ability to navigate within a specific context – either at a high level across an MAT or down deeper through the context of a specific specification down to question level. The current app requires re-querying each time you want a different view or a different layer of detail (for example you need to re-query to move from Grades overview to Marks analysis).
The existing navigation leads the user to navigate to individual views within a specific context (e.g. grades analysis).
Specific search screen
e.g. landing pages for:
Subject results (specification)
Grades overview
Marks analysis
Student
Specific view (e.g. grades overview for a specification)
Every time you swap between grades and marks or switch back to specification you need to repeat the query in a new context
New Interaction Model
Starting with an overview screen showing all subjects in the MAT of Centre from which you can easily compare the data rather than return and re-query each time. Drill down to the specification data, see student grades and how components performed. Component level analysis against assessment objects and topics, then drill into question level data, including student and sample responses.
Overview
A rolled up view of how a MAT or Centre performed against all subjects and specifications.
Specification/ award
Diving into performance against a specification or award, student grades, how all components performed within a specification.
Component/unit
Looking at component or unit level data, such as assessment objectives and topics.
Question
Drilling into questions tagged with meta data for teacher development.
Wireframes
We created wireframes for all of the solution screens and built an interactive prototype to conduct user testing to validate the new interaction model and how users access the different types of data.
Based on SME input and user testing we refined the wireframes across the three phases. Users all found using bar charts to represent their data the clearest to read, and applying different averages as lines across kept the data styling consistent across the different screens. The ability to add different comparison data across the graphs was also tested with users, and also validated our approach to the data visualisation.
Visual Design
What Users Say
“I was involved in the development sessions whilst data insights was being designed. They were great conversations and it's fantastic to see the finished product. I'm loving the heat maps and appreciate just how intuitive the whole experience is.
THANK YOU.”
Thank you for your interest in my work!