Marking and assessment tool — Rachel Anderson

I led the product design of a new marking and assessment tool to enable us to enter a new market.

Situation

As a company we wanted to enter a new market: Australia. We knew we needed to provide specific marking and assessment tools to comply with Australian education regulations, so I set about designing a digital version of the tool, which was typically paper-based in most Australian schools.

Approach

• I did thorough online research and uncovered numerous examples of the paper-based marking schemes that are commonly used in Australian schools, to understand the requirements.

• After designing the basis of a solution that allowed teachers to set up marking schemes, mark interactively, and share feedback and results with students, I built a prototype to test with users.

• I did multiple rounds of user testing with Australian teachers with the help of a UX Researcher, firstly validating the concept, then as we gained confidence that we had got the scope right, refining the usability.

• It was a complex product with many user scenarios. I worked very closely with the development teams to implement the UX, visual design and motion design exactly to specification across mobile native app and web.

Challenges

• It was a complex product that needed to work on both web and mobile; I needed to design a highly configurable data table that was responsive, legible, and kept certain data visible in every user scenario.

• In designing the MVP, I had to consider the additional features we were intending to add in the next couple of iterations to ensure the base design was scalable with minimal disruption to the users as we built new capabilities.

• You can see an animated deep-dive into some of the specific visual design decisions here.

Outcomes

• A highly usable marking schema tool that we shipped in time for the start of the Australian new school year to increase adoption.

• Attracted new customers in the Australia region, and retained existing customers with the launch of this feature.

• Increased product engagement with EMEA customers too, where they discovered and publicly advocated for the benefits of an interactive marking scheme tool.

The solution

A teacher adds a marking scheme to their work and is able to configure the levels, criteria and descriptors according to the competencies a student may demonstrate as part of that task.

When a student opens up their homework, they need to be able to see that there is a marking scheme, known as “Success Criteria”, attached as it will help them complete their work effectively.

A teacher selects the level that the student achieved and can add marks and feedback to help them improve next time. I used tactile motion design to make it clearer how to interact with the tool.

The student is encouraged to read the feedback on the marking scheme. I used colours and motion design to make it clear to the student there is content to read.