Pearson: Misc. Selected Projects

My Role

I worked on several platforms including Pearson Realize, Realize Reader, EasyBridge, and EdCloud in project-based releases. With each release, user issues or pain points were identified. I explored the best UX solutions and iterated on existing and new designs, while working closely with development, project managers, product owners and research coordinators. Select works can can be viewed below.

EasyBridge Classes Tab Redesign

OVERVIEW

EasyBridge is a web-platform that provides user management and class roster synchronization tools for customers to simplify platform setup tasks at the beginning of each school period.

CHALLENGE 1: ADD, EDIT, DELETE PROCESS

Currently, many actions in EasyBridge require users to work inside a modal with limited space. These actions are sometimes complex due to the nature of district administrators’ work. Administrators could have long lists of products available, which made scrolling and searching for the correct one to add extremely time-consuming. The overall goal was to reduce usage of modals for such actions throughout the EasyBridge platform and standardize the flow for the add, edit, and delete processes in the Classes tab.

APPROACH

An inline approach for updating products and students was taken. Adding a product or student results in an additional row in the top-most position with a smart search. Clicking add multiple times will bring up multiple rows with empty fields, though these can be removed with the close icon if no longer needed. With the available list of products and students (data pulled from Pearson Realize platform), the user can select their choice easily. To edit or delete, a product or student must be selected beforehand for the options to be enabled. UI elements are redesigned to match the new Classes landing page.

CHALLENGE 2: BULK ADD AND BULK UPDATE

Another part of the Classes tab that I tackled was the effort to combine the bulk add and bulk update tabs into one due to the fact that both had similarities and redundant information. This made the pages extremely long and required users to scroll before reaching the actual add or update components. For users who frequently used this feature, having unnecessary information occupy a large portion of screen display was distracting. Combining the tabs required restructuring of information placement, analyzing where processes overlapped and divided, and finding a way to reduce visual clutter.

APPROACH

Currently, the “How to” text is always present and occupies vertical real estate. The spreadsheet requirements are different for Add vs. Update, but both contain instructional text and images. I grouped all potentially optional instructions including the “How to” into an accordion pattern. On landing, user sees “How to” instructions expanded which informs user to select between the two options. Upon selection, instructions will be collapsed. The remaining elements on the page were where the processes diverged for Add vs. Update. These upload processes were placed at the bottom, and will appear in the corresponding state to the radio button selection user chooses initially.

Pre-populated Sales Demo Desktop App

OVERVIEW

This project was formed as a need from the sales teams to automate the process of creating Pearson Realize demonstration accounts with pre-populated data. Such accounts would contain classes, assignments, student grades and ability to view reports, graphs, and charts.

PROBLEM

Sales members found it tedious and inefficient to create new user accounts for their demos which required adding all necessary inputs to generate data features. For each sales presentation, they would have to repeat the creation and adding process for live demonstrations, where new sample data was needed to show how features functioned.

APPROACH

This tool was designed as a desktop app to provide limited key members with appropriate access. Initially, the project was scoped as a single form to be completed on one page. However, while mapping out all potential fields, I took a different approach to separate sections into individual pages. In creating classes and assignments, each one added requires multiple input fields. This would have caused the form to become increasingly long with each addition.

The user may use an existing teacher account to perform actions like adding new students or assignments, or create a new teacher entirely. The status tab allows the user to check the progress of the data generator, and retry for any potential failures. This tab will keep history of each submission.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

• Email new teacher accounts’ username and password to appropriate team member.

• Returning to previous section for editing while retaining current section data.

• Adding a visual step indicator on form pages.

• Further develop status tab to include error messages, filters (date submitted, teacher account used, etc.) for when list of submissions history becomes lengthy.

Key Take-aways @ Pearson

Working with development and time constraints

• As many of Pearson’s platforms are legacy products using older architecture, creating substantial changes in design requires heavy effort on the development end. Tied with time constraints and release deadlines such as “back-to-school” periods, this requires me to work with developers and technical project managers to come up with the most viable solutions in a timely fashion.

Following accessibility guidelines

• Pearson’s policies include providing equal experiences for students and meeting accessibility guidelines. Colors and text sizes must pass WCAG 2.0 standards and text must be appropriately placed for screen readers.

Learning industry specific knowledge

• Education-technology is a unique field in UX, as traditional learning is through paper and print. Many times there is no certain answer for what is considered a “best practice” as the industry grows and changes. I have learned about adoption cycles, education regulations, and most importantly: the needs of new user types including students, teachers and administrators.