Redesigning Simbi Assignments
to increase teacher engagement

Simbi is an ed-tech web platform used by teachers and K-12 students.
I worked on simplifying teachers' workflow as they create assignments for their class.

Team

2x Product designers
+ 1x PM
+ 1x developer

My Role

Userflows + IA
+ Interaction design
+ Visual design

Impact

67% increase in assignment creation

About the Company

Simbi is an ed-tech web platform used by teachers and K-12 students.

Teachers use Simbi to schedule and review reading assignments for their classrooms. As students read and narrate these books for their teachers to review, they improve their reading skills.

1

Teachers assign books for their students to read or narrate

Teachers assign books for their students to read or narrate

Teachers assign books for their students to read or narrate

2

They optionally include a question to test students after their activity

They optionally include a question to test students after their activity

They optionally include a question to test students after their activity

3

Students complete their assignment

Students complete their assignment

Students complete their assignment

4

Teachers review the assignments and give feedback

Teachers review the assignments and give feedback

Teachers review the assignments and give feedback

Problem area

We noticed teachers faced several usability issues while using Assignments.

Teachers gave us user feedback and complaints.

We also made observations on analytics tools including Mixpanel and Fullstory, and noticed form abandonment and rage clicks. We discovered issues including:

1

Teachers assign books for their students to read or narrate

Teachers assign books for their students to read or narrate

Teachers assign books for their students to read or narrate

Issue: Existing 4-page form is too long and complex

2

They optionally include a question to test students after their reading activity

They optionally include a question to test students after their reading activity

They optionally include a question to test students after their reading activity

Issue: Optional fields are often left blank, so this feature is underused

3

Students complete their assignment

Students complete their assignment

Students complete their assignment

-

4

Teachers review the assignments and give feedback

Teachers review the assignments and give feedback

Teachers review the assignments and give feedback

Issue: This list is poorly organized and frustrating to use.

Overall Goals

How might we improve the discoverability of Simbi's book library?

Specific Goals

Identify and remove pain points in Filter usage

Increase assignment creation by 50%

Increase usage of post-assignment question features

Project Strategy

I took on an iterative process, adapting to feedback along the way.

1

User observation

We noticed issues of form abandonment and rage clicks while observing users on analytics tools including Mixpanel and FullStory.

Our customer feedback channels saw several feedback points and complaints from teachers as they faced issues while creating assignments.

2

Userflows

I began by working with product and development teams to simplify the user's journey.

3

Competitor analysis

I took on competitor analysis to understand how other ed-tech platforms enabled teachers to create assignments.

  • Assignment creation forms often allowed teachers to customize their assignment by adding descriptions and start/end dates, but wouldn't emphasize these options.

  • This helped teachers create assignments quickly if they're happy with defaults, but also customize their assignments for their students' needs.

4

Wireframes and Prototypes

We iterated over wireframes and prototypes, emphasizing options that were required and de-emphasizing (but still including) options that weren't required.

Key Contributions

I implemented several features based on problem and opportunity areas.

Problem Area:

The previous 'Assignment Details' form had blank fields for questions and customization that teachers would often skip.

Here, the 'Assignment Directions' and 'TellMe directions' fields were large and imposing, while doing a poor job of helping the teacher fill them out.

I included pre-selected choices for Assignment details that let teachers set up in one click.

While many of these options were set up to work for the majority of English-learning students' needs, we also allowed teachers to enable customization options, like adding 'Assignment directions' and setting up custom start and end dates.

Suggested questions to ask learners after their assignment

Sample options were included in a drop-down menu. Teachers could also write their own questions.

This replaced an often-avoided textbox, and the examples helped teachers understand the feature.

Problem Area:

Teachers were often frustrated by the UX for choosing which groups and students to assign to.

They had to select groups and students in separate lists, which limited how quickly they could move through this part of the form.

I designed a simple list of possible assignees that teachers could choose from.

This included all their groups and students.

A 'quick search' feature made it easy to find potential assignees by name.

Problem Area:

The previous Assignments List did not give users clear indication on which one they should choose to review.

I implemented a new, info-dense assignments viewer

The new Assignment Viewer includes progress bars and completion stats for each assignment. 

This helps teachers prioritize which one they’d like to review.

Results

67% increase in assignments created, and happier educators

Specific Goals

80% increase in post-assignment questions included

Successful completion of tasks in user feedback sessions

Significantly reduced reported user issues