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% conversion 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.
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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:
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Issue: Existing 4-page form is too long and complex
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Issue: Optional fields are often left blank, so this feature is underused
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Issue: This list is poorly organized and frustrating to use.
Some issues with the previous UX and UI:
The previous form featured lots of blank fields for questions and other details that teachers would often leave empty.
The previous Assignments List did not give users clear indication on which one they should choose to review.
Overall Goals
How might we simplify how educators create and manage their assignments?
Specific Goals
Remove pain points in assignment creation
Increase assignment creation by 50%
Increase usage of post-assignment question features
Key Contributions
I implemented several features, including:
Pre-selected defaults while creating assignments
A set of pre-selected default options lets teachers set up their assignments in one click.
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.
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
