AI-powered Lesson Sequence Builder

Timeline

3 months

My Role

Head of User Experience and User Interface

Skills Used

Task-based Design

Stakeholder & Executive Presentations

Stakeholder Interviews

User Need Advocacy

UI Documentation

Iterative

Self-Directed

Big Picture & Fine Details

Empathy

Design to Code Workflows

Goal

Develop the first AI-powered feature for educators in the custom learning management system (LMS) with large content library for digital citizenship, AI literacy and other technology skills. This first feature will set the direction to transforming the product into an AI-first product.

Constraints

  • Fit within the legacy platform for now, but set the stage for the new AI-first platform that will be built out over the next few years

  • Limited development resources (small team)

  • AI-first design rather than using AI as a tool/add-on

Summary

Tasked with designing the first interface to begin the transition from a legacy platform to an AI-first product, extensive analysis of the existing user research repository, new user interviews, stakeholder interviews, best-practice research, and user testing led to the development of a feature that solve the important user problem of aligning a large content library with a specific district or school's scope-and-sequence to create a custom lesson sequence in an intuitive, powerful sequence builder.

Process

Where would AI be most effective in solving user problems?

Guiding Principle

I feel strongly that AI can be a powerful tool when paired with the right task, and that the first AI-first feature needed to be one that truly solved user needs in a way that AI greatly increased efficiency and effectiveness to earn trust from our users that our use of AI is thoughtful and impactful rather than gratuitous or an after-thought.

Guiding Principle

I feel strongly that AI can be a powerful tool when paired with the right task, and that the first AI-first feature needed to be one that truly solved user needs in a way that AI greatly increased efficiency and effectiveness to earn trust from our users that our use of AI is thoughtful and impactful rather than gratuitous or an after-thought.

I created a visual summary of the Jobs to Be Done for the product trio to use to determine where AI might be a good fit.

A large body of evidence for the need for a solution to allow users to create a custom sequence of lessons for their local curriculum and use case bubbled up from the user research repository and stakeholder interviews.

This also was a good fit for the use of AI - it can process the local curriculum documents and context, along with vertical alignment (aligning lesson sequences across grade levels) and find lessons to align in our content library far faster than districts and schools reported their staff were accomplishing this goal.

I created a visual summary of the Jobs to Be Done for the product trio to use to determine where AI might be a good fit.

A large body of evidence for the need for a solution to allow users to create a custom sequence of lessons for their local curriculum and use case bubbled up from the user research repository and stakeholder interviews.

This also was a good fit for the use of AI - it can process the local curriculum documents and context, along with vertical alignment (aligning lesson sequences across grade levels) and find lessons to align in our content library far faster than districts and schools reported their staff were accomplishing this goal.

Decision

Create an AI-first solution allowing districts/schools to curate our large content libraries to align with their existing curriculum or scope-and-sequence.

Decision

Create an AI-first solution allowing districts/schools to curate our large content libraries to align with their existing curriculum or scope-and-sequence.

Designing the AI Interface

Guiding Principle

Users faced with an chat prompt interface with no signifiers of what information is needed for the system to best meet their goals, or any indication of what goals the system can help a user meet, presents a large cognitive load to users as well as often resulting in frustrating experiences as users need to refine prompts after they see output and they realize they didn't give all the appropriate context.

Guiding Principle

Users faced with an chat prompt interface with no signifiers of what information is needed for the system to best meet their goals, or any indication of what goals the system can help a user meet, presents a large cognitive load to users as well as often resulting in frustrating experiences as users need to refine prompts after they see output and they realize they didn't give all the appropriate context.

User research via surveys of educators was completed to understand what context educators would have available, or might find important, to provide the AI tool in order to create a custom lesson sequence.

However, providing users with all the available context fields presented users with a form that felt overwhelming and could easily cause choice fatigue.

User research via surveys of educators was completed to understand what context educators would have available, or might find important, to provide the AI tool in order to create a custom lesson sequence.

However, providing users with all the available context fields presented users with a form that felt overwhelming and could easily cause choice fatigue.

Instead, the required fields were included with an "Add Context" button to allow users to select which context might be helpful for their user case.

Instead, the required fields were included with an "Add Context" button to allow users to select which context might be helpful for their user case.

The "add context" menu reduces the overwhelming nature of the initial screen while still guiding users as to which pieces of context would be helpful to the AI workflow.

The "add context" menu reduces the overwhelming nature of the initial screen while still guiding users as to which pieces of context would be helpful to the AI workflow.

Takeaway

Make useful context fields easily discoverable to allow users to create effective prompts the first time without overwhelming them with choices when first viewing the form.

Takeaway

Make useful context fields easily discoverable to allow users to create effective prompts the first time without overwhelming them with choices when first viewing the form.

Guiding Principle

It's important that users have transparency into how the AI tool worked and easily allow for human-overrides or edits.

Guiding Principle

It's important that users have transparency into how the AI tool worked and easily allow for human-overrides or edits.

After the initial context input, the user is shown a "loading" screen while the AI engine works. Then they are presented with results, including a summary of how well the engine was able to match lessons to the giving context, the ability to easily add or edit units or lessons, and alignment between specific outcomes the user provided in the context (via standards and/or scope-and-sequence documents) with the lessons in the sequence.

After the initial context input, the user is shown a "loading" screen while the AI engine works. Then they are presented with results, including a summary of how well the engine was able to match lessons to the giving context, the ability to easily add or edit units or lessons, and alignment between specific outcomes the user provided in the context (via standards and/or scope-and-sequence documents) with the lessons in the sequence.

Testing the AI Interface

Unmoderated task usability testing was completed with 20 educators that were not current users of the product.

Unmoderated task usability testing was completed with 20 educators that were not current users of the product.

Ease of use

Average rating of 4.4 out of 5

Task Completion

100%

User Quote

"It would be great to utilize in the classroom, as it is very user friendly and it fully acknowledges what is going on."

User Quote

"It is very user friendly and easy to onramp. It's fast which is important as I don't have a lot of time. It's easy to edit as well."

Ease of use

Average rating of 4.4 out of 5

Task Completion

100%

User Quote

"It would be great to utilize in the classroom, as it is very user friendly and it fully acknowledges what is going on."

User Quote

"It is very user friendly and easy to onramp. It's fast which is important as I don't have a lot of time. It's easy to edit as well."

Project Status

The project is currently in development - case study will be updated with results once developed!

Project Status

The project is currently in development - case study will be updated with results once developed!

Strategy, ResearchOps & DesignOps ›

Strategy, ResearchOps & DesignOps ›