The challenge

Teachers have been searching for a solution that would not only enrich the language learning experiences but help engage their students as well. My client and founder of Teaching Solved, Hope Anderson, had a vision for Lesson Magic she wanted to see unfold. It was important to emphasize the two main components of Lesson Magic: Templates which can be customized to fit the content of their lessons, and the second is the resource search that allows teachers to search all existing sites all at once using different categories for in depth explanations of topics as well as real world resources that use the vocabulary language features and culture in context. 

The developers working with Hope to bring Lesson Magic to life struggled to grasp the vision that she had for the product. Hope was unable to translate her vision into reality in a way they would understand, which is why I was recruited for this project to be able to create a prototype with the UX design processes that developers could understand & embody the features that Hope was looking for as well.

Design Goals

Hope was determined in her vision for Lesson Magic. We embarked on a journey, delving into the needs of both the business and the users. With a scope and time constraints established, we realized that a Lean UX process would guide us to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that would meet our goals. 

Research

Teaching Solved is already an established site, but Lesson Magic was in its prototyping stage. My client,Hope, began to uncover the insights of potential users and did extensive research.  An alpha user was able to test the initial templates, they shared: 

“This is going to help somany people, combining these templates with breaks in-between is going to provide the structure I need for the three-hour conversation class. Thank you, this is exactly what I needed!”  

The Design Process

Brainstorming

Because we were aiming for an MVP, we had to compromise with some features my client wanted. To craft an MVP, some features had to be sacrificed for the sake of efficiency, which was discussed during the iteration stage. Hope envisioned Lesson Magic as a membership-based platform, offering free access as well as premium access.

User flow and information architecture

It was important that Lesson Magic had a seamless user journey. As teachers were already accustomed to using and integrating technology into their lessons, the site's design would adhere to established design principles to allow for an intuitive experience. A user flow was designed, complete with a sign-in/sign-up process, brief onboarding, locked features, and the key that would open them all: membership, be it free or premium.

Wireframes and ideations

The wireframes were crafted to highlight the core elements:customizable templates and the resource search. These blueprints served as a foundation for the next stage.

Initial prototype

Since Teaching Solved is already a launched site, the initial prototype was created with the original branding. My client was working with a graphic designer to create the branding guidelines that would be implemented in the final version. With this prototype, there were a few issues my client wanted corrected:

• Emphasize the templates in the drop-down menus were the free versions available.
• Change the drop-down menu for the templated section or rearrange the spacing.
• Remove the download/upload section of the user profile, the API being created would be too complicated for developers while starting out with a small set of customers. It needed to be changed into a Google Drive integration to let users access the templates they’ve paid for