i-READY K-1 LOGIN
Objective
Pre-reader students with minimal computer skills had a very hard time logging into i-Ready using a traditional username and password. The purpose of this project was to develop a more visual and simple way for these students to login, with minimal teacher assistance needed.
i-Ready is an adaptive assessment and personalized learning platform that helps educators harness big data to drive growth for 15% of US K-12 students.
Strategy & Solution
Through various feedback channels and conversations with K-2 teachers, we knew that logging pre-reader students in to the program with a username and password was a massive source of irritation to teachers because it was time consuming and distracting from time that could be spent learning. In some cases (as seen above), schools would resort to using the same password for all students or taping student names to the desk which was leading students to log in to the wrong accounts, creating security and data issues.
Teacher interviews and student observations revealed some patterns such as support artifacts like cards or logins taped to desk are prevalent, students are better at picking numbers off the keyboard than letters, visual memory is stronger, and students are better at find and click than typing. All of this information paved the way for a very simple design goal for the project: We needed to design a no typing, highly visual login solution.
The concept for the user flow is simple.
1. The teacher prints out system-generated login support note cards for students which include a class code, each student's name and a picture passcode.
2. The student selects a K-1 CTA on the main login page.
3. The student enters the class number (all students share the class number).
4. The student selects his or her name in the class list.
5. The student enters a unique picture code and is logged in to i-Ready.
We tested the design with students in three rounds of sessions, during which I supervised and mentored the UX intern in building prototypes and early stage explorations of visual design. Throughout the sessions, the user flow was validated and we were able to make decisions about more granular details, such as the most effective way to display the information on the login card.
As artifacts were created for internal sales and stakeholder meetings, I worked with other designers to evolve the art style and we brought in a professional illustrator to create 50+ new name icons.
As design and development sprints continued, I worked with developers and other designers to iterate rapidly and refine the details such as pagination, timing of interactions, and error states. We also worked with our Chief Security Officer to guard against brute force attacks and ensure the solution was secure.
Outcome
Ultimately, the final build did not stray far from what had originally been conceptualized in wireframes after we validated the design through usability testing. The overall proposed concept proved to be effective in helping pre-reader students login to the product more successfully.
The solution is praised by schools that are using it. Here is an example of one account manager's feedback:
"We've heard back from a couple other K-1 sites and they LOVE the K-1 login card! They have reported that the kids and teachers are happy with how the cards make logging in go smoothly! We will encourage the rest of the K-1 teachers to use the cards."