![]() ![]() Our first interviewee borrowed a school Chromebook to talk with us. We enlisted a good friend to serve as our first test subject, and we decided to give it a shot. But we learned that it’s possible to set up an unlisted HoA that records a private video for later internal use. Hangouts on Air (HoA) are typically reserved for live interviews that are streamed directly to an organization’s YouTube channel. If our teachers already had Google accounts and Chrome, could we use Google Hangouts?Ī quick (Google) search revealed that typical Hangouts can’t be recorded, but Google Hangouts on Air can be. Then we stumbled onto an idea: many schools now are transitioning to the use of Google Docs and other Google products of save money on things like the Microsoft Office Suite. There are plenty of great services for remote meetings, but most platforms require all parties to have some sort of software installed if you want to participate in screen sharing. Number three proved to be the trickiest point. If possible, we wanted the software we used for this process to be free. ![]() Whatever the case may be, we wanted to make this as easy on our test subjects as possible.Ĥ. Our interviewees are busy, might not have the necessary permissions to install software on their machines, or they might simply not be very tech savvy. We wanted to do this as simply as possible, and ideally not require teachers to install any new software, or at the very least, nothing cumbersome. We were especially interested in recording the teachers’ screens during the usability portion of the exercise.ģ. Ideally, we wanted to be able to record our sessions to reference them later. We wanted something we could use both for interviewing teachers, and for viewing their screens as we asked them to complete some usability tasks with the current sites.Ģ. We knew we would be testing remotely, potentially talking to teachers across the country, and we had a few criteria for any piece of software we used to interview and test:ġ. We tracked down some teachers who were willing to help, and then we needed to figure out the logistics. We knew we wanted to interview teachers about their experiences with online resources in the classroom, and we knew that we wanted to do some usability testing on the current site to help identify the stumbling blocks. Again, we have our guesses–but what better way to know for sure than to have actual teaching professionals try to do things on the site while we watch? Where does the old site fail in terms of usability, given what teachers need? This will guide our attempts to improve it. What’s still working well? What do they like about it? We can guess at these things, but no amount of guesswork, even by web professionals, can substitute an actual teacher’s perspective on this matter.ģ. The old site is still in use by many instructors. How has their arrival changed what teachers need from resources they find online?Ģ. Google Apps, Chromebooks, SmartBoards–these things that didn’t exist when the original site was built are now integral not just to our daily lives but to many teachers’ experiences of teaching their students. How have teachers’ classroom needs and resources changed since 2007? The site we’re redesigning is older than the first generation of iPhone, and a lot has happened to tech and the internet in those nine years. Before we launch into the wireframing and the interface design, though, we need to determine a few things:ġ. The old site is impressively usable, given that it was built in 2007, but it’s definitely time for a refresh. ![]() Just before the new year, we kicked off a large web project: we’re currently working on redesigning a niche classroom resource site for K-12 teachers. Happy New Year from Convoy HQ! As 2016 kicks into gear, we’re excited to be trying out some new things in the office. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |