Cultivate
Cultivate is a community-driven web platform for practice-building K-12 educators (Cultivators) and specialized educators who want to share their niche skills (Lead Cultivators). Our objective is to make improvements and add functionality to their web application.
Tools: InVision, Sketch, Google Sheets, Keynote, and Zoom.
Methods: Cognitive walkthrough, wireframing, contextual inquiry, and interactive prototype tour.
Deliverables: Cognitive walkthrough, interactive prototype tour, research findings, and prototype plan.
Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough identified various opportunity areas, primarily focused on issues of visibility and hierarchy.
The research focused on tasks carried out by both primary users: Cultivators and Lead Cultivators.
The highest priority complication found was the lack of functionality, and visibility, of the "post" button on community pages.
Contextual Inquiry
One-hour contextual inquiries were conducted over zoom with two primary users to identify further potential improvements.
One participant refused to continue engaging with the platform until its purpose was more apparent to the user.
Neither participant was able to make a post to a community board.
Participants expressed a desire to connect on Cultivate privately.
Proposed Changes
• The addition of a private messaging system.
• Adjust visibility, hierarchy, and functionality of the post button.
• A redesign of the home screen to increase the clarity of the platform's intent.
Interactive Prototype
All UI elements for the prototype were produced in Sketch, then imported into InVision to add interactivity.
All visuals were created to match the fidelity of the existing platform.
Tour points were generated on top of the prototype providing the client with a guide through the available functionality.
A hand-drawn flow was created for the prototype to inform a seamless progression through all proposed changes upon presentation.
The prototype would follow the journey of a persona named Geoffrey as the 6th-grade teacher seeks resources on inclusive education.
This low-fidelity version of Geoffrey's scenario offered the flexibility to make quick adjustments before moving on to high-fidelity versions.
Jump In
Conclusions
With a few additions and tweaks, Cultivate will thrive. Users call for more private communication, a functional post button, and greater clarity of Cultivate's intent on the landing page. All reasonable and achievable requests. With the addition of the proposed foundational features, I see a bright future for this web application.