Noteful
- Problem
- Teachers couldn't assign, customize, or track theory practice in a student-only app.
- What I did
- Led research with 11 teachers, then designed a dashboard with separate flows for private and classroom teachers.
- Outcome
- A hi-fi teacher dashboard and gamified assignment flow, shaped by usability testing with teachers.
- Role
- Lead Researcher, Designer (BHCI Capstone)
- Platform
- Web
- Timeline
- Jan – May 2022
- UX Techniques
- Contextual Inquiry, Card Sorting, Competitive Analysis, Literature Review, Storyboarding, Speed Dating, Prototyping, Usability Testing
01Overview
For my BHCI Capstone, I was the lead researcher and one of the designers on a team of four partnering with Noteful, a Pittsburgh startup making music theory fun for kids. We designed a teacher dashboard to assign, track, and customize lessons, around one question: how might we help music teachers improve their teaching using Noteful?
02Research
Noteful started as a student-only app. To extend it into the classroom, we split research into two phases.
Secondary Research
I analyzed tools like Duolingo, Canvas, and Khan Academy and reviewed research on teacher dashboards. I found that teachers had little control over content and no ready-made curriculum to assign.
Primary Research
We interviewed 11 music teachers and 3 adult students about how they plan, assign, and track, then had teachers card-sort the metrics they most wanted to see.
03Insight 1
Teachers want every student to feel their lessons are made for them. So we designed easy ways for teachers and students to stay in touch, and a curriculum shaped around why each student is learning.
- Students don't learn as well using one size fits all
Evidence
Action
04Insight 2
Teachers have little time to fit music theory into lessons, and theory books are easy to assign but hard to stay motivated with. So we designed assignment roadmaps teachers can customize as much or as little as their time allows.
- Theory books are easy for teachers to use, but hard to motivate students
- Time-consuming to customize a theory education to match student needs and goals
Evidence
Action
05Insight 3
Teachers and students both value seeing progress in numbers. So the dashboard summarizes progress for the whole class and for each student on their roadmap.
- Teachers don't have a current method for tracking progress
- Students currently don't have a concrete record of their learning progress
Evidence
Action
06Process
We speed-dated 13 storyboards with teachers down to four features. We then usability tested them. We found that teachers disliked charts unlike tools they knew, and private and classroom teachers needed different views. Whereas private teachers work with a single student, classroom teachers manage 20–30 students and need an overview to drill into.
Private Teachers
One editable curriculum list, with no class switcher.
Classroom Teachers
A class selector, plus restoring archived lessons or writing new ones.
07High fidelity
In high fidelity, teachers pushed back on minimalism. They wanted questions, struggles, and scores on one page, even if it made the page denser. We also rebuilt the color system, since the brand palette had accessibility issues and no room for success and error states.
Teacher Dashboard
Assignments, gradebook, notable scores, and mastery of Noteful's core curriculum in one place.
Interactive Assignments
Students answer on staff notation with live scoring, and teachers see progress question by question.
08Impact
Teachers used to have to choose between a textbook, which was easy to assign but forgettable, and building their own games, which cost hours. Noteful splits the difference with a dashboard for planning and tracking, paired with practice that's actually fun, so teachers can spend their time teaching instead of building.