ADMIN REPORTING
Newsela | 2022
The problem...
Newsela's mission is to provide meaningful classroom learning for every student. An important part of that mission is equipping school district admins with the right data and insights—so they can best support their teachers and students.
Research showed that the data Newsela had been providing was not actionable (or even completely accurate) for admins. Additionally, Newsela was spending significant business resources on external tools and internal customer support on the current solution.
The solution...
The reporting team asked ourselves: "How might we deliver relevant, concise, digestible, and useful data to the admin so that they can make actionable decisions?"
From there, we began exploring and testing different data visualizations. User research showed that most admins struggled to understand dense data and were more interested in high-level aggregates. They also valued the ability to filter data by users, subjects, and dates.
After rapid prototyping and continued testing, we defined a solution that relied on widgets and insights—and was also hyper-focused on filtering UI.
The results....
Final user research found that admins were 1) clear on how to use the filter and excited about its value and 2) understood the widgets were interactive and linked to larger data sets.
This project was super messy—in the best way. I'm really happy with how the MVP came together in the end, and I've included several screenshots of the final designs below.
"Key trends this week"
This image shows the very top of the "Reporting & insights" homepage. This is what admins will see first—which is why we chose this space to highlight some of the data that admins said was most useful to them.
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Looking back... A few things are not working as well as they could. The word "Key" in "Key trends this week" is vague and not informative. I also think the structure of the two trend headers could be clearer.
"Monthly dashboard"
This image shows the widgets on the "Reporting & insights" dashboard. Admins can click on any widget to find a more detailed analysis of related data.
"Popular topics viewed this month"
This image shows a bubble chart at the top of the "Trending topics" page. This section was a direct ask from the executive team. Newsela's core offering is providing leveled reading content about current and real-world topics—and this graph emphasizes student interest in those topics.
"Update filters"
