TEACHER SIGN UP
Newsela | 2023
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The problem...
Teachers who create a Newsela account can sign up in a variety of ways—including through SSO and LMS (learning management system) options. That said, whichever platform they sign up through has major implications for syncing classes. For example, if a teacher signed up using Google but later decided to sync classes from Clever, they'd end up with duplicate classes.
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Our sign-up screen prompted teachers to make a choice—but didn't give them any information on what that choice would mean. As a result, our customer support team regularly received calls for help with this issue.
The solution...
This was a quick fix and only took a day to design. I worked with the onboarding team to add copy directly to our sign-up screen. There were several iterations, but we landed on adding a single sentence to the screen—which links to a more informative modal. I also wrote the modal copy.
The results....
As of June 2023, the new design is in development and should go live in July. We believe the number of related tickets to our customer support team will decrease during our back-to-school season.
The ways Newsela integrates with other providers (and vice-versa) are complex. Creating concise and clear copy was a challenge—and I've included several screenshots of the process below.
Original design
The original design gives the option to sign up with 3 different providers—and the option to sign in directly with Newsela.
It does not let teachers know they should sign up with whichever platform they'd like to sync classes from. It also fails to mention there are three additional platforms they may want to sync from instead.
First iteration
I wrote copy that explains the relationship between signing up and syncing classes, and I also communicated that there were different ways to do this depending on the provider. I worked closely with an engineer to understand the unique technical relationships between Newsela and all five providers, and I simplified and summarized those instructions.
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At this point, the copy was as clear and concise as it could be—but still far too long and in-depth for the top of a sign-up screen. I spoke with the designer and recommended that we either 1) flip the order of the screen so the provider options and instructions move to the bottom, or 2) use progressive disclosure and move this content to a tooltip or modal.
Final iteration
