CASE STUDY

Digital Resources for Educators

DENVER ART MUSEUM 

Role
UX Research Lead, Product Manager 

 

Highlighted Skills 

Research Methods (Focus Groups, Task-oriented Studies, Surveys, Interviews, Usability Testing) 

Stakeholder Engagement 

Presenting Design Research  

 


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Graphic Design: Elle Levy, Jenn Goodrich; Web Development: Matt Popke

The Denver Art Museum launched a website for Educators with resources based on art objects from the collection in 2010. In my roles in Youth & Community Experience, I oversaw managing research and design iteration cycles to support a cross-functional team of content creators, designers, developers, and marketing peers. This case study focuses on exploring how we could expand to a new audience sector and make resources "less buried" during a CMS migration process. Generative and usability studies supported creating a visual landing page that encouraged scrolling and reworking resource layouts and clustering - all resulting in increased repeat engagements. 

How do we engage Early Childhood Educators with online resources? 
How might teachers more easily find what they are looking for? 

Goals of Research 

  • (Re)Acquaint team with our users & understand a new segment of users 
  • Define design specifications that address usability issues 
  • Create a prototype of new content feature 
  • Refine website presence to integrate into greater Denver Art Museum website and migrate to new CMS


 

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Sample questions included: 

  • Describe your curriculum planning process.
  • How do you use the internet or apps to support this process?
  • What websites do you regularly look to for curriculum ideas? What do you like about these? 
  • Imagine you are starting a new unit. You can choose whether you want to think about one you regularly teach or you can use the topic of animals for this exploration. Using the current Creativity Resource website, please find a resource you would be interested in using in support of this curriculum unit. Walk us through your thinking as you navigate the website. 
  • What was frustrating about navigating the website? Did you identify any blocks or barriers to finding what you were looking for? 
  • What were you surprised to find? 
  • How would you describe the Creativity Resource website to a friend/colleague? 
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Facilitating Stakeholder Engagement with Research 

I chose to represent findings from our exploratory research in the form of Empathy and Journey Maps. Harkening back to our initial goals, the team needed to understand who this website was for - and about any competing variables they should consider. We focused on demands, interests, and pain points felt by 1) Early Childhood Educators and 2) K-8 teachers to represent our audiences. 

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After getting more familiar with the interests of our audience, I shared a journey map based on my observations and feedback we received of navigating the web (and our live website). This tool broke down the action steps we had seen and aligned emotions (based on comments received) that came with navigating our website to look for something to support in their classroom. This map focused more on the experience of the K-8 teacher, due to the resources we had available at the time. 

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Challenges 

  • Teachers gave feedback that they felt like they "had to know what [they] were looking for to find something" - and they didn't know where to start 
  • Wide range in language/terminologies used with Early Childhood community
  • Different levels of interest integrating technology into the classroom
  • Internal stakeholder buy-in 
  • Lack of marketing resources 
  • Teachers feel short on time, so amount of information and text to sort through was "overwhelming" 

Results

  • Redesign website to reflect the way teachers search
    • Filters for Age, Subject Area, Art Object Origin, Themes 
    • Frequently updated Landing Page with Highly-Visual Interface to encourage scrolling and at-a-glance viewing
    • Landing page will feature different types of resources directly (versus connecting everything through the object) 
    • Include suggested links and extensions within resource pages 
    • Highlight Frequently Visited Pages (Field Trips, etc.) 
  • Add "Creative Early Childhood" Feature that is focused on the unique needs of these educators and their students  
  • Redesign Resource Pages
    • Design a printer-friendly version of the resources 
    • Create a design that has an at-a-glance summary and layered content to provide a more digestible exploration 
    • Ensure all resources are age-appropriate, easily adaptable, and culturally sensitive

New Content Feature Development: Special Exhibition Resources 

As a result of the state of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person access to a major Traveling Art Exhibition (Frida Kahlo) would be limited for all visitors and impossible for a majority of school groups. This issue accelerated providing resources related to Special Exhibitions and new tour offerings on the Creativity Resource platform. Research was conducted at all phases of feature development to support quick iteration, including surveys, prototype testing, usability testing, and interviews. 

 

Art Credit: Dan Ostermiller, Scottish Angus Cow and Calf, 2001, Bronze 

Selected Works

Creativity ResourceResponsive Online Learning Resource Project

Peace Love & CookingResponsive Lifestyle Brand Project

Gallup New Deal ArtArts-focused Website

Kristina Mahoney Wall 

Product Research & Design Specialist 

kristinawall.experiencedesign@gmail.com