Using product analytics to develop design solutions

Role: Product Design, UX Research

Outcome: Used beta product analytics to validate and refine IA and navigation changes in the Everfi K-12 teacher re-platform, informing final design direction ahead of general release to 45K teachers nationwide.

Context

Homeroom, Everfi’s flagship K-12 teacher platform, helps teachers find courses, assign them to students, and monitor student progress and grades. 45K teachers use this each year, reaching ~3M students in classrooms across the country. After 14 years, Homeroom needed to be rebuilt using a more modern tech stack to improve quality, ease of iteration, and drive teacher activation.

We made significant design changes to the information architecture and navigation of the platform. As we approached general release in 2025, we ran a beta test with 100 teachers for one month to gather in-product data and observe teachers doing their day-to-day job in the new experience before general release.

Beta testing goals

• Determine if teachers can complete key task flows equal to or faster than in the old experience

• Determine if teachers are experiencing any major bugs or pain points

• Determine overall teacher satisfaction with the new experience

Findings

We collected feedback via a few different methods:

• Pendo usage data: tracks user clicks, paths, time spent

• Pendo replays: watch live sessions of teacher activity in the product

• Surveys: collect closed and open-ended feedback from teachers

Based on a synthesis of the analytics from the legacy product, we knew that the top pages teachers use were Classes, Gradebook, and Course Resources.

As we observed behavior and gathered analytics around these pages in the beta product, we identified two main design issues to address before wider release:

1. There were now multiple extra clicks to get to the Classes and Grades pages

2. The Gradebook was missing key information teachers needed such as Course Resources

Solution 1: Make it easier to navigate into Classes and Gradebook

Insight

Teachers want to jump right into the gradebook for a class, and it took them a lot of clicks to get there.

Analytics and usage evidence

• After log-in, teacher landing page is the course catalog which immediately creates one click layer for teachers to get to the Classes page

• A lot of dead clicks on course names in our new class card design

• “View” action hidden behind overflow menu

• Grades and progress action lost on page given how many other actions are in view

Design updates

• After log-in, land returning teachers immediately into My Classes

• Remove course names on our new class card design to reduce confusion about clickability

• Make the “View Class” action the focus of the class card

• Make the “Grades” action the focus of the course card

Solution 2: Enhance Gradebook to better meet teacher needs

Insight

The new gradebook design was lacking some key features.

Analytics and usage evidence

• Student last name was not a separate, sortable column in the table

• Gradebook table headings were not sortable

• Legibility issues of the grades in the table

• Unable to access course resources without navigating somewhere else in the platform


Design updates

• New last name column

• Sortable headings

• Reduce cognitive load of grades in the table by minimizing the amount of color and symbols used

• Add a link to the Course Resources directly from the Gradebook

Impact

• Implemented data-driven design changes to the platform ahead of general release by interpreting product analytics patterns during beta testing

• Optimized our top user journeys to get our users where they needed to go more easily and with fewer steps

• Added and refined features on our top pages to better meet user needs

• Generated volume of Q3 work (23 resulting stories for engineering) from additional synthesis of all feedback channels of the beta