Introduction
In the German school system, a "Förderplan" is an individualized support plan developed for students with special educational needs. It outlines specific goals, strategies, and resources to address the student's challenges and ensure inclusive education.
Problem Statement
Using Fragebögen (questionnaires/forms) is a part of developing and updating support plans for students with special needs, but their extensive use can create bureaucratic inefficiencies and slow down timely support. Standardized Fragebögen might overlook individual students' unique needs, leading to a one-size-fits-all approach.
Goal
Facilitate the rapid creation of individualized support plans for students through SPLINT, enabling teachers to input diagnostics, collaborate, and access actionable ideas while ensuring data protection compliance.
MY ROLE
User Research
User Interviews
Interface Design
TIMELINE
2 months
June–July 2021
TOOLS
Figma
Miro
Adobe Creative Suite
team
KITE Design
Inklusion Digital
Together with KITE Design and Inklusion Digital, we've further developed a concept for an application that would allow for swift creation and completion of performance questionnaires and management of individual support plans.
Flexible registration & overview of tasks and activities
🚩 Challenge: Teachers usually fill-out questionnaires in between classes and have little time and patience to look for the right documents.
🚀 Outcome: Our straightforward overview enables teachers to effortlessly return to incomplete questionnaires, review pending tasks, and either snooze them or mark them as complete.
Student profiles & evaluation results
🚩 Challenge: Standardized questionnaires often overlook individual strengths, and the evaluation process can be complex, making it challenging to discern a student's specific strengths and weaknesses.
🚀 Outcome: Every student has a dedicated profile section that includes basic information, tasks, and activities. Additionally, the results of each questionnaire are displayed in a color-coded interface, categorized into three segments based on individual needs.
Simple questionnaire with intuitive visualitions of answers
🚩 Challenge: Teachers lack the capability to record children's interests and share them with others. They also wish to be able to access results from fellow educators who have assessed the same questionnaire.
🚀 Outcome: We've introduced a free-text field for teachers to make notes about students and enabled open access to questionnaire results while ensuring student names remain blurred for data privacy.
Create and prioritise individual educational support plans
🚩 Challenge: Teachers lack the capability to record children's interests and share them with others. They also wish to be able to access results from fellow educators who have assessed the same questionnaire.
🚀 Outcome: We've introduced a free-text field for teachers to make notes about students and enabled open access to questionnaire results while ensuring student names remain blurred for data privacy.
1—Less is more! Simpler visualisations tell more.
We spent a lot of time refining how we show performance questionnaire data. After testing with several teachers, we found out they prefer simple visuals that let them quickly see where kids need improvement and their strengths. No fancy stuff needed.
2—Make sure to keep target group and accessibility in mind!
Originally, the application's design was not fully accessible for people with impaired vision due to its choice of typeface. Recognizing the common need among teachers for strong contrast and larger typography, I improved the design by adjusting icons, typeface, and clickable element colors to enhance readability.
