WAT

Making Complex Analytics Actually Usable

The Learning Engineering Institute (LEI) had built the Writing Analytics Tool (WAT), an open-source platform that uses natural language processing (NLP) to analyze student writing for teachers and researchers.

The problem? The initial MVP, built by developers, had a clunky interface, confusing user flows, and feedback that was impossible to understand.

This created real barriers. Teachers couldn't tap into WAT's powerful analytics, and students couldn't make sense of their writing performance data.

I needed to:

• Modernize the platform - Turn the existing MVP into something intuitive and scalable

• Make feedback useful - Design interfaces that turned complex NLP data into actionable insights

• Support different user needs - Work for students seeking revision help, teachers facilitating practice.

• Address adoption concerns - Ensure teachers would actually use it despite worries about increased workload and confusing analytics

As the sole UX designer, I handled end-to-end UX, including design systems, user research, and strategic input.

UX/UI Design Lead: Created interactive prototypes in Figma for analytics, feedback, rubrics, and student/teacher dashboards.

Design System: Developed and coded a Material Design-based system, ensuring consistency throughout the platform.

User Research: Ran usability tests, facilitated teacher focus groups, and analyzed findings with ASU's Betaland AI.

QA & Iteration: Conducted QA testing, logged 50+ improvements, and led iterative refinements.

Collaboration: Partnered with engineers, data scientists, and researchers to match designs with technical and research needs.

Strategy: Influenced product direction, user documentation, messaging, and launch strategy.

User-Centered Design in Action

Foundation & Standardization (Summer/Fall 2023): I migrated existing designs from XD to Figma and developed a comprehensive design system. Then standardized UX copy and introduced mandatory notifications, tooltips, and navigation guards to prevent data loss.

Internal Validation & Early Enhancements: I conducted internal usability testing with the LEI Research team to identify initial friction points and implemented features like calendars for teachers and students based on initial requirements.

Pivotal External Research (Focus Groups - July 2024): I co-facilitated focus groups with ASU teachers that revealed critical insights:

• Metrics needed clarity - Instructors found metrics redundant or unclear
• Customization was essential - Teachers wanted to align metrics with course goals and control what students saw
• Workload was a major concern - Using WAT as a standalone tool felt like too much extra work
• Interface needed simplification - Cognitive load was too high

Strategic Redesign & Feature Development (Post-Focus Group): Based on research findings, I prioritized and redesigned:

• Rubric creation & management
• Analytics feedback interpretation
• Student performance tracking

Analysis & Academic Contribution: I contributed to qualitative data analysis and helped draft research findings for conference submissions like LAK2025 and JEDM2025.

Key Design Decisions & Solutions

Reimagining Analytics Feedback for Clarity & Action

Challenge: Raw NLP scores were difficult to interpret and could come across as judgmental. Teachers needed quick overviews and actionable insights.

Solution Evolution:

• Initial designs used progress bar style interpretation of metric outcome (in % value).
• Post-focus group, I moved to a 2-column layout (collapsible essay view + tabs for rubric/analytics)
• I introduced spider charts for holistic metric snapshots and line graphs for progress tracking

Key Innovation: I replaced simple spectrum scores with a Likert-scale based interpretation. Teachers could indicate a desired leaning for each metric during assignment setup. Students then saw their score relative to this target, making feedback constructive rather than judgmental.

Impact: This transformed feedback from potentially confusing data points into guided, non-judgmental insights, significantly improving perceived usability and value for both teachers and students. This design was approved and moved into production.

Transformed Product Strategy: User research findings directly led to a strategic pivot, prioritizing features (rubric customization, feedback clarity) crucial for teacher adoption and successful beta testing.

Enhanced Usability & User Acceptance: Redesigned interfaces based on focus group feedback significantly improved the perceived usability and interpretability of complex analytics, addressing key adoption barriers.

Enabled Scalable Development: The design system I implemented became foundational for platform growth, supporting a large number of students and streamlining the software engineering cycle.

Contributed to Academic Research: Research insights and design contributions formed part of a submission to the LAK2025 & JEDM conferences, validating the academic rigor of the design process.

Improved Development Efficiency: I identified and documented 50+ critical bugs and enhancement opportunities, improving product quality and development focus.

Established Key UX Processes: I instituted a robust product discussion-to-UX design-to-development process, improving stakeholder collaboration and efficiency.

Gained Strategic Influence: My contributions led to a "seat at the table" for discussions on future strategic directions, including LMS integrations (Canvas) and AI collaborations.

Design: Figma, FigJam, Interactive Prototyping, CSS Implementation (for design system)

Research: Focus Groups, Usability Testing (Internal), Qualitative Analysis (ASU Betaland AI)

Documentation & Collaboration: Airtable, Asana, Cross-functional team coordination (Engineers, Data Scientists, Researchers)

This project was pivotal in my growth as a UX professional. It demonstrates my ability to lead end-to-end UX in a complex, data-intensive domain like EdTech.

I successfully navigated the challenges of being a sole designer, balanced research rigor with practical application, and translated complex user needs into intuitive and impactful design solutions.

The experience strengthened my skills in design system architecture, user research, iterative design, and technical collaboration - all essential for roles requiring strategic design thinking and practical implementation in data-rich environments.

My progression from student worker to full-time team member with strategic input demonstrates the value and impact I delivered to the organization through this project here.