CircleKeeper – Social Emotional Learning Tracker for Middle Schools
In the fall of 2021, my team and I designed a prototype that would enable middle school teachers, trained in restorative circles for social-emotional learning, to more effectively measure their outcomes post-implementation.
To ensure our design was both empathetic and user-centered, we began by immersing ourselves in the world of our target learners. We conducted in-person interviews with middle school teachers and reviewed restorative circle workshops and literature to gain deeper insights into their challenges, motivations, and aspirations. This allowed us to not only understand the problem but also to improve the teacher’s ability to empathize with their students’ experiences and emotions.
One example of how empathy played a crucial role in shaping our design decision was through the needs analysis and interviews. We discovered that there wasn’t an efficient way for middle school teachers to track the effectiveness of their restorative circles. Our goal became to develop an app that would provide insights to improve their circles and identify students who may need a restorative justice circle in the future.
While the focus was on helping teachers use the circles to better understand the emotional experiences of their students, our understanding of the teachers’ own experiences played a part in developing the CircleKeeper app. We strived to create a tool that would not only improve their circles but also make their job easier and more effective.
Throughout the design process, we faced challenges in keeping our design and prototype aligned with the actual needs of middle school teachers. We had to remain disciplined and avoid adding unnecessary features that our team thought might be helpful, but wouldn’t ultimately solve the problem we set out to fix. By maintaining an empathetic approach, we were able to stay focused on the users’ needs and develop a tool that addressed their challenges and created a positive impact on the students and the overall learning environment.
By synthesizing the data from our research, we were able to visualize the teachers’ experiences and highlight the pain points that needed to be addressed. Armed with this knowledge, we iteratively designed and tested our prototype with our target audience, ensuring that their feedback informed and refined our solution at every stage.
For other artifacts that rely on Empathy and the design thinking and user research processes, see MotoMastery or my Productivity App design mockups (Prototype Post).
Link to the needs analysis questions
Link to the CircleKeeper website and full prototype