The Opportunity
The Ministry of Education approached Catalyst IT to design and build PaCT (Progress and Consistency Tool), an online web application aimed at supporting teachers in making judgments about students’ progress and achievement against the New Zealand Curriculum National Standards.
This project was politically sensitive, as the National Standards were not widely popular among teachers at the time. Additionally, the Ministry of Education was grappling with the failure of the Novopay payroll system, which had caused significant distrust among educators. This environment required a great deal of tact and sensitivity in our interactions with teachers, teacher representatives, and Ministry officials.
My Role
As a UX designer at Catalyst IT, I was responsible, alongside a colleague, for leading the research, UX design, stakeholder management, and implementation support for the PaCT project.
Step One – Research
The initial phase of the project involved:
- Conducting interviews with key stakeholders, including Ministry officials, pedagogy experts, and teacher representatives.
- Extensive fieldwork, where we travelled around the country visiting schools and running user feedback and user testing sessions with teachers.
This research provided us with valuable insights into the needs and concerns of the teachers who would ultimately be using the tool.
Step Two – Reporting Back, Initial Concepts & Implementation
After gathering feedback from stakeholders and teachers, we began creating wireframe prototypes. We returned to the stakeholders and teacher representatives with these prototypes, running additional feedback sessions to refine the designs.
Through several rounds of iterations, we worked closely with the Ministry and the wider project team to ensure the tool met the needs of all parties involved. We presented regular progress updates to Ministry officials, pedagogy experts, and teacher representatives, ensuring that their feedback was integrated throughout the design and development process.
Once the wireframes were finalised and agreed upon, we collaborated with the Catalyst design and development teams to assist in the tool’s initial delivery.
Step Three – Ongoing Success
The resulting product, PaCT, was widely praised by stakeholders and teachers alike for its usability and effectiveness. It remains in use today by teachers in schools across New Zealand, providing them with an essential tool to assess and track student progress.
