Taptilo Classroom

Taptilo is an interactive braille education tool that makes learning braille easy and fun for beginners and is used by schools and teachers of students with visual impairment.

During the COVID pandemic, as schools around the world closed and people were forced to stay home, we re-evaluated the strategic positioning of Taptilo in the special education market to meet the changing needs of users in a more digitized society.

Taptilo Classroom offers an integrated platform that allows teachers to manage their students’ learning process in both in-person and remote settings.

I led user research and discovery, defined product vision and prioritized features, created wireframes and mockups, and worked with a cross-functional team to deliver the final designs.

Taptilo Classroom for Teachers

Taptilo Classroom allows busy teachers to make most of their interactions with their students when teaching braille. Whether they are teaching in class or remotely, Taptilo Classroom allows them to track progress in real time and easily customize lessons for each student.

Process and Methodology

Discovery

Taptilo has three main user groups - student, caretaker, and teacher. Reviewing user feedback led to an observation that there was a gap in needs for teachers in our previous version, which was focused on the student and caretaker experience. To verify this observation, we conducted in-depth interviews with special education teachers, employing a mix of in-person, phone, and online surveys to adapt to social distancing, leveraging our industry knowledge and user rapport to gain deep insights.

Define

How might we build a product that supports flexibility in diverse teaching and learning environments? How might we minimize the learning curve while maximizing content engagement?

Insights from user research pointed us to an educational platform powered by data that would allow more seamless in-person and remote interactions. Our solution needed to respond to the teachers’ needs for customizing lessons for each student, tracking student progress in real-time, and accessing quality teaching resources.

Ideate

We went through iterations of designing low-fi prototypes, testing them, and refining them. Information architecture, wireframes and functional requirements, and the final UI design (by UI designer).

Prototype & Test

The final product included two separate apps for teachers and students to maximize performance and tailor to each group’s needs. We tested the prototypes with special education teachers and students along the way.

Impact

While there was some delay in development due to the pandemic, the two new apps and the software update of the physical product were finally launched in November 2021. Taptilo Classroom and Taptilo are now being used by students and teachers worldwide to increase braille literacy.

Details

• When: April 2020 - Oct 2020
• Duration: 6 months
• Collaborators: Software and embedded engineers, UI designer

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