2018
Jurema - São Paulo, Brazil
Background
The Secretary of Education of the Municipality of São Paulo announced on February 15th, 2018, the new curriculum to be followed in all the jurisdictional units. São Paulo is the first city to have a curriculum based on the new base. This curriculum covers skills known as socioemotional, which include creativity, empathy, autonomy, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Skills should be worked on in all areas.
The São Paulo New Curriculum includes several new additions to the National Common Curricular Base. These include gender equality, a focus on technology and new guidelines for teaching methods.
It also provides support materials for teachers that incorporate teaching guidance and ideas of creativity, empathy and openness to diversity.
The City Curriculum's main intention is to provide guidelines and directives for use in day-to-day school life to guarantee the learning rights of all students in the Municipal Education Network.
The São Paulo Digital Curriculum is guided by comprehensive education, understood to promote the development of students in all aspects (intellectual, physical, social, emotional and cultural) and their formation as subjects of rights and obligations. It is a pedagogical approach designed to develop students' full potential and prepare them to become people, professionals and citizens committed to their own well-being, people and the planet.
Initiative of the Municipal Department of Education in the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, for the implementation of an open government policy with three axes of action:
Transparency (Open data actions),
Innovation (Creating solutions to public problems)
Collaboration (Methodologies for interaction with society).
Core problem
The existing resources were difficult for teachers to access and navigate, making it challenging for them to effectively integrate new curriculum elements—such as gender equality, technology, and innovative teaching methods—into their daily classroom activities.
My role
I worked as a Service & UX Designer for this project
Analysing design research results and outputs (research findings, insights
Conducting ideation sessions and design critique sessions
Sketching wireframes and prototypes
Aligning prototypes with development team
Challenge
How to create an intelligent, inspiring and dynamic platform for the teachers to apply the new curriculum?
Main hypothesis
Providing a user-friendly and intuitive website for the São Paulo Digital Curriculum will help teachers easily access teaching materials and curriculum guidelines.
Goals
Design an Intuitive Platform: Develop a user-friendly website that allows teachers to easily navigate and find curriculum resources.
Enhance Teacher Experience: Provide comprehensive and practical support materials that incorporate innovative teaching methods and emphasize key values like creativity and empathy.
Promote Comprehensive Education: Support the holistic development of students by ensuring the curriculum is accessible and effectively integrated into classrooms.
Foster Collaboration and Transparency: Use open data and interactive methodologies to encourage engagement and collaboration between the education department, teachers, and the community.
Approach
Design Sprint: The project began with a 3-day Design Sprint involving stakeholders and partnering organizations. This collaborative session focused on generating ideas, sketching solutions, and prioritizing features for the new platform. On the final day, rough prototypes were tested with teachers from São Paulo's public education system, allowing the team to gather direct feedback from the primary users.
User-Centered Design: The design process was driven by user research and insights. The team prioritized features based on teachers' needs, ensuring the platform would be intuitive and practical.
Wireframes & Prototyping: The Service & UX Designer created initial wireframes and prototypes, which were refined based on user feedback. The prototypes were aligned with the development team to ensure a smooth handoff and efficient implementation.
Continuous Collaboration: Throughout the project, there was a focus on collaboration with stakeholders, ideation sessions, and design critiques to refine and optimize the platform for teachers.
Teachers are the primary users of the platform, and their needs should guide the design and functionality of the website. Teachers need a platform that allows them to quickly find and apply curriculum resources in their teaching.
📚 Teachers previously found it difficult to access and navigate curriculum guidelines and support materials.
🧭 There was insufficient support for applying curriculum principles, such as creativity and diversity, in everyday teaching.
🖥️ Teachers required a more intuitive and streamlined website to efficiently locate and use educational materials.
🏫 The integration of new curriculum elements, such as technology and gender equality, needed clearer guidelines to be effectively implemented.
Process
Design sprint - User journey - Design exploration - User test - Feedback and design refinement - Handoff
To start designing the new platform for the new curriculum of the city of São Paulo, we had a 3-day-Design Sprint with stakeholders and other companies involved in the project, in order to come up with the best results possible. In the last day, we had the chance of testing it with the final customers of the new platform, the teachers from the public education system of São Paulo.
I was responsible for the design making decision, prioritizing which features would go first in the platform, creating the wireframes and interaction and interviewing the final customers. After this round up of understanding the customers' needs on our rough prototype, my role was to elaborate the complete wireframes for start being developed, together of the development team.
Outcome
Wireframes
Learnings
The Value of User Feedback Early On: Conducting the Design Sprint and testing the prototype with teachers emphasized the importance of gathering user insights early in the design process. This helped refine the platform and ensure it met the needs of its primary users effectively.
Designing for Accessibility and Simplicity: The project highlighted the significance of designing intuitive, easy-to-navigate platforms, especially when the users are educators who need quick access to resources in their daily routines.
Collaboration with Cross-Functional Teams: Collaborating closely with the development team and other partners underscored the value of clear communication and alignment, ensuring the final product stayed true to the design vision and was feasible to implement.
Adapting Design Processes: This project reinforced the importance of being flexible and adaptable in the design process, particularly when working within a limited timeframe (2 months) and needing to iterate quickly based on feedback.
Understanding Educational Contexts: Designing for the education sector required a deeper understanding of the challenges teachers face and how curriculum guidelines are implemented. This experience expanded my ability to empathize with users in a specialized context like education.
Impact
The curriculum was developed through a participative process involving teachers, students, and other educational stakeholders, with feedback gathered from thousands of educators and learners. It encourages collaboration and respects the existing educational practices within the community. It's still thriving since 2018 and being used by teachers and students in São Paulo.