LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY
Communication of Complex Ideas
Translating complexity into clarity by tailoring presentations to the audience, fostering engagement, and connecting design to strategy.
The Challenge
Design an intuitive scorecard representing the EQOS Quality Signal data-backed rating score for non-degree credential training programs.
Garner the support of our partner organization and their data team to change their current representation of the rating scale.
Users / Audiences
The project involved 4 large target markets for the EQOS Quality Signal: educators, employers, funders, and policy makers. However, for this concept, we needed to garner the consensus of our partner organization, internal subject matter experts, and our funder prior to validating more broadly with our audiences.
Scope and Constraints
The Quality Signal scorecard should be easy to scan and compare when displayed alongside others while remaining meaningful when viewed individually. It should display 5 dimension scores and an overall score.The solution should also be flexible and scalable to accommodate evolving requirements.
Organizations
EQOS, JFFLabs, Burning Glass Institute (BGI), Gitlab (funder)
My Role
UX Design Lead, Product Manger
Date / Duration
Jun 2023 – Aug 2024
My Process
I was asked to co-present at JFF Horizons.
Our project team hosted an in-person pre-session to walk through EQOS Quality Signal project concepts during the JFF multi-day annual event, Horizons, with attendees that spanned across our project audience targets. Our partner organization, BGI, presented their initial work on a data-backed rating system for non-degree credentials. I led a portion of the session designed to initiate discussions and garner feedback on the this concept.
I identified an issue with the data presentation.
I watched and listened as the data team presented their system and could see the information was not landing as clearly and solidly with the audience as we wanted it to land. There were questions and confusion around the ratings system chosen by our partners, A-to-F grade ratings, that kept blocking the conversation about the ratings data under the representation.
I talked over the issue with my team.
I gathered the comments and feedback from the presentation and shared them with my team. The consensus was that an A-to-F grading system wasn’t the best fit for our broad audience and if our method of communicating the quality score was unclear or caused confusion, it would only pose a barrier to easy adoption.
I worked to propose an alternative rating system.
I conducted desktop research to gather as many types of well-known rating systems as I could find. Collaborating with my team we outlined our system requirements:
A minimum line of inclusion that would disallow new, not-yet-rated, or not-well-performing programs.
To preserve the data team's 100-point scale with 5 dimension and an overall score.
To present the Quality Signal score in a straightforward, easy-to-consume manner that can stand alone or be presented as multiples for comparison.
I walked my ideas around internally.
I put a few concepts together and presented them to internal project members and subject matter experts. From their feedback, I designed a proposal for a new rating system and how we could effectively visually represent it.
I presented the idea to key stakeholders.
With my team, I met with our project partner to present our proposal. I reiterated the feedback we had received at our Horizons presentation, and outlined the steps I took to design a different system to represent the Quality Signal score.
Outcomes and Learning
I changed hearts and minds.
I wasn't able to win everyone over, but I received majority support for my new system and its visual representation. We implemented in our alpha pilot site.
We validated the new rating system with our audience.
I was eventually able to further validate the new rating system when the project organized an early adopters group—real-world user organizations who had signed on to helping EQOS develop the Quality Signal. Feedback showed we didn't have it perfected yet, but it was much improved and no longer a stumbling block for comprehension.
