Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Challenge

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), an established leader in textbook publishing, wanted to assess the utility, usefulness and usability of a newly developed interactive educational application for the iPad. The goal was to identify points of motivation for students who would be using the application, as well as ensure the appropriateness of the lessons. User Centric was tasked with gathering behavioral observations and feedback from both students and teachers.

User Centric Approach

User Centric evaluated the application during in-depth one-on-one interviews with students and math teachers. Utilizing User Centric’s UX iLab, the prototype was loaded onto an iPad to simulate the experience. Participants were asked to complete a number of tasks on the prototype and to provide feedback of their overall impression of the application.

Results

User Centric collected rich performance and feedback data using proven research methods to understand the usefulness, intuitiveness and appropriateness of the educational application. Study results concluded that students were engaged with the math application and all teachers found it appropriate and helpful in teaching math lessons. The study also identified clear opportunities to improve the user interface to enhance the overall usability and user experience of the math application. HMH was provided actionable recommendations for making immediate improvements prior to the launch of the application.