New Category Tagging for Test Questions & Advanced Reports Improves Usability

ℹ️ All research documents, workflow diagrams, prototype, and final mockups are removed to protect the company’s confidential and proprietary information. Assets that are featured have been modified with proprietary information removed.

Overview

This project for improving the experience of tagging categories to questions came about during my UX audit of our testing platform. Digging deeper into our internal knowledge base, I discovered that past user interviews were done six years ago but have not been reviewed since. After going through all the interviews, I organized the pieces of important feedback into common themes, but the one theme that stood out was Category Tagging.

My Role

I was the lead UX Designer who used the following methods to successfully receive full buy-in from stakeholders within an agile environment:

Analysis of User Research
Written Scope Document
User Flow Diagrams
Wireframes
Prototype
Final Mockups

Stakeholders

Product Managers
Developers
Customer Onboarding Specialists

Tools

Figma
Google Docs

Timeline

Foundational Deliverables: December 2023 – February 2024
Development & Release for Advanced Reports: February 2025 – May 2025
Development & Release for Questions: December 2025

What is ExamSoft?

A complete assessment integrity platform that includes:

Enterprise Portal for institutions responsible for creating and releasing hi-stakes assessments that include questions, both new or existing ones, that are aligned with required learning outcomes
Examplify for test takers that may enable the following ExamIntegrity products
1. ExamID for verifying the identity of test takers
2. ExamMonitor proctoring service that records the test taker's screen and webcam footage during the assessment

Why are Categories Important?

Customers use categories for the following:

Ensure that course material is aligned with required learning outcomes for accreditation
Generate reports of how well test takers did demonstrating their knowledge of each category, allowing for more informed decisions for course content

Category definitions:

Category Type – a top-level category that contains its own tree with infinite levels
Category Tree – a tree of nested levels similar to a folder tree, where a folder can contain subfolders within
Category – an item similar to a folder, but represents a test topic
Parent – the category of which the child categories live
Child – a category that is within the parent category

01 - Challenges

How stakeholders once viewed this proposal

Not Important – Proposal for new UX was viewed as a minor bug rather than a design problem to be solved
No Value – Concern from stakeholders that a redesign of category tagging wouldn’t provide a huge win for customers or the business
Cost of Development – had to constrain this project to a medium size that strikes a balance between utilizing convergent and divergent thinking

02 - Qualitative Analysis

Research Audit – Analyzed all feedback from user interviews and laid out most important findings
Grouping Key Themes – Identified 4 common themes from the feedback and singled out category tagging as the most important but overlooked user problem negatively impacting the business
Presented Findings to Product Managers – Presented findings to product managers with evidence to eliminate resistence and receive full buy-in for the customer and business problem

03 - Customer Problem

The research showed that customers had been asking for years for an enhanced category experience that allows browsing through their tree to tag multiple sub-categories to a question at once. The following issues validate this feedback:

Inaccessibile – When creating a new test question or editing an existing one, clicking the Add Categories button opens a long popup listing all the user’s category types. The list is also cut off within the browser screen. Users expect to see their entire category tree and select categories
Inconsistent – The current UX is the opposite of what customers expect from their category management page, where customers can browse their tree and make changes easily
Inflexible – There is no Save or Tag Category Types button in the popup to confirm selections. Customers are expected to select each category type individually and then close the popup to see the category types added. To remove category types, they must open the popup again to manually change their selections
Unpredictable – To close the popup, the user must click outside of it with a mouse. Customers aren’t able to close the popup unless they figure out by chance that clicking outside of the popup closes it
Incomplete – Cannot search for category types to tag, yet can search for child categories within a category type
Distracting – If the user presses the enter key to try to select a category type, a new case study appears, which is irrelevant to the user’s goal

04 - Business Problem

Greener Pastures – Our customers utilize categories to group questions in subject areas to ensure alignment with accreditation. Failure to meet users’ needs may push institutions to switch to more customer-centric products
Slow Reputation – When customers demand a change that’s important to them, they want it soon. Failure to respond to customer feedback in a timely manner will result in customers viewing the company as unable to adapt to changing workflows
Pays Dividends – The amount of rework it will take to work around the current category tagging UX is more expensive than a new UX that will serve customer needs well into the future
Inaccessibile – This issue will be confirmed in accessibility audits by our independent agency, and will result in a documented accessibility issue. Test administrators who require assistive technology cannot complete the same task administrators without disabilities can, therefore furthering our product’s inaccessible reputation Link to Insight into Academia for Students article

05 - User Archetypes

Test Administrator – The test administrator is responsible for overseeing the entire curriculum of an academic program. The most important responsibility of the role is ensuring all tests, questions, and rubrics are aligned with the program’s requirements. Test administrators work closely with test makers who receive feedback on test quality from test reviewers
Test Maker – The test maker creates questions that go into a test. Test making is a collaborative process that involves receiving feedback from test reviewers. Instructors do not make the tests
Test Reviewers – The test reviewers are members of a review board that provide feedback on tests

06 - Requirements

Be able to browse through different points of the tree to select categories
Keep track of points of the tree that have selections to prevent cognitive overload
More easily modify or remove selections even after they’ve been added to a question
Utilize a Save button to confirm selections

07 - Ideation

Workflow diagrams were created to explore two directions with product managers. After presenting these two options, product manager preferred option 1 as it utilizes our existing slider component, and allows for customers to browse and select their categories just like in the Category Management page of their portal.

Option 1

Involves all of the navigation, search, and selection happening within the existing slider component. This option was chosen by the team as it’s a better way for users to go through their entire tree and make selections at different points.

Pros

Only one button is clicked to activate the slider
Way of navigating categories is similar to folders in a file manager

Cons

Selecting a category also assumes its own child categories are also selected. If the user decides to exclude some of the child categories within a parent sub-category, the user can drill into the parent category and deselect some of its children

Option 2

Shows a search field in place of the Add Categories button, but maintains another step where child categories can be added only after a category type is added.

Pros

Users can search for category types on the fly and add one if it already exists

Cons

Mini-search field component is currently inaccessible as results tend to get cut off from the screen
Process still requires two steps and doesn’t allow for thorough browsing of the entire category tree

08 - Prototype

Created prototype to drive conversation with product managers and confirm these assumptions due to the restrictions of the product’s data model:

When a category type is selected, all categories within the category type are selected
However, if a category is selected at any point in the category tree, then only that individual category is select and not the children

09 - Impact

Category tagging is now listed on ExamSoft's long term roadmap for improvements
Brought visibility to UX research in the organization and increased awareness of accessibility
Enjoyed formal recognition by company leadership during our Q2 2024 meeting with an Action & Ownership award

“Turnitin is excited to give a shoutout to the 2024 Q2 Action & Ownership Value Champion Awards recipients! These employees exemplify sustained accountability at work. 🏆 #workplaceculture #educationtechnology #edtech”

- LinkedIn Post

10 - Release

Category Tagging for Advanced Reports

Development of beta was finished in February 2025
Scheduled a kick start meeting with product managers mid-May to outline components of the new UX
Identified only two blockers for development
Aligned with stakeholders on finalized development, QA, and release for new category tagging UX for Advanced Reports in June 2025

Category Tagging for Questions

New category tagging UX for questions is a requirement for accessibility that must be met by the end of 2025, as the current UX is an accessibility violation

11 - Lessons

Learned how to format and structure user interview documents based on existing ones reviewed for this project
Practiced creating templates in Figma for use in future UX workshops
Showcased multiple ways to improve the experience to drive conversation with stakeholders, in order to align on a path forward
Adopted new methods for communicating with stakeholders to align on customer and business goals, in order to prevent frequent reworking of designs