(Enterprise UX) ExamSoft - New Category Tagging Experience Reduces Errors for Administrators

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.

What is ExamSoft?

A complete assessment integrity platform that includes:

• Enterprise Portal for institutions responsible for creating and releasing high-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 around modifications to 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

Problem

Seven years of user feedback revealed that the experience led to frequent miscategorization, leading to inaccurate reports and errors that could not be reversed. This miscategorization impacted millions of administrators across multiple graduate programs including medical and law programs. Category tagging is a critical feature in ExamSoft because it is mapped to Bloom's Taxonomy, a framework that organizes learning objectives into levels of complexity which is why the category structure follows a parent/child hierarchy.

Overview

I influenced product direction with a redesigned category-tagging workflow in ExamSoft's Enterprise platform that reduced irreversible user errors that previously led to increased support tickets, which improved relationships with customers. This project also reduced critical usability and accessibility gaps which led to full buy-in from stakeholders for a solution that addressed these critical issues before being confirmed by accessibility reports.

Collaboration

I scheduled regular syncs with product managers to define the entire UX vision. I then brought proposed solutions into broader product discussions with engineers and customer onboarding specialists to understand downstream impact and build alignment across teams.

Challenges

The resistance to developing a new experience for category tagging from product managers was based on then-current roadmap items being more important for ExamSoft's business than category tagging. The product team had a substantial backlog of reported bugs within the enterprise portal, which included category tagging. Undeterred by the definitive opposition, the research and ideation began independently before presenting to the wider ExamSoft team, ultimately securing full buy-in.

Results

Improved clarity in category selection unblocked longstanding issues with category tagging that prevented customers from fully utilizing a key feature. The new solution resulted in a necessary redirection of the product roadmap that reduced errors and increased confidence in assessment reporting.

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 - Phases

• Foundational Deliverables: December 2023 – February 2024

• Development & Release for Advanced Reports: February 2025 – June 2025

• Development & Release for Questions: December 2025 - work continued beyond initial design phase through release cycles

1

Key Usability Concerns

A visual workflow analysis surfaced the following key usability issues:

• Inaccurate communication - when administrators were selecting categories from a long list within a truncated dropdown, there was no clarity that only category types were being selected and not any children underneath
• No confirmation - administrators lacked the ability to confirm their selections, leading to confusion as to whether categories were added or not
  
• Disruption of workflow - a hidden feature became accessible only after discovering a specific interaction, which removed focus on the main goal of adding categories as the hidden feature had nothing to do with categories

2

Solutions

• Consolidated category management into a single, expanded workspace – the experience was moved into a larger, dedicated view to support advanced search and selection across complex category trees, reducing context switching and improving clarity during high-volume workflows
• Enabled inline category addition and removal – users can now quickly add or remove categories directly within the workflow, mirroring familiar tag-removal patterns and eliminating the need to repeatedly return to advanced views
• Introduced predictable selection behavior at the category-type level – selecting a category type automatically selects all categories within that group, supporting efficient bulk actions and reducing repetitive manual selection
• Preserved granular control at the individual category level – selecting an individual category affects only that category, preventing unintended changes to child categories and reducing the risk of reporting errors

3

Identifying Customer Problem

Reviewing seven years of prior user interviews revealed a consistent pattern: the category tagging experience lacked the flexibility and ease of use customers had repeatedly requested.

Research Audit – analyzed two user interview documents from 2016, extracting eight key findings and documenting both the “what” and the underlying “why” behind each issue. This synthesis clarified patterns across fragmented feedback and established a foundation for identifying broader themes of opportunity

Grouping Key Themes – synthesized findings into four core themes and identified category tagging as the most critical, yet overlooked, issue impacting both usability and business outcomes. This reframing provided product managers with clear qualitative evidence, increasing confidence in prioritizing a redesigned category tagging experience

Results – among the four themes, category tagging was revealed as the most restrictive part of the experience. Users struggled with limited flexibility and lacked the ability to view and select categories across the full hierarchy, leading to inefficiencies and miscategorization

4

Before & After

The new solution had to work within a constrained system that only allows for the use of existing components to be used. This required strategic thinking to develop new functionality without new UI patterns. This is because ExamSoft was developed specifically for compliance with existing workflows of academic institutions that have been trained to use this product by our onboarding specialists.

Before:

• A truncated dropdown that mislabeled category types as categories left administrators unable to see or correctly identify their full selection options, increasing the likelihood of miscategorization
• A lack of save or tag category types button anywhere in the dropdown meant administrators had no confirmation of their selections being added to the question/report
• Requiring the user to click outside of the dropdown with a mouse to close was a confirmed accessibility violation by our independent audit
  
• Searching for categories across the entire tree was lacking, a necessary component for linking assessment objectives to Bloom's Taxonomy framework
  

After:

• The popup is gone and replaced with the slider component that is used across the entire ExamSoft portal that allows for greater searching, filtering, and selecting of items across the hierarchical tree
• Category tag boxes accurately show the difference between category types and category children
• Both category types and subcategories can be removed by clicking their corresponding remove icon, reducing the need to continue to revisit a truncated dropdown

5

Impact

Due to the phased release timeline and my departure from Turnitin in June 2025, post-launch quantitative data was not available for this case study. The qualitative outcomes and stakeholder recognition documented here reflect the state of the project at the time of my departure.

• Reduced friction in tagging workflows – the redesigned workflow better aligned with customer expectations and established category workflows, reducing confusion and the likelihood of reporting errors
• Enabled accurate reporting outcomes – the new workflow reduced errors commonly repeated with the original model
• Reduced accessibility and compliance risk – accessibility issues were addressed proactively ahead of independent audits, minimizing future remediation work and improving confidence in compliance readiness
• Raised UX and accessibility standards across the organization – the work increased visibility into UX research and accessibility considerations, contributing to higher design standards and broader awareness across teams
• Recognized by leadership for initiative and ownership – the project received formal recognition during the Q2 2024 company meeting, including an Action & Ownership award and performance bonus, acknowledging initiative in identifying and addressing a long-standing customer problem

“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

Copyright © Nathan Nasby