UX Research · Usability Evaluation · Client Project
CODAP Usability Evaluation
Evaluated CODAP, a data visualization platform used to teach students in grades 5–12, by triangulating stakeholder research, competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, and moderated usability testing to identify barriers to classroom adoption and develop actionable recommendations for educators and students.
01 · Context
Understanding barriers to classroom adoption of a data visualization platform
Concord Consortium partnered with our team to evaluate the usability and classroom experience of CODAP, an online data exploration and visualization platform designed to help students develop data literacy and visualization skills.
CODAP is intended for use across educational settings, serving students from approximately fifth grade through early undergraduate education. Because successful classroom implementation depends on both student usability and educator adoption, our evaluation examined the experience from multiple perspectives, including the client, student users, and educators responsible for teaching with the platform.
How might we identify and reduce usability barriers that prevent students and educators from effectively using and adopting CODAP as a classroom data visualization tool?
02 · Research
Triangulating perspectives across three key stakeholder groups
We designed a multi-method research strategy to understand CODAP from the perspectives of the people who create, teach with, and use the platform. We began with a preliminary client interview to better understand Concord Consortium's goals, known pain points, previous evaluations, and priorities for the project.
Based on this conversation, we developed separate interview protocols for student users and educators. Student interviews focused on how learners approach data tools, how they learn data visualization, and the challenges they encounter. Educator interviews explored how teachers approach teaching data science, the tools they currently use, and barriers to implementing data visualization tools in the classroom.
Preliminary stakeholder interview to understand Concord Consortium's goals, existing pain points, prior evaluations, and specific areas of interest.
Interviews exploring how students learn and use data tools, their experiences with data visualization, and challenges they encounter when working with these tools.
Interviews examining how educators teach data science, which tools they use, and the barriers they encounter when integrating data visualization into classroom instruction.
Interaction map used to understand key user interactions and workflows within the CODAP experience.
03 · User Research
Understanding how students and educators experience data tools
Following the client interview, we conducted seven additional interviews with participants who had experience working with data tools. Our sample included three students and four high school educators.
The student participants were between the ages of 21 and 25 and included two undergraduate students and one master's student. The educator participants were four high school teachers who taught subjects including data science, physics, and biology.
Each participant received a written consent form, in addition to providing verbal consent before participating in the interview. Interviewers compiled notes from transcripts, which we subsequently reviewed during interpretation sessions to cross-examine findings across participants and identify recurring themes and recommendations.
Our research explored both sides of classroom implementation: how students learn with data tools and how educators decide whether and how those tools can be integrated into instruction.
Survey Research
Narrowing our focus to educator adoption
Findings from our interviews and client conversations indicated that educators were key decision-makers in determining whether and how CODAP would be adopted in classroom settings. Based on this insight, we narrowed our survey research to focus specifically on educators.
We developed a survey designed to further understand educator needs, challenges, and expectations around data visualization tools. We conducted a pilot test with participants recruited through our personal networks and snowball sampling due to time constraints and the difficulty of reaching educators already familiar with data visualization tools.
For a full deployment, we recommended transitioning to a more representative sampling strategy using cluster sampling across middle school teachers, high school teachers, and early undergraduate professors. This approach would help ensure that the needs of educators across CODAP's target populations were represented and reduce overrepresentation of any single educational level.
Survey designed to further investigate educator needs and barriers to classroom adoption of data visualization tools.
04 · Competitive Analysis
Understanding where CODAP stands in the data visualization landscape
We conducted a comparative analysis of CODAP against both direct and indirect competitors to understand its strengths, gaps, and opportunities for differentiation.
Direct competitors included DataClassroom and Tuva, while indirect competitors included Tableau, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Excel. We compared platforms across capabilities relevant to classroom data visualization and adoption.
CODAP shared many core features with DataClassroom and Tuva, but lacked collaboration capabilities and curriculum materials. These gaps were particularly relevant given CODAP's role as an educational platform. At the same time, CODAP's lack of required pricing gave it a competitive advantage over its direct competitors.
Compared with Google Sheets, Tableau, and Excel, CODAP offered stronger data visualization capabilities than the free spreadsheet alternative while maintaining its own free-access advantage. However, paid competitors offered more modern interfaces and stronger visual polish, highlighting potential opportunities to improve CODAP's visual appeal and intuitiveness.
Comparative matrix evaluating CODAP against direct and indirect competitors across key platform capabilities.
05 · Heuristic Evaluation
Identifying usability barriers through Nielsen's ten heuristics
To evaluate CODAP's interface systematically, our team conducted a heuristic usability evaluation using Nielsen's ten usability heuristics. We evaluated the platform across key areas including data input, visualization, and settings.
Each evaluator independently identified usability strengths and weaknesses and assessed issue severity based on factors including frequency, impact, and potential user confusion. We then consolidated our findings into a consensus-driven evaluation.
CODAP's navigation and internal consistency allowed users to access core features with relative ease. Recognition over recall reduced cognitive load, while detailed documentation and tutorials supported users as they learned the platform.
Features such as undo and redo mechanisms helped users recover from mistakes and supported more confident exploration of the platform.
Several important controls were hidden behind hover interactions, making advanced features difficult to discover and increasing interaction friction.
The lack of contextual support such as tooltips made it more difficult for users to troubleshoot and understand unfamiliar features without relying on external documentation.
Accessibility concerns included missing button labels, low color contrast, and limited mobile responsiveness, creating barriers for users accessing the platform across different devices and abilities.
Recommendations
Making essential functionality easier to discover and use
Make essential controls persistently visible rather than requiring hover interactions to reveal key functionality.
Introduce contextual tooltips and guided walkthroughs to reduce reliance on external documentation.
Provide clearer progress indicators, persistent feedback, and proactive error messaging to improve task efficiency.
Address color contrast, button labeling, keyboard navigation, and responsive behavior to create a more inclusive experience.
06 · Usability Testing
Observing how educators use CODAP in realistic classroom scenarios
We conducted remote, moderated think-aloud usability sessions with five current and prospective educators. Each participant completed six representative tasks reflecting how CODAP might be used in a classroom, ranging from introductory tutorials to data visualization and exploration.
We captured screen and audio recordings to understand participant behavior and user flow, followed by interviews to explore perceived challenges and gather additional context around their experiences.
Participants praised CODAP's drag-and-drop interaction model, describing it as intuitive and easier to approach than traditional spreadsheet tools for basic data visualization.
Context-sensitive "Show Me" tutorials helped participants understand core workflows and were viewed as a feature that could help students learn the platform quickly.
Educators struggled to discover advanced functionality hidden within layered menus. This led to increased reliance on tutorials and frustration when attempting to complete unfamiliar tasks.
Participants identified a lack of curriculum-aligned materials and export options as barriers to integrating CODAP into existing classroom workflows.
07 · Key Findings
CODAP's core experience is approachable, but adoption depends on the ecosystem around it
Across our research methods, we found that CODAP's core data visualization experience was generally approachable and intuitive, particularly for basic tasks. However, barriers emerged when users moved beyond foundational workflows or attempted to integrate the platform into classroom teaching.
Our findings suggest that improving CODAP's usability alone may not be sufficient to increase adoption. Educators also need the supporting infrastructure around the platform—including curriculum materials, lesson plans, sample datasets, collaboration capabilities, export functionality, and clearer guidance—to confidently integrate CODAP into their teaching practices.
The opportunity is not simply to make CODAP easier to use. It is to make CODAP easier to teach with.
08 · Recommendations
Recommendations to improve usability and classroom adoption
Surface core functionality more clearly and reduce reliance on layered menus and hover interactions to make advanced features easier to discover.
Extend contextual guidance beyond introductory tasks through tooltips, guided walkthroughs, and contextual support that helps users troubleshoot unfamiliar workflows.
Introduce clearer progress indicators, persistent highlights, and confirmation feedback to help users understand the results of their actions.
Develop curriculum-aligned modules, lesson plans, and sample datasets to reduce the burden on educators and make CODAP easier to integrate into existing curricula.
Address accessibility barriers including color contrast, button labeling, keyboard navigation, and responsive design to support a broader range of learners.
Consider collaboration features that facilitate interaction between educators and students and support classroom-based learning.
09 · Outcome
A multi-method evaluation with actionable recommendations for CODAP
Our team delivered a comprehensive usability evaluation to Concord Consortium that synthesized findings across stakeholder interviews, educator survey research, competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, and moderated usability testing.
The final recommendations identified opportunities to improve CODAP's feature discoverability, in-app guidance, accessibility, feedback mechanisms, and classroom integration. We also highlighted opportunities to strengthen the broader ecosystem surrounding CODAP through curriculum materials, collaboration features, and educator-focused resources.
Final synthesis of research findings and recommendations delivered to Concord Consortium.
10 · Reflection
Looking beyond usability to understand what drives adoption
This project reinforced the importance of evaluating a product within the larger ecosystem in which it is used. While usability testing revealed specific interface barriers, our research showed that educators' willingness to adopt CODAP depended on factors beyond the interface itself, including curriculum alignment, available teaching resources, collaboration, and the effort required to integrate the platform into existing workflows.
I also learned the value of triangulating research methods. Combining stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing allowed us to identify patterns across multiple sources of evidence and develop recommendations that addressed both immediate usability issues and broader product adoption challenges.