Burke Teacher Museum Website

I designed a new design system for Burke Teacher, a subpage of the Burke Museum, to help teachers find teaching materials and purchase field trip tickets with ease.

Located in Seattle, the Burke Museum is a go-to destination for students, teachers, and educators interested in learning through hands-on exhibits and exploring the stories of the Pacific Northwest’s landscapes and communities.

— PROBLEM

The platform wasn’t intuitive for teacher users

I conducted a survey with 50+ middle school teachers based in Seattle to understand their background and their needs. The main pain points they identified included:

Renting Burke Boxes for in-class activities
Purchasing field trip tickets
Finding online teaching materials

Problem Statement

The Burke Museum’s current navigation system makes it difficult for users, especially teachers to quickly find specific teaching materials or field trip resources. This creates a frustrating and time-consuming experience.

EMPATHIZE WITH USERS

Follow up from the surveys, in order to gather more in-depth thoughts from my targeted audiences, I conducted interview with 5 teachers based in Seattle.

There were frustrations that I didn't see until I talked to the users: e.g. It took so long to finally find a field trip information link; Information is hidden in many sub-categories in the menu bar.

“When it comes to looking for stuff, it’s not just sitting there. I really have to navigate around the website, it doesn’t come up with stuff. And it is a waste of time if I am simply looking for something in the nick of time. ”

— Dennis Eller - 8th Grade Science Teacher

— USER PERSONA

Users are Contributors to the Design Process

I organized a Focus Group with the 5 teachers from the initial interviewees to engage in a more in-depth conversation about their needs and expectations for the final product.

Given their busy schedules, the teachers expressed a strong preference for an intuitive, easy-to-use app, something self-explanatory and accessible, even for beginners.

James R. – The dedicated middle school science teacher, striving to bring museum-quality learning to his underserved students despite geographic and digital barriers.

“How Might We?”

How might we design the Burke Museum’s online educational platform to replicate the richness of in-person experiences and address navigation barriers, in order to support teachers like James in delivering engaging, curriculum-aligned content remotely?

SOLUTION: INTRODUCING BURKE TEACHER

I created an entire new website called Burke Teacher where users can access through the main Burke Museum website. Burke Teacher provides direct access to teaching materials, field trip information, and details about renting Burke Boxes that are categorized and clearly seen on the menu bar.

— LITERATURE RESEARCH

Understanding Suitable Practices for Designing Museum Online Experiences for Teachers

I conducted literature research on educational website design for teachers to better understand their needs and expectations when using digital platforms. Based on this research, here are four main takeaways for designing effective online museum experiences for educators:

Easy Navigation

Teachers value clear navigation and quick access to resources to minimize the time