iClicker Web Polling

Provides an easy-to-access polling experience for the instructor website that improved upon the desktop application.

A picture of the iClicker Web Polling class home picture-in-picture window view being partially covered by the polling results view.

Project Overview

Problem

Instructors needed to install the iClicker Cloud desktop application on any machine they intended to run a poll on during class.

Process

Collaborated closely with the product owner and lead developer to build a shared understanding of the vision, and right-sized design specifications to optimize delivery time.

Impact

Released in August 2025, providing instructors a convenient web application to run polls during class. This web application allowed iClicker to begin exploring new markets for polling.

I helped translate the iClicker Cloud desktop polling experience as an easily accessible web application for instructors.

To enhance the instructor web experience, the goal was to provide an accessible web application for polling during class.

I collaborated with the product owner, and the UX design director to measure the scope of this project. Working closely with the lead developer, we outlined the technical constraints around using picture-in-picture (PiP) that would help shape the designs around the polling experience. After initial strategy, I continued to work with the lead developer to shape the experience, which allowed the product owner and design direction. As the primary designer, I was responsible for leading conceptualization, refinement, and delivering design specifications for a final hand-off to the development team.

My Role:
Primary Designer

The Team:
UX Design Director
UX Designer (me)
UX Researcher
Product Owner
Lead Developer

Timeline:
Jan 2025 – Aug 2025

Problem

Instructors needed to install the iClicker Cloud desktop application on any machine they intended to run a poll on during class.

At the time, an instructor would need to go to the iClicker website and find the download option for the iClicker Cloud desktop application, sign into that application, and then be able to run a course. In call, we worked with the product product owner to outline the new user flow that would exist with a feature such as polling made as a web application. We were also shown a demo made by the lead developer that covered the base functionality of iClicker Web Polling that the iClicker team were intending to release in a beta as an MVP. The goal was to ensure the experience was meeting accessibility criteria and supported the base functionality of the iClicker Cloud desktop polling application.

A user flow for the new instructor iClicker experience with the inclusion of iClicker Web Polling made in FigJam.

Phases of Work for the Project

Phase 1

Initial Beta

Prioritized designing the base polling experience with multiple choice being the first question type supported since it was the most commonly used question type.

Phase 2

Full Commercial Release

Expanded support for polling question types to include all question types available on the iClicker Cloud desktop application.

Process

After aligning with the product owner, we were able to identify what features would be prioritized for the initial release.

Though we knew the initial release of iClicker Web Polling would be missing some features present in the iClicker desktop application, I opted to design a modular UI so that we can add in functionality or swap out actions in later releases with very little rework.

A picture of the iClicker Web Polling toolbar taken from the developer build, and the iClicker Cloud toolbar as it exists on the desktop application. Next to those lies a sketch made by Jordan of a potential layout for the toolbar before and after a poll starts.

Bumping up to medium fidelity mockups allowed me to start focusing on visual hierarchy and the intended user flow.

Early on I was experimenting with translating the iClicker Cloud UI to the PiP window to see how it would work in that context. Focusing on where our crucial actions needed to be in order to be in parity with the iClicker Cloud desktop application. We didn’t want to change the experience drastically where it could potentially cause confusion with instructors used to the desktop application. We also checked in with the lead developer to get feedback on technical restrictions such as content being restrained to the window, and how we can affect the window on user action.

A picture of a few key views designed for the iClicker Web Polling experience in mid-fidelity.

While the desktop application functionality served as our north star, it did not restrict the push for improving onboarding and visual clarity.

It was important instructors felt at home with iClicker Web Polling based on their past experience using the desktop application. We keep the navigation similar, but provided more context for the class home to help explain the job of each action. The goal with this was to provide better onboarding into understanding the different parts of the iClicker experience, especially when additional features such as quizzing and reactions are added. In the end, we found the right balance of modernizing the experience while also not alienating iClicker’s instructor legacy users.

A picture of a few key views designed for the iClicker Web Polling phase 1 experience as high-fidelity mockups.

As phase 1 came to a close for iClicker Web Polling, I got the opportunity to work on creating an onboarding video for its release.

In the past, I have recorded instructional videos for user surveys and received positive feedback from the product owner responsible for the iClicker instructor experience. On request, I wrote the script, recorded audio and video, and edited the final video that would introduce instructors to the new iClicker Web Polling experience. Working closely with the product owner, I made sure to cover key aspects of the experience they wanted focus on, and ensuring the tone of the video was consistent with previous iClicker video media.

While the development team worked on building phase 1 designs, I began work on phase 2 which brought the full iClicker polling functionality into the instructor web experience.

While I was working with the product team to ensure the new designs for the additional polling features aligned with their acceptance criteria, I conducted UX reviews and updated Jira tickets as development continued. Keeping in constant communication with the development team and the quality assurance (QA) team ensured I was able to act quickly on updating our design documentation to address issues as they were discovered.

A screenshot of a UX review done for iClicker Web Polling in Figma.

Impact

iClicker Web Polling released in August 2025 for the instructor web experience, providing an convenient and accessible polling experience for assessing students during class. This web application allowed iClicker to begin exploring new markets for polling.

Utilizing a similar method of documenting screens in user flows that I started for iClicker AI Question Creator, I was able to right-size the amount of design specifications necessary for developers and quality assurance (QA) to carry out their work. This allowed us to save budget towards the end of the project that is typically spent heavily on thorough design specifications.

Reflection

I eventually took the lead on this project and continued to work closely with the development team and the product owner to address requests and feedback as they came in. I learned some lessons from this project that I’ve taken into other projects I’ve worked on, such as:

  • The importance of alignment with the product owner and the development team early and often.
  • Knowing when to pull back in fidelity to focus on the core user experience and not get lost in refining the user interface.