iClicker Web Polling
Provides an easy-to-access polling experience for the instructor website that improved upon the desktop application.
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 into 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, together 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 director to focus on other priorities. 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 run a class session. To allow instructors to more quickly start a class, I worked with the product product owner to outline the new user flow that introduced polling via a web application. A demo made by the lead developer showcased the base functionality of iClicker Web Polling that the iClicker team were intending to release in a beta as a MVP. The goal was to ensure the experience was meeting WCAG accessibility criteria and supported the base functionality present in iClicker Cloud desktop application’s polling experience.
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, I was able to identify what features would need to be prioritized for the initial release.
Though I 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 that I could more easily add in functionality or swap out actions in later releases with very little rework. I worked on paper first to get a general idea of the components I would need for various parts of the polling user flow during a class.
I transitioned to drafting medium fidelity mockups to start focusing on visual hierarchy and refining the 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. I didn’t want to change the experience drastically where it could potentially cause confusion with legacy users who were used to the desktop application. I also checked in regularly with the lead developer to get feedback on designs to make sure I was staying within the realm of the technical restraints outline for using a PiP window within a web browser.
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. I kept the navigation similar, but provided more context for the class home to help explain the job of each action. My 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 would be later introduced. In the end, I found the right balance of modernizing the experience while also not alienating iClicker’s legacy users.
As phase 1 came to a close for iClicker Web Polling, I got the opportunity to work on creating an onboarding video for the marketing team to use in 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 particular focus on, and ensuring the tone of the video was consistent with prior iClicker instructional video media.
While the development team worked on building phase 1 designs, my work began 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 new acceptance criteria, I conducted UX reviews and updated Jira tickets as development continued on phase 1. I kept in constant communication with the development team and the quality assurance (QA) team to ensure I was able to act quickly on updating our design documentation to address issues as they arose.
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
With this project I took the lead on design work, continuing to collaborate closely with the development team and the product owner to address requests and feedback as they came in. Some important lessons I took away from this project were:
- The importance of alignment with the product owner and the development team early and often throughout the roadmap for the project.
- Knowing when to pull back in fidelity to focus on the core user experience and not get lost in refining the user interface.
- Not getting attached to preexisting designs that prevent you from improving what is already there to craft a better experience.