Immigration
1880-1924
The Challenge
Great images help students understand history, but teachers often struggle to find them.
Primarily intended for classroom instruction, this app presents a curated collection of primary source documents and images from the National Archives, the Museum of the City of New York, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
The app was released publicly in the fall of 2015 and selected as an Official Honoree by the Webby Awards in the Education & Reference category.
Usability Testing
We identified most requirements by collaborating with educators early on. However, some issues only became apparent once we started testing outside of the project group.
We shared the app with teachers, librarians, and students at various grade levels. They identified problems with some of the app’s labels and navigation, while also validating many of our assumptions.
Results
The app received an overwhelmingly positive response from teachers and students.
Adam Jenkins, teacher at Creekside Junior High School, said, "Thank you so much for the time and dedication put into this app. This app legitimately feels like a glimpse into the future of social studies education."
Mercer Hall, teacher at Buckley Country Day School, said, "I used the 'New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924' app for the full day today with the 8th graders. It was phenomenal. We built our entire inquiry around all of the resources and documents in the app, and it made for a terrific lesson."
Our client, the NYC Dept. of Education, was equally impressed and hired us to create a similar app for a different topic.
Consistent Experience
Every image and document has the same template and interactive features.
Unclear Navigation
After user testing, we added an animation to suggest horizontal scrolling.
Classroom Tools
We designed versatile tools like crop and collections for several classroom activities.
