UX Insights from 18 Edtech Product Meetings at ISTELive 25

Foxgroove is strongly focused on helping EdTech companies improve the usability of their products. At this year’s ISTELive 25 conference in San Antonio, we partnered with ISTE+ASCD to provide UX Advisory Sessions to 18 EdTech vendors. The companies ranged from industry big names with established product teams to startups with founders wearing multiple hats.

UX Advisory Sessions

Each session was a focused on their product’s usability. We explored product history, user roles, existing feedback, and how user experience is valued and applied within the organization. We provided each vendor with design feedback and actionable guidance for building a more user-centered culture.

To make the most of our time together, we offered to evaluate each product using our proprietary UX Report Card – an assessment framework that covers over 40 usability checkpoints across five key areas:

• Aesthetics
• Navigation
• Content
• Forms
• Interactivity

Vendors received a tailored scorecard showing how their product performed. Some products did well in certain categories but fell short in others. In the sample below, the product passed certain aspects (0s) but had significant and often interacting issues (-3s, -5s, and -8s) across most of the categories. This type of evaluation helps companies understand their current state of usability.

To provide context for the Usability Report Card, we detailed specific usability issues for each product. For each highlighted problem we provided a description, usability impact score, and the rationale for why it should be fixed.

In today’s classroom, students and teachers are being asked to use an increasing number of EdTech products. When products are are easy to use, they improve learning outcomes and lead to business success.

Themes and Takeaways

As we reflected on the sessions, three major themes emerged:

1. Product teams often overestimate their usability

We asked every vendor to assess the state of their product’s usability. Most were confident in their product, but did acknowledge some problems. Many teams were surprised by the depth and breadth of the usability challenges we uncovered. This gap is common, but more significant in EdTech than other industries. We found two factors that consistently contributed to the difference between perceived and actual usability:

• Confusing features with usability: Just because a product can do something doesn’t mean users can do it easily.
• Lack of UX expertise: Without solid UX knowledge, even well-intentioned teams miss subtle (and sometimes major) design problems.

2. Every product has room to improve

In education, we often say, “meet students where they are.” We take the same approach when advising product teams. Whether a product has significant usability challenges or just a few areas to refine, there’s always room to improve the user experience. Usability exists on a continuum. On one end are minimum thresholds users expect to keep using the product. At the other end are moments of delight that turn users into champions. No matter where your product falls, there’s always a next step forward.

3. UX culture and product quality are highly correlated

One of the biggest opportunities we see in the EdTech space is improving how UX is valued and integrated into the company. Roughly half of the vendors we met had no dedicated UX resource. In many cases, design decisions were being made by technical leads or executives without a holistic understanding of UX. This is a common story in early and mid-stage EdTech, but it’s also a missed opportunity that has significant downstream ramifications. The strongest-performing products came from teams that valued and promoted UX in the early stages of their company growth.

Summary

At ISTELive 25, Foxgroove partnered with ISTE+ASCD to provide UX Advisory Sessions to 18 EdTech vendors. Through open discussion and our proprietary Usability Report Card, we provided actionable guidance on improving the usability of their products. Our key takeaways: Every EdTech product can benefit from usability improvements and companies with the strongest UX cultures consistently deliver better experiences.