Cross-Platform Filter

Keeping Track of Connections

Rather than focusing on providing a large amount of functionalities, this interface makes it easier for teachers to reach all parents by keeping track of their communication capabilities and limitations. After logging into her account, Tammy is taken to her home screen, where all of her contacts are organized with icons representing each of her students and their profiles.

Description: The primary purpose of this interface is to keep track of contact information and allow for communication across platforms. This contact display helps Tammy to track and manage the contact information of all of her students' families, which can be challenging with so many contacts and contact information that may change on a frequent basis.

Initiating Contact

Action: Since she makes the most regular contact with students and not their parents, the display uses photo thumbnails of each student to help Tammy easily recall which correspondences need to be made. After identifying Sarah's picture, Tammy can hover her mouse over it. This causes a menu for the type of contact that needs to be made to appear. Because Tammy is concerned about Sarah's Midterm failure but the resolution will happen over time, she selects "Priority" as the kind of message she needs to send.

Description: There are three options for the urgency/importance of the correspondence Tammy would like to make. This is important because depending on a family's communication capabilities, their preferences may vary for the kind of contact they would like to receive at different times of day, for different kinds of messages, etc. Keeping track of the best ways to reach out to so many families in different situations (ranging from general updates to emergency situations) is made easier by letting CheckMark keep track of that information and only requiring Tammy to specify what her needs are for each correspondence.

Communicating Across Platforms

Action: After selecting that she would like to send a priority-level message, a "New Message" form pops up on the same page. This enables Tammy to quickly make her correspondence with Busy Brenda and continue working on her tasks.

Description: Because Busy Brenda cannot afford to have internet access at home, her preferred method of communication is phone contact. Although Tammy is using her web browser to make her correspondence, she can use her computer's microphone to record a voice memo that will be sent to Brenda's phone. Additionally, because Brenda prefers not to be called during work hours, CheckMark will store this message and not send it until after she gets off of work, 

Staying Updated

Action: Brenda added an appointment through the Stream Scheduler.
Description: Tammy is notified that she should accompany her scheduled meeting with a message in the content stream. The “Add to calendar” button is a link to an .ics file