Clipboard is an iPad app created by Alice Barton to help teachers complete daily classroom tasks like seating charts and attendance more easily. It allows teachers to complete these tasks on an iPad as they walk around the classroom, interacting with students, rather than being confined to a desktop computer or pen and paper. The app instantly generates grouped student arrangements to keep lessons interactive. Barton designed the prototype in Adobe Illustrator and Flinto after becoming frustrated with the outdated methods teachers use to manage their classrooms while maintaining control. She tested early versions on her teacher mother to improve the app's purpose and usability before presenting the prototype.

1. CLIPBOARD
by Alice Barton

2. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Clipboard is an iPad app to help teachers complete daily tasks
such as making seating charts, taking attendance, and showing
students their academic progress in the class. It revolutionizes
education by allowing teachers to discard their pen and paper
methods of doing similar tasks, and unchains them from the
confines of a desktop computer so they can pay attention to what
really matters: their students. Most importantly, it instantaneously
creates homogeneous and heterogeneous groups, allowing
teachers to maintain a fluid and interactive learning environment.

3. WHY I CREATED THIS APP
I have taught in urban and suburban
public schools for 4 years and have
become frustrated with the archaic
ways teachers have been
accustomed to completing daily
tasks while maintaining control of
their classrooms. I decided to
design an iPad app to allow
teachers the freedom to do those
same tasks while walking around the
classroom and interacting with
students. Here I am creating my
first designs in a Moleskin notebook.

4. MAKING THE PROTOTYPE
•
I then quickly started
making screens using Adobe
Illustrator, then imported
the screens in Flinto to
create a working iPad
prototype.

5. FEEDBACK
•
I tested an early version of the
prototype on my mother (a teacher
of 30+ years) during her visit in San
Francisco during Christmas.
•
Noting her difficulties with
understanding the purpose of the
app, I decided to create a series of
welcome screens to show what the
app does. I also gave each student a
different name to make the app look
more realistic.
•
And now what you’ve all been
waiting for…

6. THE PROTOTYPE

7. “I don't want any vegetables, thank you. I paid for the
cow to eat them for me.”
– Douglas Coupland