Practice Makes Perfect is a nonprofit organization that was established in 2011 by Karim Abouelnaga. They partnered with schools and community organizations to deliver tailored instruction, mentorship, and enrichment programs.
A mission to address educational disparities, the organization focuses on providing valuable summer learning opportunities to students in underserved communities.
Need to create a platform for both our
interventionists and site leaders in order to
track student performance,
manage interventionist attendance,
and
encourage on time attendance
respectively to for all classroom sessions.
Build a user-friendly attendance tracking & reporting platform
that empowers interventionists and site leaders to streamline daily tasks.
This platform would address the challenges associated with traditional paper-based tracking and reporting.
When designing this tracking and reporting platform, I needed to consider the following target audiences:
They are the primary users of this platform who will sign into assigned schools and report student performance.
The platform should be user-friendly, minimalist design, and aligned with the current brand guidlines.
This platform would address the challenges associated with paper-based attendance tracking methods. Also, this platform would confront the challenges that Site Leaders are currently facing with the traditional handwritten reporting.
In the research phase, I dove deep into their website, dissecting their brand identity, this analysis revealed how their website reflects their brand image. Additionally, I spoke directly with the CEO and the employees, uncovering their goals, frustrations, and specific challenges. These conversations provided crucial knowledge about the company's vision and how it translates into the user experience.
Ensure the platform is
easy to navigate
For both interventionists and site managers
Support various
question types
multiple choice, short answer, open-ended...
Can you walk me through a typical day
as an interventionist?
Sure, a typical day for me involves meeting with students for individual or small group sessions based on their needs. I spend a lot of time planning engaging lessons that target specific learning gaps.
How do you feel about the current process
of signing into your assigned school?
I often can have a hard time remembering to fill out the reporting form at their site right now. I have no time to do it while giving my focus to the students. I think the apps check-in process should happen right from the start.
What are some of the biggest frustrations that you experience with the current system for tracking student progress?
I often can have a hard time remembering to fill out the reporting form at their site right now. I have no time to do it while giving my focus to the students. I think the apps check-in process should happen right from the start.
If you could design the perfect platform for interventionists,
what features would you include?
A perfect platform would definitely streamline communication with teachers. Imagine being able to send quick updates on student progress after each session, all within the same platform.
Can you walk me through a typical day
as an Site Leader?
My day revolves around managing a team of interventionists, ensuring they have the resources and support they need. This includes scheduling sessions, overseeing professional development, and collaborating with teachers on student progress.
What are some of the biggest frustrations you experience
with the current system for tracking student progress?
The current system creates information silos between interventionists and teachers. This makes it difficult to develop an approach to supporting struggling students.
What kind of impact would a more efficient system
have on your overall job satisfaction?
A more efficient system would free up valuable time for my team to focus on professional development and building stronger relationships with students.
By engaging in conversations with existing potential users, I developed two distinct personas that represent typical user archetypes within Practice Makes Perfect. Creating personas was beneficial for me as it provided a deeper understanding of the users' needs, goals, motivations, and pain points.
"Having the goal of becoming a teacher after finishing school is a deeply meaningful aspiration for me."
Age
21
Education
College
Location
New York
Occupation
Student/ Interventionist
"As a site manager, it is crucial to effectively keep track of interventionists, ensuring their assignments are managed efficiently, progress is monitored, and their support needs are met."
Age
30
Education
College
Location
New York
Occupation
Student/ Interventionist
I then created an empathy map to understand and empathize with Practice Makes Perfect's primary users. This tool helps me see things from the user's perspective. By analyzing their goals, frustrations, actions, and emotions, I can design a more user-centered platform.
The insights from the personas and empathy map fueled the creation of a user journey map, visualizing their steps within the platform and pinpointing several pain points. This map guides us to design a user-centered experience for Practice Makes Perfect.
Ensure the platform is
on-the-go & mobile friendly,
For both interventionists and site managers
simple & efficient
to create a digital product that saves users time.
These three main pain points highlight the need for a digital platform that streamlines tasks, provides real-time information, and offers data-driven insights to support both student progress and interventionist effectiveness.
Interventionists rely heavily on manual tasks. This leads to wasted time, frustration, and a higher risk of errors
Struggle to access data, location, or schedule updates. Uncertainty and potential disruptions occur.
Manually analyzing paper records makes it challenging to track progress effectively over time. Additionally, interventionists have limited insight into their own performance metrics, curbs ability to improve their impact.
I focused on creating a simplified IA map that prioritizes the core functionalities I need every day. This way, the app feels intuitive and user-friendly. Of course, there's always room for growth. Further user research and project requirements can help us identify additional subcategories and features that would make Practice Makes Perfect an even more powerful tool in our intervention toolbox.
Overall, this user flow aims to provide a smooth and efficient login experience for interventionists, allowing them to quickly access the app's features and fulfill their duties at assigned schools.
In this phase, I translated conceptual ideas into tangible sketches and digital wireframes. These wireframes were simple, grayscale representations that focused on capturing the core functionalities and content without getting into detailed visual design.
In this phase, I translated conceptual ideas into tangible sketches and digital wireframes. These wireframes were simple, grayscale representations that focused on capturing the core functionalities and content without getting into detailed visual design.
After conducting usability testing, several valuable insights emerged:
During testing, users might express confusion about the purpose of the QR code sign-in feature. Some users might even feel apprehensive about scanning a QR code due to privacy concerns.
Difficulty Finding Specific Information in Student Profiles. Users might have trouble locating specific information within student profiles, especially if the wireframes present overwhelming amounts of data.
New users, particularly those unfamiliar with similar apps, find the initial experience overwhelming based on the wireframes.
These were the main changes made following the usability study:
Initially I considered using a star rating system for progress tracking within the app. This was influenced by users’ familiarity with similar systems in apps like Yelp and Uber. But based on valuable feedback from usability testing, I opted to refine the design by implementing a 1-4 numbered slider for progress tracking.
Early iterations presented the QR code sign-in as a simple icon within the app. This approach, while potentially space-saving, fell short in user testing. Users struggled to understand the icon's purpose. The sign-in feature deserved a more prominent role within the app. The solution: transforming it into a central element on the home screen.
I opted for the 8-point grid system as its foundation. It was all about creating a responsive and scalable app. With the 8-point grid, each element's size and spacing is determined by multiples of 8 pixels. As screen sizes change across devices, the grid system acts as a flexible framework. This focus on scalability ensures the app is polished, on-brand, and functions flawlessly regardless of the device an interventionist uses.
The app replaces paper-based processes with digital tools, saving time and effort for interventionists.
“As we enter the next phase of development post-handover, we are excited to explore new possibilities and further enhance our app's capabilities. Our app will play a vital role in empowering our employees to make a meaningful impact in the lives of students. We recognize the importance of providing our staff with a user-friendly and intuitive app that supports their efforts in creating positive educational experiences.”
- Karim Abouelnaga, CEO
These were the main learnings made following the final handoff:
During testing, users might express confusion about the purpose of the QR code sign-in feature. Some users might even feel apprehensive about scanning a QR code due to privacy concerns.
Difficulty Finding Specific Information in Student Profiles. Users might have trouble locating specific information within student profiles, especially if the wireframes present overwhelming amounts of data.
