Better School Choice
| Overview
Deliverables
Role
Timeline
Industry
Problem
Constraints
Goal
Impact
| Discovery
The client seeks assistance in understanding the factors influencing parents' decisions regarding what schools their children attend, as part of launching a new product.
Qualitative Interviews
Key Insights
- Unanimous focus on children’s well-being in every aspect of the process.
- The main initial consideration was the school’s class size, then cost, location, and academics.
- However, the biggest deciding factor was gut reaction from in-person meetings, tours, and the school's interaction with their children.
Empathy Map
This helped me build a road map on what are the similarities across each parents to outline for the design.
Pain Points
Unable to meet criteria
Hard to compare
Lack of clear tour options
Competitive Analysis
Key insights from the competitive analysis show that competitors (Public School Review, GreatSchools, Niche, and CollegeSimply) primarily target the American market and offer basic school comparison features.
However, they lack integrated cross-platform reviews and direct messaging with schools, instead redirecting users to external websites or email.
How might we...
| Ideation
Before creating the wireframes, I started to prioritized key features using MoSCoW and the Eisenhower method. I also developed task scenarios to best aligned with the parents' pain points and goals.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
I conduct paper Crazy 8s for rapid ideation to generate diverse design ideas. From there, I converged on the frames that best suited the platform and created additional frames to ensure smoother transitions for each task flow.
User Flows
To optimize the overall user journey, I created user task flows to better understand the specific steps users take when completing tasks. This identify key decisions parents face during their search.
Mid-Fidelity Mock-Ups
| Testing
Usability Testing Findings
- Users were have a hard time going back to the previous page as there was no visible button.
- Users struggled to understand some icons at first glance, as their use is not immediately clear to them.
- Users have a difficulty finding where to add the school to compare.
- Users took the longest on the first task as they tend to explore other pages.
Usability Testing Parameters
1. Study type
2. Location
3. Length
4. Participants
5. Participants demographics
- Parents and guardians aged 30-49
- Have school-aged children (K-12)
- Located in America
- Excludes adults without children or with children over 18 years old
Task Scenarios
- You are a parent looking to transfer your child to a school with smaller class sizes. You have a few schools in mind and want to compare their similarities and differences. Find a way to compare school details.
- You are a parent visiting schools to observe how teachers and staff interact with your child, as this is key to a positive environment. Find where you can schedule a school tour.
- You prioritize the experiences of other parents and students when choosing a school for your child. Find reviews or testimonials from individuals who have attended the school you are considering.
| Refining
I made action recommendations based on usability testing and refined the designs after each round.
Increased Findability
Added Back Button
Optimized Button Placement
| Design
Highlights of my UI design process include selecting colors, fonts, and creating the overall feel, while ensuring inclusivity in every aspect.
Color Meaning
When choosing the color scheme, I wanted to create a sense of wisdom and intelligence—qualities deeply tied to education. Blue and yellow, a classic pairing in learning environments, became the foundation. To add a fresh and inviting touch, I introduced light blue, bringing vibrancy and a unique energy to the design.
Accessibility Considerations
Icon with text
Contrast level
Readability
Uniformity
Icons without labels made it difficult for users to understand their purpose. To improve clarity and consistency, the list/map button was changed to a standalone map icon.
| Conclusion
The final high-fidelity prototype showed a smooth user flow for completing actions the app and design to have a modern yet fun design to attract gamers from different backgrounds.
Results
Key improvements from testing include:
- 96% of users were satisfied with the tasks
- 91% success rate of users successfully completing the tasks
Reflection
When indicating initial time, I should consider adding more time allotted to the first task as user will explore the interface.
