Class Connect App
Background
The client is a nonprofit, parent cooperative preschool located in Missoula, Montana. Their philosophy is based on four core values including academic excellence, place-based education, environmental stewardship and community. The school relies on active parent involvement of all its families. Parents are encouraged to take an active role in their child’s education with the belief that “children do best when the adults in their lives work together”. The result is a close-knit community that relies on the knowledge and strengths of all nurturing personal growth and creative expression. This school, like many others, was affected greatly by the pandemic. From challenges surrounding staffing, funding and safely navigating in person learning, school administrators and teachers struggled to maintain many of their core values but perhaps most significantly was the lack of a community. Covid restrictions made it impossible for families to be involved in the ways they were before and teachers, students and the school culture suffered. As a nonprofit, the school relies heavily on support from parents and the surrounding community and requires each family to complete a minimum of 30 parent hours throughout the school year. Parents can volunteer for classroom jobs, building and playground maintenance, administrative support, committee work, field trips , fundraising and more. These volunteer opportunities not only help the school run smoothly but help bolster the larger school community and provide opportunities for parents and students to connect.
Problem
After successfully navigating the challenges of Covid and adopting new policies and protocols to safely operate moving forward they are ready to reinvest in their community. In the past year the school has seen more involvement as families begin to feel more comfortable stepping back into classrooms and gathering publicly. Hoping to build off of this momentum the client needed a way for parents to easily connect and find ways to volunteer.
User Research
Goal: Determine needs and challenges surrounding finding and completing volunteer opportunities, tracking completed parent hours and connecting with community members.
Potential Users for this app consisted mostly of currently enrolled families consisting of parents, extended family members (grandparents, aunts/uncles, caregivers) and potential or incoming families.
I utilized a quick initial google survey of currently enrolled families to determine general experiences of the school so far.
Using the survey results I narrowed my focus for my user research script and contacted a diverse group of survey respondents for one-on-one user interviews.
Personas
After conducting user interviews I analyzed my recordings and notes to identify challenges, significant pain points and potential features. I developed three separate personas to represent individual users and their unique experience. I referenced these throughout my next steps as I determined key features, flows and initial wireframes.
User Flows
My research determined three main features for this app.
• Class Directory
• Volunteer Opportunity Portal
• Parent Hour Tracker
Primary Users: Parents,
Additional Users: Family Members, Caregivers and Teachers
Important Considerations
• Simple and clear sign up/login process for variety of users a various levels of comfort with technology
• Easy steps to determine family member roles, option add additional parents and family members
parents/family members.
• Easy steps to add children, opt in to directory, input info
• Require only baseline contact info to streamline process<view user flow>
The Lo-Fi prototype was developed with ease of access and simplicity as the primary focus. Users should be able to complete sign up, input information and complete all the necessary steps in one flow to have full access to all features without additional onboarding required.
Important Considerations
Clean, consistent look, limited copy, simple primary and secondary buttons
Walkthrough steps to add children, invite additional parents/family members and input directory information on initial sign up
Integrated quick sign up for volunteer opportunities, with add to calendar option
Toggle between children to easily view features for each child’s classroom
Usability Testing
Key Findings
There are two distinct types of roles users can select, Parent (primary) and Family Member (secondary). Parents have full access while Family members have restricted access that does not allow them to add/edit children, opt in/out or update class directory information or add additional family members.
An additional user flow with separate restricted access to screens was added.
UI Design | view style guide!
The lo-fi prototype gave important insights into the flow for the user, specifically the need for intuitive interactions, short task flows and an easy to navigate user interface. When considering design elements I explored both the use of primary and secondary colors from the initial logo design for the key features including the class directory, volunteer portal and parent hour log. Users noted that there needed to be clear distinction between each feature which lead to my decision for a color palette that include 6 colors-primary red, yellow and green for the features and task pages and secondary red, aqua and blue for the initial login and account creation flows.
Hi-Fi Prototype | view here!
Designing the hi-fi version of the app required careful consideration design elements including color palette, logo, font and button styles.
Next Steps
Additional features and interactions may include:
• Direct messaging between parents and teachers
• File hosting and upload features for student forms and documents
• Newsfeed to share student work and classroom updates
• Mass messaging for school updates, announcements and newsletters
• Integrated Classroom and School Calendars
With new features, potential users may include classroom teachers and school administrative staff.