Our goal was to revolutionize the school selection process for parents by providing a user-friendly platform that simplifies the search for the perfect educational institution for their children.
We aim to empower parents with comprehensive information, personalized recommendations, and intuitive scheduling tools to navigate the vast array of school options effortlessly.
Over the course of three weeks, this project was structured into three main phases: product strategy, information design, and communicating design. Each week was dedicated to a specific aspect of the project, allowing for a comprehensive approach to developing the SchoolWise app.
During the discovery process we delved deeper into understanding the challenges parents face when choosing a school for their children. With thorough review of extensive research interviews that were previously conducted by Our Kids, a Canadian school information database, we uncovered diverse perspectives and pain points, ranging from concern about class size and special needs accommodations to the importance of location and curriculum flexibility.
After organizing our findings through affinity mapping, we were able to synthesize several key insights. Parents consistently emphasized their need for personalized guidance and streamlined information when navigating the school selection process.
Moreover, it became evident that parents prioritize various factors based on their child's individual needs and circumstances. Interestingly, many stressed the significance of gut instinct in their decision-making journey, often shaped after visiting a school in-person.
Empathizing with real people played a pivotal role in defining the problem we are working to solve.
Parents need a solution that simplifies the school search process in order to make well-informed decisions with confidence.
During the ideation phase, we engaged in brainstorming session to generate a list of potential features aimed at addressing the needs of our users. We then organized these features by order of importance and feasibility.
After careful consideration, we selected 3 primary features that would form the core of our minimum viable product. These features were:
In designing this feature our focus was on creating a seamless user experience for inputting crucial information about the parents need such as logistics and finances, as well as what each individual child needs in a school.
After considering various options for gathering user information, we initially explored the idea of implementing a quiz accessible from the top section of the dashboard.
Additionally, we considered a fully customizable profile form. This would gather the same information as the quiz in an a manual input way.
Following usability testing, we observed that the action card featuring the quiz was overlooked. As a result we decided to integrate the quiz directly into the onboarding process to ensure users engaged with it more effectively.
The in-app scheduling platform emerged as a vital component, influenced by our recognition of the pivotal role school visits play in parents' decision-making process, as revealed in our interview analysis. Our approach focused on establishing a seamless journey from the school profile to the confirmation notice, ensuring a straightforward and intuitive experience for users.
The usability task flow for the scheduling app yielded positive results, as all participants successfully completed the task and provided feedback indicating that the process was straightforward. This reassurance validated our approach and confirmed that we were moving in the right direction.
As a result, we proceeded to high-fidelity prototyping with confidence. During this phase, we focused on iterating the structure of the appointment details page, recognizing its potential as a space for schools to leave notes about appointments and for users to take their own notes.