Apex Academy Parent Portal

Picture this: stacks of forms, long waits, and the stress of in-person school enrollment. That's the reality parents at Apex Academy were dealing with. I knew we could make it better, and this project is the story of how we brought a simple, digital solution to their community. And honestly, I'm bursting to show you how we transformed that experience! As the project lead, I poured my heart into every detail, and I'm so excited to share the journey with you – seeing how design can truly make a difference is what drives me.

Role

Project Lead, UX/UI Designer

Company

Year

Brandhut Ltd

2023

Challenge

You know when you see a place doing amazing things, but you also see a little something that could be easier? That was Apex Academy for me. They're doing incredible work with their students, but their school enrollment was all on paper. Imagine trying to get your kid enrolled that way! Parents had to physically go to the school and fill out tons of forms. It wasn't just time-consuming, it was a real hassle. And then, once their kids were in school, parents couldn't really keep up with their progress day-to-day. They couldn't easily see how their kids were doing or get real-time updates. Plus, getting in touch with the teachers was a bit tricky. It just felt like there was a way to make life a little smoother for everyone, especially for parents trying to juggle everything.

Solution

So, my team and I thought, 'Let's see if we can help.' We really wanted to make things easier, not just for the school, but for the parents too. We started by actually talking to people – parents and teachers – to see what was causing the most frustration. Then, we used that information to design a digital system that felt simple and intuitive. Think of it like making a website or app that just makes sense. We wanted to get rid of the paper mess and make it easy to get in touch with the school. We focused on making things feel friendly and easy to use, so everyone could have a better experience. And honestly, it was so rewarding to see how a little bit of design could make such a big difference.

The Process

The design thinking process served as the foundation for our work at Apex Academy. We began by empathizing with parents and staff through research, followed by defining the core problems, ideating potential solutions, prototyping and testing, and ultimately delivering a refined digital platform. This iterative approach ensured we created a solution that truly met the needs of the school community.

User Interview

I conducted three parent interviews to gain insight into their experiences at Apex Academy.

Questions

1. What’s your routine like from when you wake up to when you take the kids to school?

2. What was your child’s school enrolment process like?

3. How else do you communicate with the school admins aside from phone calls?

4. Does the school have a website/app? If the school is to have a website/app, what features would you suggest the school should have?

Affinity Mapping

To gain a deeper understanding of the parent interview responses and identify opportunities for improving their school experiences, I utilized an affinity mapping technique. This approach involved organizing and categorizing the responses and insights into related groups, which allowed me to discover common themes, pain points, and potential solutions. By visually representing the data in this way, I was able to discern patterns and relationships that informed the design of more effective and user-centered solutions.

How Might We’s

Based on the gathered insights, a series of 'How Might We' questions were formulated to guide the exploration of potential UX solutions and drive innovation.

After generating a wide range of potential solutions, the team collaborated to evaluate and prioritize them. Each member contributed their individual ideas, and then collectively casted votes to determine which solutions to pursue first. The solutions that received the most votes were then selected to serve as the foundation for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which would be further developed and refined based on ongoing feedback and testing.

As the project progressed, the stakeholders insisted on including additional features, despite the team's advice to keep the initial release simple. The stakeholders emphasized that they already had an existing system in place, so the team ultimately incorporated the requested features into the design. This required adjustments to the original plan, but we remained committed to delivering a high-quality product that met the stakeholders' needs.

User Persona & Empathy Map

The creation of a user persona and empathy map was an important step in the design process, as it helped the team and stakeholders to develop a deep understanding of their target user, empathize with their needs and pain points, and maintain a user-centred approach throughout the design and development process.