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SchoolScout
Case Study
SchoolScout was a 3 week sprint focused on researching and improving the experience parents have when searching for schools for their children. This was a student project while at the Flatiron School, and includes research/discovery, UX, and UI.
Role
Lead UX Designer
Tools
Figma
Procreate
Overview
Problem Statement
Parents have to recruit many different sources to gather information on private school options for their children.
Goal
Understand how parents decide where to send their children to school, and develop a tool to help them to do so.
Target Market
Parents!
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Expecting parents
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Parents with multiple children
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Parents of children with special needs
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Parents curious about private school
…and more!
Research
Sprint 1
Interviews
Six interviews were supplied with parents who had already made the decision to enroll their children in private schools. The interviews were structured to explore the decision-making process comprehensively. They focused on factors considered, research methods employed, and the ultimate criteria for choosing a school. Some key findings were extracted:
1
Gut Instinct vs. Research
Some parents relied heavily on intuition, making gut decisions about the school choice, while others engaged in extensive research over prolonged periods.
2
Confidence in their Decision
Despite varying approaches, all parents expressed confidence in their decision, believing it to be the right choice for their child.
3
Diverse Priorities
Parents prioritized different aspects such as academic rigor, emotional development, diversity, and more, reflecting the diverse needs and preferences within the parent community.
The interview findings shed light on the nuanced decision-making process of parents when selecting private schools for their children, proving how the decision is ultimately an emotional one.
The interview findings shed light on the nuanced decision-making process of parents when selecting private schools for their children, proving how the decision is ultimately an emotional one.
While a phone app cannot make a parent's decision for them, it can help them gather the resources and tools needed to feel informed and confident.
User Persona
A user persona was created after carefully analyzing the supplied interviews.
Natasha James
A working married mother of two who wants the best for her kids.
Potential App Features
To align with Natasha's personal goals and preferences, we'll compile a feature list for the mobile app. It's essential to prioritize the overarching goals of the target audience when determining the primary components of the app's functionality.
Goals
Must-Haves
Research schools on the fly​
Compare statistics from different schools
Save favorite schools to a personal list
Track application deadlines and other events
See personalized school recommendations
School Search Tool
School Profiles
Ability to Save/Favorite Schools
Personal Calendar
Questionnaire
Decision-Making Processes
After studying the results from the supplied interviews and focusing on creating a user persona, we can expect emotions to have a substantial impact on Natasha's decision for her daughters.
“Emotions can act as a compass, pointing you toward what matters most to you and what aligns with your values.”
Emotions swiftly condense an experience, enabling us to quickly evaluate and respond to situations. However, it's vital to balance emotional insights with logical reasoning by engaging the rational mind. This transition allows us to move from an impulsive, reactive emotional system to a more contemplative, flexible, and strategic approach, ensuring a more thorough and informed decision-making process.
And when the decision affects their kids' well-being, we know parents will do everything in their power to ensure they are making the best decision for their family.
If we examine the path the average person takes to make a decision, we can discover more ways to help our users.
The emotional "gut" decision is made quickly. It's crucial to ensure that our users are well-informed and confident before reaching that instinct. We can streamline the extensive data involved in this decision by presenting it through visuals and consolidated statistics.
We can assign a ScoutScore to each school. A ScoutScore will be a letter grade encapsulating key school aspects. This grading system enables us to swiftly communicate the overall prestige of a school to our users.
We can create a feature that generates visuals for comparing schools side-by-side. We can illustrate the variations in values and priorities among different schools with graphs and charts, empowering parents to make quicker, more informed decisions about which schools align best with their needs.
Ideation
Sprint 2
Rapid Sketches
Rapid sketching was employed to generate an abundance of low-fidelity ideas for different screens of the mobile app. The first focus was on the Dashboard screen and the app's Universal Navigation Bar. The Must-Have features determined during the Research stage were prioritized in the design of this screen, to ensure users had an efficient way to achieve the main user goals.
The Home/Dashboard Screen allows users to see curated recommendations as well as a preview of their Favorite saved schools.
The Search Screen features a variety of ways for users to search for schools, including a type search, a map search, explore buttons, and more.
The Calendar Screen includes the user's personalized calendar with Saved deadlines, open houses, appointments, etc.
The User Profile Screen houses the app settings, the user's family information, the Questionnaire, community forums, and Favorites List.
User Flows
Focusing on the primary functions of the app, low-fidelity user flows were drafted to explore efficiency and intent.
Flow 1
Start on the Dashboard screen. Find a school in a specific county and save the school as a Favorite.
Flow 2
Start on the Dashboard screen. Add a personal alert for a deadline listed in your Calendar.
Flow 3
Start on the Dashboard screen. Compare two of your Favorited schools in your Profile.
Usability Testing
An in-person moderated usability test was conducted for the 3 user flows, using the low-fidelity Figma prototypes. A few insights are highlighted:
1
Premature Filter Buttons
Participant's Stats
Filter buttons in Flow 1 appeared too early. Filter buttons should appear after the user has initiated the search, either in the Search Bar or the Map Search.
2
Calendar Confusion
The participant was confused as to what was represented below the Calendar. She was unsure if the items were filter checkboxes or saved events. Separate a Filter Add option from the Events scroll.
3
Overall Ease
After completing the three user tasks, the participant felt satisfied. She mentioned the flows were intuitive and clear.
Style & Logo Design
Determining the Tone
SchoolScout is for parents, and therefore needs to appeal to parents. We want the overall tone to be formal, to exude prestige associated with private schools, yet have a fun flair to ease the sometimes stressful process of deciding on a school.
Chewy SemiBold
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Avenir Light
Intentional Color Palette
SchoolScout's colors mimic a school campus in early fall at the start of the year. The elegant and clean design and color palette will evoke the feelings of a fresh start.
Memorable Logo
SchoolScout's logo is recognizable and on-brand, employing the same title font, Chewy, in bold, as well as including a hand-drawn negative space-styled emblem of a literary raccoon.
Final Prototype
Sprint 3
Achieving High-Fidelity
From Low-Fidelity
Helping Parents Make Decisions
By including specific tools in the SchoolScout app, we can empower parents to feel informed and confident in their decision-making process, whether they arrive at a decision quickly or take their time to deliberate. Some ways we did this include:
Scout Score
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Consolidated data
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Quick overview
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Cumulation of relevant statistics
Compare Screen
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Customizable
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Interactive
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Side-by-side statistics
Charts & Visuals
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Communicative
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Multiple views
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Focuses on a variety of priorities
Reflection
Was the problem solved?
We can provide the most efficient and thorough tools to deliver information to parents searching for private schools for their children, but we cannot make the decision for them. We only hope SchoolScout eases the stress that comes with this decision and streamlines the process.
What was learned?
It is imperative to focus on the main functionality of the app first, versus building the flashy features without an established structure.
What are the next steps?
Continue to expand on the must-have and should-have features, including:
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Parent Questionnaire
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School Database
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Compare Map View
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School "Learn More" Page
...and conduct usability tests on the high-fidelity prototype.
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