CLASS MANAGEMENT APP

Potencia

English Tutoring for Immigrants

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  • CONTEXT

    Potencia is a non-profit organization that offers low-cost English education to first-generation immigrants in the US. They do this by recruiting college students as tutors and holding sessions on various campuses.

  • SKILLS

    User Flow Design - Prototyping - Wireframing - Graphic Design - User Research

  • MY ROLE

    Lead UX Designer

    This is a class assignment for a Human Factors Product Design at Tufts University.

    I was part of a team consisting of 5 individuals for a duration of 6 months. We worked very closely with the founders, Amanda and Jun.

  • TOOLS

    Figma - Adobe Illustrator - Adobe Photoshop

DESIGN THINKING

  • EMPATHIZE

    Research - Interviews - Insights

  • DEFINE

    User Needs - Problem - Solution

  • IDEATE

    Features - Initial Designs

  • PROTOTYPE

    High-Fidelity Screens - Prototype

  • TEST

    Test - Feedback - Iterations

EMPATHIZE & DEFINE

USER RESEARCH

After conducting stakeholder interviews with Potencia’s founders, we got a better understanding of their current booking system. We conducted several user interviews with both Potencia tutors and students in order to better understand the problem and their needs.

THE PROBLEM

The tutor-student matching system is completely done manually

  1. The student fills out a registration form.

  2. The student’s name is added to a spreadsheet, in which they are paired with a tutor based on their general weekly schedule compatibility.

  3. Potencia creates a group chat on WhatsApp and they both agree on a weekly meeting time.

PAIN POINTS

STUDENT PAIN POINTS

  • Prefer texting to emailing

  • Have multiple tutors for the sake of scheduling

  • Large language barrier for beginner learners

  • Inconsistent schedules

TUTOR PAIN POINTS

  • Demotivation due to last-minute cancellations or no-shows

USER NEEDS

STUDENT NEEDS

  • Easy rescheduling

  • Familiar chat feature

  • Smaller language barrier

  • Freedom to pick their tutor

TUTOR NEEDS

  • Few cancellations

  • Close connection to students

THE SOLUTION

Design a mobile app that allows students to:

  • Pick their tutor

  • Book a session

  • Cancel a session in advance

  • Chat with their tutor with translation

IDEATE

WIREFRAMES

To come up with the best solution, I led the team through a design sprint in order to explore different features and organization options. We came up with the following wireframes:

PROTOTYPE

HIGH-FIDELITY SCREENS

Our Scheduling Home Page features tags and a concise description for each tutor, enabling students to select the most suitable one.

The booking confirmation page also includes a cancellation policy to avoid no-shows.

Tutor Browsing

Tutor Selected

Book Tutor

We designed a personalized calendar for students to manage and check the sessions they already booked, as well as add another.

Cancellations are also clearly accessible through rescheduling and cancelling buttons under the respective booking.

Calendar

To further streamline the student's search, we incorporated filtering options for a faster find.

Our chat interface features a user-friendly design that students find intuitive and easy to navigate due to its familiarity. To enhance functionality, we added an image-sharing feature to enable students to share their homework with tutors, facilitating more effective learning.

We have also implemented a translation button under every message to reduce language barriers and ensure seamless communication between students and tutors.

Messages

Add Image

Translated

Filter - Teaching Mode

Filters

TEST

FUTURE DIRECTION

If we had more time, we would have performed usability tests for both tutors and students.

We would have also organized focus groups to better cater for the users.

As someone who grew up in a non-English speaking country, I understand the challenges that come from moving somewhere new, but I cannot imagine how hard it is doing so with limited language proficiency. That's why I found Potencia's mission particularly inspiring and was thrilled to contribute to making their platform more efficient and automated.

I also had the pleasure of working with a fantastic team. Group dynamics can be challenging, especially in the context of design projects, but I found our design sprints to be a highly innovative and engaging approach that enabled each team member to contribute and be heard.

REFLECTIONS

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