Tutor Connect
This capstone project was created through a mentor guided UX design bootcamp. Over the course of 4 months, I was responsible for the whole process from the concept and research to the prototype and visual design.
The Problem
Parents struggle to find reliable tutoring options for their children. Many families seek trusted tutors to ease the burden of academic support at home and make a positive impact on academic success, but they don’t know where to find them.
The Goal
Create a platform to connect parents of elementary aged children with local educators who can support their learning and growth beyond the classroom.
Competitive Analysis
Three well known direct competitors were analyzed to determine the position for Tutor Connect. The companies were evaluated based on usability heuristics criteria and thousands of user reviews showing the following areas for improvement and of opportunity for Tutor Connect:
Scope of available tutors was too large
Acts like an AI generated search and answer interface
Memberships are too expensive
No option for free or trial versions
Mainly based on a virtual tutoring model
Geared towards high school and college level students
User Interviews
Four user interviews were conducted to capture the experiences and insights of participants who previously hired a tutor for their child.
The interviews proved my initial predictions of user pain points were wrong. The research indicated parents should value in-person tutoring sessions to encourage a strong tutor-student relationship. Instead, the interviews resulted in the following key takeaways.
User Personas
Two personas were defined to represent different user types and keep all design decisions aligned with the user in mind. Initially, three user types were identified but this was the turning point in the design process. I removed the third persona to focus solely on elementary tutoring prospects, since the market for older students is more saturated.
User Flow
The app needed to provide a simple and straightforward way to locate, search, contact, and book a tutor. This approach gives users a clear path to finding and hiring a tutor, while still giving them the option to “undo” at any step in the process.
Sketches
By putting pen and paper, the roughly sketched version of the screens became the first tangible representation of the red routes.
Wireframes
I used Balsamiq to translate the paper and pen sketches into a digital format in which the wireframes can fully focus on the layout, content, and functionality of the design. The wire flow simulates a roadmap of the red route user flows using interactions to help users to accomplish their main objective- booking a session with a tutor.
Low Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing
Users completed the following task scenarios over two rounds of testing. All issues with the prototype from critical to minor were recorded and prioritized for the next iteration. Shown here are some of the changes made to the profile page based on users reported issues with the hierarchy and readability.
Visual Design
The mood board was inspired by elementary school classics- colored pencils and colorful books accented with the black and white of a chalkboard.
After an outdated attempt at the first round designs, a renewed style guide kept it unified with the visual feel and expectations for the project. The colors used are whimsical and fun, the icons were created with a combination of curved lines to evoke a simple, classic style, and the typography uses the clean lines of Roboto to emphasize a sense of familiarity and comfort.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Learnings
Designing for multiple users is too ambitious. Focusing solely on parents allowed me to delve deeper into their specific pain points, goals, and expectations.
“Done is the engine of more.” It was easy to get hyper focused at making each step of the process feel and look less messy than the reality of the design process requires it to be.
Remind participants that it’s a prototype- not a working app. Realigning their expectations would have helped gather the most feedback.
“Testing early and often” is crucial but so is interviewing potential users. There were many misconceptions I formed about what users may want that were challenged in the screener and interview findings.