Skir

A comprehensive field trip management platform connecting schools with local businesses and organizations.

Role: Product Designer

Date: January 2022 - May 2022

Team: Hannah P., Amy Z., Angela W., Darin H.

Introduction

Skir, a project at DataReady, is a mobile app that facilitates communication between schools and field trip hosts. As a member of the UX team, I participated in the creation of a prototype and focused on designing for the school administrator user group.

Research

Understanding the User

We began our work by gathering requirements and determining the main tasks for the four user groups. Each member of the team was in charge of a user group; I designed primarily for school administrators. Administrators’ main role in the field trip process involves approving bookings and collecting paperwork.

At the outset, we didn’t have a clear picture of current field trip procedures and conducted user interviewing with teachers and business owners to determine our direction.

We then created user flows based on prototype requirements and the feedback that we received.

Interview Findings

- Principals grant and deny trip proposals from lead teachers
- Teachers would like a feature allowing them to upload permission slips and track their completion
- It takes considerable time for hosts to check in visiting groups, so it would be helpful to be able to view class details such as a roster to ensure documents are all signed

Booking a field tripPublishing trip profile

Wireframing

Initial Wireframes

Following user interviewing, each member created a set of wireframes for their user group. We divided our app into 4 sections: trips, search trips, messages, and profile. Universal app features were messaging and user profiles, while the other 2 sections’ content varied for each user group. After lo-fi wireframing, we gained a clearer picture of user needs and expanded from the 4 main screens.

Basic wireframes

For school admin, their trips tab displays the trips that they’ve booked for a class, where they’re led to a profile that enables them to upload documents and submit payments. This section allows them to access the trips they oversee.

Trip profile

Admin are additionally able to browse trips. This design was inspired by apps like Yelp and Airbnb, which display results according to location. Distance from school to trip venue is a consideration for bookings to allow trips to fit within class schedules.

Browse trips

Usability Testing

Interviewing for Usability

We tested our wireframes on a group of 8 people, comprised of teachers, business owners, and parents.

What we set out to discover

- How closely the app’s process resembles current procedure
- Whether app functions cover the necessary parts of trip booking

What we found

- Teachers would like a cost filter when searching for trips as schools have budgetary restrictions they must take into account
- Parents and teachers would like to see facility information so they can understand the educational benefits of the trip
- Users liked being able to book and manage trips on the same platform
- Users like bookmarks: they can return to trips they’re interested in finding out more about and possibly booking

Refining

Applying Changes from Feedback

We revised our prototype after identifying our biggest usability errors and reassessing the scope of our project based on feedback from usability testing. We synthesized our findings and highlighted the main points of focus for each user group.

Teachers

Having more options when searching for trips

Being able to create their own trip profiles, for field trips not listed on the app

Administrators

Improving the booking process at each stage

Better defining the division of tasks with teachers

Parents

Making the process of completing forms and payment easier to understand

Trip hosts

Giving the ability to add more details about their
organization/business to better communicate the educational value of their trip offerings

My work designing for school admin involved diving deeper into the booking process. Usability testing led us to reconsider teachers’ and administrators’ roles in booking the trips. With some confusion over their individual tasks, our team settled on a process that more clearly defined their parts in a way that still connected the two user groups to the same trip.

We then looked closer into the app procedure for administrators after trip booking approval. By allowing them to upload documents and set payment then make the trip profile public, parents are able to complete all forms and pay fees immediately once they gain access to the profile.

Booking trip process

We went through several versions of the screen that admin view before they make the trip profile public. We tried different variations in order to make tasks stand out and make the call-to-action for publishing the profile more viewable.

Trip profile ideas

Reflection

Final Product and Takeaways

After an additional round of user testing, we created our final reiteration of the prototype. We made changes to address the feedback we received then delivered the prototype to the team of developers.

This was my first major project working with a team of other designers on something of this scale. Being a part of Skir allowed me to greatly improve my skills in design thinking, and I gained greater insight into understanding how to manage the scope of a project and understanding how tradeoffs must be made.