Pythagoras

Cool For School

My Role: UX Designer

THE CHALLENGE

Did you do your homework?

When is the math test?

How was school?

These questions are asked in the majority of households in Israel that have school-aged children. Isn't it strange that nowadays we find most information fast and available to us, but still these questions are asked?

Parents, being parents want to know about homework, exams, friends, and other school and social related issues. They want to get reminders and information from a reliable source.

Children, being children are sometimes forgetful or embarrassed and tend to deliver information partially, late, or not at all.

Most parents communicate directly with the teacher only once or twice a year at the scheduled parent's meeting, which makes real-time problem solving difficult.

Teacher

Dependent on student compliance with tasks
Disorganized in managing the flow of information
Lack of involvement and cooperation from parents

Child

Forgetfulness
Hiding
Late or partial delivery of information

Parent

Not knowing
Great effort needed to remain involved
Feels left out
Things that could have been caught in time - "missed the train"

THE PROCESS

From my research, I was surprised to discover that:

Academic scores and achievements are less important for parents than behavioral feedback.
Parents expressed a need to be informed by teachers about their child's positive behavior and not just the “red flags”.

The research helped me define 3 guiding principles that will be reflected both in characterization and design:

Feel connected, updated and relevant

It was important to me to create a simple, user-friendly system, that provides an up-to-date, relevant, clean and clear picture of children’s school life.

I have conducted surveys and interviews of parents, teachers and students to get a solid understanding of their needs and problems.

I have also investigated the apps, websites and trends of the current market.

By examination of how things are working today, I have found the major points of difficulty, and then brainstormed, sketched and reframed concepts and solutions.