Welcome to My Site
Bringing Relevance to Design
Hi, welcome to my design portfolio site. My personal life is rooted in a passion for exploring the world and uncovering the meaningful experiences that shape our lives. As a UX designer, I bring this same sense of exploration and relevance to my work, focusing on creating designs that are not only visually appealing but deeply connected to real-world needs. My mission is to inspire and guide others by creating thoughtful, user-centered experiences that truly resonate with their needs and aspirations. Whether through travel or design, I’m always seeking to connect the dots between experiences, insights, and purposeful outcomes.
SchooolTalk
SchoolTalk is a user-friendly communication platform designed primarily for parents, enabling them to stay informed and engaged in their child's academic progress and social-emotional well-being. By bridging the communication gap between parents and teachers, SchoolTalk ensures parents receive personalized insights that enhance their ability to support their child’s growth and development during key educational transitions.
My Role
UX, UI
Tools
Figma
Timeline
12 weeks
Research Objective
Design a user-centered communication tool that enhances personalized and holistic information exchange between parents, teachers, and students, especially during the middle school transition. The solution should facilitate proactive discussions, timely interventions, and collaborative student development.
Problem Space
01
Decline in Communication
Research shows a decrease in parent-teacher communication as children transition to middle school (Weiss, 2010). This decline hinders the ability to provide comprehensive support to students.
02
Conflicts
Lack of communication can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts, disrupting collaborative efforts. This also leads to inconsistency in feedback practices, needing more focus.
03
Lack of Personalization
Current tools focus on academics, neglecting social-emotional aspects, limiting proactive parental support.
Affinity Mapping
Behaviours
Pain Points
Goals and Motivations
User Analysis
Key insights and opportunities
Design Goals
These were set from the above research outcomes.
Transparency
Empathy
Personalisation
Ease of Use
.jpg)
How might we
give parents a clear and accurate view of their child's emotional and educational well-being in a school setting?
After completing my research and developing the How Might We statement, I decided to create a persona that will showcase the pain points, goals and behaviours of my target user groups. This persona will represent my target users.
Persona:
Mrs. Johnson
Mrs. Johnson is a 40-year-old dedicated working professional and a mother of two. She balances her career with her commitment to her children’s education and well-being.
Behaviours
Relies on email updates.
Prefers centralized, two-way communication.
Values insights beyond academics.
Actively engages with teachers.
Goals and Motivations
Desires a collaborative partnership with teachers.
Values centralized access to information.
Prefers tools that streamline communication.
Organized and manages busy schedules effectively.
Prefers detailed insights into children's school experiences.
Pain Points
Feels overwhelmed and disconnected.
Struggles to provide necessary support.
Feels excluded and concerned.
Dissatisfied with limited information.
Experience Mapping
Here, I have mapped Mrs. Johnson's journey to discovering the app. This will help me as a designer to empathize with my persona and identify the key challenges/pain points.
_edited.jpg)
Success Indicators
After understanding the current journey of my persona and mapping their emotions at different stages in their journey, I will know the digital solution was successful when I achieve these.
-
Improved parental understanding of their child’s social-emotional well-being.
-
Increased proactive communication between parents and teachers.
-
Positive market feedback on the tool’s ability to facilitate detailed, personalized discussions.
Task Flow
I created multiple user stories and grouped them into epics. The idea behind this task flow is to ensure users can fully navigate the SchoolTalk app, guiding them through signing up, exploring different areas, selecting areas of interest or concern, and submitting inquiries.
.jpg)
Epic
Enable parents to ask specific questions about their child’s individual progress and well-being, rather than only receiving generic class updates and reports.
User Story
As a parent, I want to request insights into my child’s social interactions and emotional well-being at school, so that I can understand and support their social development.
Responsive Design
In addition, I prototyped a responsive website design tailored to the task flow, ensuring seamless user experience across various devices. This approach allowed me to optimize the interface for both desktop and mobile, enhancing accessibility and interaction at every stage.
UI Library
App Logo
I chose a minimalist school icon design to align with the app's educational focus, emphasizing key symbols that reinforce its purpose. This approach enhances brand recognition and creates a cohesive visual identity.
The Vogel typography was selected for its versatility and elegance, ensuring clear and professional presentation of educational content.
Colour Palette
I found this combination to be the most fitting for the education-based mobile app. This palette effectively balances vibrancy with clarity, providing a modern and engaging visual experience that aligns with the app's purpose.
Primary
Neutrals
Secondary
.jpg)
Design Impact and Future Thinking
Design Impact:
The implementation of the customizable parent queries feature represents a significant shift in how parents engage with their child's educational and emotional well-being. By moving from a passive to an active role, parents gain greater autonomy and insight into their child's school life, fostering a more collaborative and supportive environment. This approach not only empowers parents but also enhances the relationship between parents and educators, leading to better-informed decisions that directly contribute to a child's holistic development.
The immediate impact of this design is multifaceted:
-
Empowerment: Parents can now tailor the information they receive, ensuring it aligns with their specific concerns and needs. This leads to a more personalized understanding of their child's progress and well-being.
-
Enhanced Communication: By facilitating direct and focused communication, the design encourages more meaningful dialogues between parents and teachers, breaking down barriers that previously hindered collaboration.
-
Proactive Support: With timely and detailed insights, parents are better equipped to provide proactive support at home, addressing potential issues before they escalate and reinforcing positive behaviors and achievements.
Future Thinking:
Looking ahead, the design of customizable parent queries opens up numerous possibilities for the future of educational communication:
-
AI-Driven Insights:
-
Future Potential: As technology evolves, integrating AI and machine learning could allow the platform to analyze patterns in student behavior, academic performance, and social interactions. This could lead to predictive insights, alerting parents and teachers to potential issues before they arise and suggesting tailored interventions.
-
-
Holistic Child Development Platforms:
-
Future Potential: Expanding the platform to encompass a broader range of developmental areas, such as mental health, physical well-being, and extracurricular activities, could provide an even more comprehensive view of a child's growth. This would enable a truly holistic approach to education, where every aspect of a child’s life is considered in their developmental journey.
-
-
Community & Peer-to-Peer Support:
-
Future Potential: Creating a community space within the platform could allow parents to connect, share experiences, and offer support to one another. This peer-to-peer interaction could be invaluable, especially for parents dealing with similar challenges, fostering a sense of community and shared responsibility.
-
-
Global Scalability:
-
Future Potential: The design can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse educational systems around the world. By considering cultural differences, the platform could be scaled globally, offering a universal solution to enhance parent-teacher communication and support student success across various educational landscapes.
-
