Digital attendance solution for seamless student tracking and communication

My Role

In the end-to-end project to digitise the school attendance process, I played a key role as one of two designers. By conducting in-depth user research and stakeholder interviews, I identified key pain points and requirements that guided our design strategy. I was also responsible for conceptualising, wireframing, and prototyping intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that facilitated seamless interaction for both teachers and administrative volunteers. My contributions included designing features that simplified attendance tracking, improved data and reporting accuracy, and ensured seamless integration with existing school systems. Through iterative testing and feedback, I refined the design to meet user needs effectively, ultimately delivering a more efficient and impactful attendance management solution

Scope

•UX Design •UI Design •User research •Prototyping •Usability testing •End-to-end

Team

•1 Product Manager •2 UX Designers •2 Developers

Tools

•Figma •Figjam •Notion •Google Workspace

Time Frame

June - Aug 2023

Overview

The Society of Starfish is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering out-of-school youths by offering them a second chance at education. They provide free tuition programs for youths who have been displaced from formal education for various reasons, helping them unlock their full potential and pursue brighter futures. Operated entirely by volunteers, the organization relies on community support to fulfil its mission.

The Problem

Struggling to balance teaching and administrative duties

For full-time teachers, managing administrative tasks alongside teaching is already a significant challenge. At the Society of Starfish, where volunteer teachers juggle external jobs alongside their teaching roles, the manual attendance-taking process adds an extra layer of strain. This not only cuts into valuable teaching time but also increases the administrative burden, negatively impacting the overall educational experience.

Redundant effort in maintaining both physical and digital databases, which made it difficult to track trends over time.
Limited real-time data and ineffective communication, leading to delays in student support.
Administrative overhead disrupts teacher productivity and hinders the seamless flow of classroom activities,

Diving deeper on why this is happening?

I interviewed all 5 teacher volunteers to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and identify features that would be valuable in their teaching journey.

100% talks about how the current processes disrupt normal classroom activities.

100% had difficulties in compiling data for tracking and generating reports.

80% found it challenging to follow up with absentees, latecomers, and other stakeholders.

" Students often come in halfway through the class, so either we disrupt the class and take the attendance or do it later on, but we might forget."

“ It is a very tedious process to follow up with absentees, because for each one, there are 3 points of contact that we need to follow up with.”

“ Students need to meet 75% attendance each term, and it is very tedious to manually transfer and tabulate this at the end of each term."

The Solution

A digital attendance solution for seamless student tracking and communication

Student monitoring
Enabling teachers to instantly identify absentees and receive real-time updates, streamlining classroom management for greater efficiency.
Student tracking
Simplifying the process of tracking student attendance rates with an intuitive system that generates customised reports tailored to specific needs and use cases.‍
Communication
Enable seamless API integration, allowing teachers to connect effortlessly with student groups, social workers, or parents to meet unique communication and collaboration needs.

The Impact

Transformative design solution
Our initial goal was to alleviate teachers’ administrative burdens. However, through strategic design solutions, we not only addressed this original problem but also created lasting value that enhanced their overall educational and teaching experience.
Reduced time on task
Teachers reported a significant reduction in time spent on attendance tracking, allowing them to focus more on teaching and student engagement.
Communication
Real-time updates and automated reports facilitated better communication with social workers, parents, and other stakeholders, fostering a more collaborative and efficient environment.

The Process - How did this happen?

Who am I designing it for?

Based on the user interviews, I created a user persona to represent the teachers.

Journey map

A journey map was created to visualise the user experience, identify key opportunities for improvement, and foster a shared understanding of the current challenges.

Feature prioritisation

After understanding the needs and wants of the teachers, we prioritised the P1: Must-Have features that will have the largest user impact with the least development effort required.

User flow

I then mapped out the user flows to indicate how teachers would accomplish each task.

Task flows to take attendance, update attendance, add and edit student records, export data, and contact absentees.

Early concepts

With these, I began working on my sketches and ideation. I noted down the key points and gathered initial feedback on the layout and direction.

Does it work?

At this stage, we did two rounds of testing to make sure the mid-fidelity designs were on point before moving into high-fidelity prototypes. We explored multiple variations of each page to see which interaction styles and user interfaces felt most natural and user-friendly.

Testing 1.0‍

Two types of design for student detail page

Teachers preferred Design B as it allowed them to quickly scan important information. Additionally, they favoured labeled buttons as they found them to be a clearer and more straightforward option for engaging with the interface.
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Testing 2.0‍

Version 1 and 2. Version two added search function and increased filter criteria

After finalising the design variations, we conducted another round of usability testing and interviews to evaluate user experiences across five tasks flows: 1) attendance taking; 2) contacting latecomers and absentees; 3) editing student records; 4) editing attendance records; and 5) exporting attendance records.

While a few areas for improvement were identified, overall feedback was highly positive, with a 100% task completion rate across all flows. Key improvements included adding a search function and filter criteria to enhance data management.
_{* Some information and designs are not disclosed in this case study.}

Final designs

In summary ...

Streamlined workflow
Our solution significantly alleviated the administrative load on teachers by eliminating redundant data entry, manual data compilation, and enabling instant generation of reports with a simple click.
Optimised communication
The integration of automated reminders and personalised communications further streamlined workflows, reducing the need for tedious manual tasks and enhancing overall communication efficiency. This ultimately contributed to smoother classroom management and more effective teacher-student-guardian interactions.
Enhanced student engagement
By minimising classroom distractions and enabling teachers to focus on teaching, this fostered a higher level of student engagement by creating a more productive learning environment.

If I had more time...

Develop additional training resources, such as video tutorials or user guides,to assist new volunteer teachers in quickly adapting to the digital attendance solution. This can be especially helpful for onboarding new volunteers.
Establish a feedback loop with volunteer teachers to gather ongoing insights into their experiences with the digital attendance solution. This can be used to identify gaps and insights into their evolving experiences, allowing for continuous refinement.

Learnings

Holistic Problem Solving: While the initial focus was on alleviating administrative tasks, we uncovered unexpected benefits, showcasing the importance of considering the broader impact of design solutions. This shows the significance of addressing multifaceted user needs to create more comprehensive and impactful solutions.
Scaleability considerations: As time progresses, scaleability becomes a crucial consideration. So we needed to evaluate the infrastructure and architecture to ensure the solution can accommodate an increasing number of users and data points without compromising performance.

Empowering Teachers to Teach, Not Administer