Role

UX/UI Designer

Client

Avela

Duration

3 months

Connecting kids to the right schools

Avela mobile school finder showing a school map and results list with ratings, distances, favorites, and compare controls.
Avela mobile school finder showing a school map and results list with ratings, distances, favorites, and compare controls.

Overview

Avela’s mission is to allocate resources and match individuals to opportunities. With a focus on education, they want to empower school districts to offer parents a choice in finding the right fit for their children. Our team of 4 UX Designers created features to enhance the user experience on the school finder service, based on actual research.

My role was the UX Designer/Researcher to make key decisions during the design process with research in mind from user interviews and worked with my team to exchange feedback with the Avela members.

Opportunity

  • Parents need a better way to find a school for their children that best fits their busy lifestyle

  • Design a mobile first school finder web application based on research data of Avela target users in the U.S.

Designing and prototyping

What do users think about Avela’s experience?

We conducted a remote usability test with 12 users across 2 rounds. We provided tasks for them to complete.

Tasks included:

  • Check the ratings/reviews of a school

  • Apply to a school that has a STEM program

  • Compare 2 schools

  • Find a Catholic school

What worked?

  • Intuitive navigation for the bottom 3 icons

  • Adding a preference button to the home screen to refine searches

  • A share button to increase engagement between users

Before and after school comparison screens showing ratings, distances, letter grades, grade levels, and programs.
Before and after school filters showing grade levels, letter grades, review ratings, and school types.
Before and after school results lists with school photos, ratings, addresses, distances, favorites, and map view.
Before and after favorites screens with saved school cards, ratings, addresses, distances, compare, and share controls.
Before and after school comparison screens showing ratings, distances, letter grades, grade levels, and programs.
Before and after school results lists with school photos, ratings, addresses, distances, favorites, and map view.
Before and after school filters showing grade levels, letter grades, review ratings, and school types.
Before and after favorites screens with saved school cards, ratings, addresses, distances, compare, and share controls.
Avela mobile prototype showing an empty Favorites screen with a Start Searching button and bottom navigation.
Avela mobile prototype showing an empty Favorites screen with a Start Searching button and bottom navigation.
Avela mobile prototype showing address search, school markers on a New Orleans map, and an All schools results panel.
Avela mobile prototype showing address search, school markers on a New Orleans map, and an All schools results panel.

Outcomes

Through our research, we helped the Avela team understand some of the pain points parents have during the school enrollment process. Initially, I expected some resistance to the pivot we proposed to Abrey (Lead Engineer), but I was surprised by our client’s receptiveness and open-mindedness. He understood the reasoning with the research supporting the pivot, and he was all for it.

Our team met with Abrey and Sophia (Product Designer) outside our normal sprint meetings a couple of times to continue discussing our project. Building a strong collaboration with Greg (Founder of Avela), Abrey, and Sophia helped us maintain open, clear communication throughout our entire project.