ClassFindr: UX for An EdTech StartUp
Doing UX for a startup can either be really amazing, or it can be really not so great, depending on the team and the client.
ClassFindr, on the brightside, was nothing short of amazing to work with and on!
Their pitch makes a lot of sense, and would also make the world of higher education a better and more forgiving space. A product that makes the world better and helps people?!
Sign me all the way up.
ClassFindr had an idea and myself and two other ux designers were given the task of taking that concept and turning it into a beautiful, clickable prototype. Which, of course, requires a lot of work.
Originally, the ClassFindr team thought that they wanted a mobile application where students could look up classes and credits that they needed and take the courses somewhere besides the university or college that they were currently enrolled in.
The point, and the goodness within this project is that students could basically streamline their class search and hopefully graduate on time, if not early.
The idea in theory but we all know how well theories work out in the the product design world.
First, we began with some outside research, just to get firmliar with the higher ed space. Turns out, there was not a lot to go off of. Most schools had their own digital tools, and not every course was listed to the public.
So, there was the first roadblock.
But once we got over that, we began to figure out where ClassFindr fit and where that space made sense.
Then, we starting conducting user interviews, just to get some insight on the product and how and why students would use it and if they would at all.
Some example questions are:
“What has the looming graduation process been like for you?”
“Tell us about expereinces, good and bad, when you were searching for classes or .”
Some pulled quotes are as followed:
“It sucks.”
“I wish it wasn’t so heavily based on time.”
You get the idea. Everyone we interviewed basically said yes, they would use a product like this.
Then it was time to build a proto persona! Meet Jamie!
After building the persona we went into everyone’s favorite thing, iteration! Right?! Well it’s my favorite part. To save some time I’ll share the digital version of many, many, hand drawn sketches and wireflows.
Ideation is great. But it was time to put our concepts to the test. So, usabilty testing was the next step.
We conducted 6 informal usabilty tests, mostly on students, some current and some reccent graduates.
Some responses:
“I like the ability to add or remove a class.”
“The class search is a cool idea.”
“I wouldn’t use this as an app.”
“I think it should be a website.”
And so on and so on. Bottom line, we were no longer building an app. It was time to build a website.
Suprise!
As you can see, it was a huge change. But we did the research and we knew that to make a great product, we have to make a something that was useful everyone, not just something that our client was asking for.
We ran another round of usabilty testing, as one does, and got really great feedback. And then we designed another round, making edits and changes as we went along.
We came up with the above mentioned look!
Overall, the entire process was really amazing. Being able to work in the startup space, that was something that I have always wanted to do. And working in a remote team just gets easily the more that you did!
ClassFindr was also the first project that I took the UI/visual lead on, which was a really awsome experience for me.
Overall, I think that taking a risk, and changing an entire project was risky, but so worth it. Honestly, it was the most badass UX thing I’ve done to date because I made a choice and I trusted my gut.
Even though I knew it might not be exactly what the clinet wanted, I knew it was what the user wanted. And in the end, isn’t that the whole point?!
Oh just so you know, they loved it!
