Programs
The ability to create programs was a feature that was not getting the expected adoption. Our goals included analyzing current gaps, identifying pain points, and enhancing the user experience by small but impactful incremental changes
♾️ The Process
Feedback & Problem Identification
Looking through various data sets, we quickly realized that the existing functionality did not meet client expectations of what the feature could do.
We determined two root problems from our research:
ONE:
The program setup process is unclear, making it difficult for users to successfully create programs and enroll both students and staff.
TWO:
The feature lacks the flexibility required for centers to customize and manage their unique program workflows.
HMW simplify the program creation flow to guide users through each step?
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HMW clarify the relationship between program creation and student/staff enrollment?
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HMW reduce the cognitive load required to complete a multi-step enrollment process?
HMW empower centers to customize programs to fit their specific operational needs?
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HMW introduce flexible program requirements that can adapt a center?
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HMW balance a standardized setup process with the flexibility for custom program management?
Solutioning
Early proposed user journey
Journey mapping revealed critical knowledge gaps regarding user behavior. To validate the proposed direction, a usability walkthrough was conducted using low-fidelity mockups. The above video demonstrates the prototypes used to facilitate these user discussions.
Usability testing was conducted with four participants, utilizing a mix of granular task-based scenarios and high-level discovery questions, including:
Do you want the ability to set a ratio for the program? If so, would it be different than your room ratio?
Would you enroll your students into this program right away? Why or Why not?
Now that you've seen the solution, do you think it would work for your Center? Why or why not?
Would you assign a room to a program. Why or Why not?
Is there a scenario where one staff could be in charge of multiple program rooms?
Can you see yourself or your center using this feature? Why or why not?
What do you think is the difference between Max Student Capacity and Room Capacity?
Do you need a way to preview everything you just set up? Why or why not?
If you could waive a magic. wand and make it even better, what would you change or add?
Analyzing insights gathered from usability walkthroughs
A guided wizard was introduced to clarify the program setup process (which tested extremely well!). Since users are often interrupted and pulled in different directions, the ability to save progress and return to the workflow later was a critical requirement.
Users were excited to see a "Program Capacity" as an option to enter when creating a program, but there was some confusion between "Room Capacity" and "Max Student Capacity".
The added input fields helped with flexibility of setting up the program. They also wanted to be able to add and even filter by "age range".
Final Solution
The final solution was updated so that users can complete the most important steps first, and then decide if they want to continue. We also wanted to reduce clicks so this part is only 2 steps.
STEP ONE:
Add information about the Program such as name, age range, weekly schedule
STEP TWO:
Enter capacity and ratio information. If a room is assigned to this program, determine that here
If the user wishes to continue, they are guided through to enroll students and staff. However, this step is not mandatory. We also added indicators to alert the user when a step is not complete. This way, should they return to this task in the next hour or the next week, they will still know what information is missing.
We also added a small (yet mighty) enhancement, of the ability to add a program from a child's profile. While a lot of this information is existing, users previously were not able to actually add a program(s). By simply adding a button, we simplified the workflow, and matched the mental modal of our user
Learnings & Outcomes
My biggest takeaway from this project is that users will always find unexpected ways to engage with software.
If an MVP is too rigid (or stripped down) to match how people actually work, adoption will be low. Instead of trying to force users into a 'perfect' path, I learned that the design needs to meet them where they are.
By building in more flexibility and accounting for the interruptions of a normal workday, I was able to address the strict process into a feature that actually supports the chaotic reality of center management.