Why Best School?

Parents are struggling to find suitable schools for their children that align with their educational and social preferences. Search engines are the primary source for discovering schools, followed by school database platforms. Other than a few leading competitors, the options for helpful and intuitive mobile and desktop products are limited. There are enough school search engines, but the data itself isn’t being presented in a way that is easily digestible or helpful to the user.

Role

Lead UX Designer

Time Frame

Three weeks

DISCOVER

Problem Research

User Research

Empathy Mapping

Competitive Analysis

IDEATE

Rapid Sketching

User Flow

Usability Test Plan

Usability Test

DESIGN

Mid Fidelity

High Fidelity

Visual Design

User Interactions

Validating the Problem

Interviews

We began our research by analyzing several interview transcripts of parents being asked about the process of selecting a school for their child. The interviews varied in people’s needs and approaches to searching for schools, but ultimately choosing the school their child ended up attending was more based on emotion rather than facts.

To gain a deeper understanding of the marketplace we reviewed Census Bureau statistics on private verses public school enrollment trends over the past 5 years and researched competitors. Some key statistics found are below:


  1. 60% of children grades K-12 & 76% of high school children are a part of the conversation when it comes to their educational future.

  2. Public school enrollment dropped during the pandemic from 49 to 48 million.

  3. Private school enrollment rose nearly 1 million from 2020 to 2021.

From the research gathered, affinity & empathy mapping, user flows, and a competitor analysis were created and analyzed.

User Persona

After the interviews were analyzed, a user persona was created to better understand our users’ needs, behaviors, and goals.

“Elijah is very social, loves sports, and has a natural inquisitiveness towards science and how things work. I want to encourage him to explore what he is drawn to. I would like to find a diverse school that emphasizes conceptual thinking and has an array of quality programs.”

Jason Myers

A single working dad balancing his clients, home life, and providing the best for his son.

Jason’s Goals

  • Save and rank a personalized list of top schools

  • Explore schools by programs that align with Elijah’s interest

  • Receive school recommendations based on location, tuition costs, programs, and overall school rankings

  • Compare schools

Jason’s Stats

Age: 37

Profession: Therapist

Home: Chicago, IL

Status: Single

Kids: Elijah (6)

Insights drawn from these efforts informed the creation of mid-fidelity wire-framing. During usability testing, participants were asked to complete three main task flows. From the findings, revisions were made.

Mid Fidelity Prototype

High Fidelity Prototype

Solutions and Results

Best School is a platform for families to discover and compare schools and programs that align with their educational goals and values. Once the account holder sets up a profile, Best School sends a list of the top schools based on their preferences. Later, users can conduct their own searches based on specific criteria and organize their findings. Stats, found in the account users profile, track your schools searched, visited, and application process.

Our profile feature streamlines and personalizes the school search process, saving the user time and energy. This list can also serve as a guidance and a starting point for users that may be overwhelmed by the process.