TutorLink
Connecting middle school and high school students with high school tutors
While this case study started as part of the Google UX Design Certificate Program, I am currently working on gaining support from school districts. The project began with the prompt to create an app linking students with tutors. Leveraging my background in education, I chose to make this program peer-based with high school students as tutors instead of the usual college or adult tutors. This app has attracted significant interest from tutoring and educational professionals, motivating me to continue to seek support and interest to see if this app can become a reality.
Project overview
User research
Summary
I started by interviewing 10 high school students to understand their struggles with getting academic help and finding tutoring jobs if that was an interest to them. Some of the results did not surprise me: Students did feel like they needed additional support and had a hard time finding help that fit in with their busy schedules. But despite my experience in education and having kids who graduated high school, I was surprised by what else I learned. The key insight was that most students, regardless of their family's wealth, wouldn't ask for a tutor because of the cost. They didn’t want to burden their families. This insight shaped the entire direction of the project, leading to the creation of an app that offers free tutoring services for high school and middle school students by high school students. After talking further with these high school students I determined that this app should be designed to be district-based so that the tutoring could align directly with the curriculum and the tutors could receive additional support on the district level.
Foundational research interview questions
These are the questions that defined the goal behind my app. Some of these questions were added after my initial interviews brought up more questions I needed answers to.
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General info: first name, age, grade level, high school
Have you ever had any experience using a tutor? If so please tell me about your experience
Have you ever used an app or platform to find tutoring help before? If so, what was your experience like?
Would you ever consider (under any circumstances) using a tutor?
Under what circumstances would you consider using a tutor?
Can you share any challenges you've had with trying to find tutoring help?
How important is it for you to have tutoring help outside of school hours?
Have you had any experience tutoring? (formal or informal experience). If so please describe your experience.
Would you be interested in becoming a tutor? If so why?
What would make you a good tutor? What do you have to offer/what qualities are you bringing?
If you would be interested in tutoring, but haven't done it. Why is that?
What concerns or reservations do you have about tutoring?
Would you consider tutoring if you could tutor high school and/or middle school students?
Would it make a difference to you if you were paid or unpaid?
If unpaid would it make a difference to you if this tutoring program was officially sanctioned by your high school and you received volunteer hours?
What would you consider the benefits of tutoring?
How would you prefer to communicate with students seeking help? ie messaging, video calls, digital whiteboard, etc.
Are there any specific features or functionalities you feel are missing from existing tutoring platforms that you would like to see in this app?
How do you think the app could encourage more high school students to become tutors?
What would make you feel comfortable and safe using this app to connect with tutors or students seeking help?
What are your expectations regarding the reliability and quality of tutoring help provided through the app?
Sample empathy map for interviewee
User research pain points
Personas
persona 1: student
I created two personas for this project: one the high school tutor and the other the student looking for help. I believe this was really important in helping design the purpose of the app and some behind the scenes logistics. However, for the the app design which is going to be focused on the student experience, I chose to stick with the student persona, Karthik.
persona 1: tutor
User journey map
Persona: Karthik
Goal: Link with a high school tutor that will help him with his writing assignments.
Cam is a junior in high school who needs a tutoring platform that provides messaging instead of live conversation because he suffers from social anxiety and shyness.
Karthik is a freshman in high school who needs free tutoring because he doesn’t want to ask her parents for money to pay for a tutor.
Letti is a senior in high school that excels in math that needs a tutoring program that engages high school students because she has a lot she can offer despite her youth.
Jose is a high school senior who needs a tutoring program endorsed by his high school because he wants his high school to give him volunteer hours as a tutor.
Persona problem statements
User flow
Competitive audit
From my research, TutorLink stands out as a unique service. I couldn't find any other online platforms offering free, on-demand peer-based tutoring. However, I did identify several indirect competitors, which provided valuable insights into effective design and areas for improvement.
Starting the design
Low fidelity digital wireframes
With the user flow journey map in place, I was ready to start wireframes using Figma sofware.
Low fidelity prototype
Usability study research plan
Title: Usability Study of low fidelity TutorLink prototype
Author: Kimberly Benfield, UX researcher and design student
Stakeholders: High school seniors, tutoring professional, family, and friends
Date: 6/2/24
Project background: I’m creating an app to link high school and middle school students to other high school students that would like to tutor. This program will be school district based. This app was developed as part of the Google UX Design Certificate Course.
Research goals: goals: Determine if users can complete core tasks within the prototype of the tutoring app. Determine if the tutoring app is difficult to use.
Research Questions:
How long does it take a user to find and book a tutor in the app?
What can we learn from the user flow, or the steps that users take, to book a tutor?
Are there parts of the user flow where users get stuck?
Are there more features that users would like to see included in the app?
Do users think the app is easy or difficult to use?
Key performance indicators:
Conversion rate
Methodology
Moderated usability study
Location: United States, remote via zoom
Date: Sessions will take place between Sunday, June 2, 2024 and Sunday June 15, 2024.
Length: Each session will last 30-45 minutes, based on several prompts and System Usability Scale questions.
Compensation: no compensation.
Script (During the moderated usability study participants are asked the following questions)
How easy or difficult was the task of choosing your class that you would like help in?
How easy or difficult was the task of picking a day and date?
How easy or difficult was the task of choosing a tutor?
How easy or difficult was the task of booking a tutor?
Is there anything you would change?
Now that you have booked a tutor, let’s look around at the rest of the app. How easy or difficult is the task of editing your profile?
How easy or difficult is it to find an introductory video on how the tutoring process works?
Did you see that it is possible to skip the step of picking days and dates? Can you imagine a time that you would want to do this?
Did you see that it is possible to choose a tutor that is “available now”. Can you imagine a time that you would want to do this?
Are there any other features you would like to see in this app?
Usability study affinity diagram
Usability study findings
Users want to easily navigate to instructional video
Users want a simpler, less busy, way to choose their availability
Refining the design
Iterations
After the first usability study, I made multiple changes to the design.
On the above example, I made changes to the home screen. Version 2 added a button “Show me how TutorLink works.” This was based on the feedback that users did not know how to find an introductory video that showed how TutorLink worked.” For the hi fidelity version, I created a hierarch of buttons to ease flow for the user while still keeping the three options in version 2.
I made changes to the “input availability” screen. Feedback from the usability study showed that users thought this screen was too busy. I simplified the screen in version 2 and refined it further with containment in the hi fidelity version. You will also be able to see that I added a progress bar on the top of the screen to create the Zeigarnik effect in users, a psychological effect that encourages the user to complete the tasks left undone.
I made changes to the overlayed menu to enhance finding instruction on how TutorLink works. I changed the wording from “getting started” to “Show me how TutorLink works. I also made improvements to the overall aesthetic design of the menu overlay.
From my foundational research, I became aware that many users did not want to converse directly with a tutor via a live video feed, thus I wanted to make sure the app had an option for chatting via messages. The first way I listed this in version one was confusing to my users. In version two, I was able to make clarifications. For Version 3, the hi fidelity version, however, I decided that this was not the best place to inquire about the session interaction method. I decided that this would best be placed as something that needed to be chosen upon starting an actual tutoring session, so I removed this from the screen. I did make sure to include this step in more detail in the “Show me how TutorLink works” screen.
Design system
In order to keep the design for the hi fidelity prototype both consistent and efficient while also maintaining design integrity, I created a design system for this project.
This sticker sheet includes:
Typeface and fonts
Colors
Buttons
Figma components
Logos
High-fidelity prototype
Below is the completed high-fidelity prototype.
Next steps
I am currently seeking feedback from school districts to evaluate the potential of this app and tutoring concept. Based on their interest and feedback, I will seek sponsors to support further development As more interest develops I forsee additional iterations of the design to match the needs of additional stakeholders. With sponsorship, we may also be able to delve deeper into enhancing accessibility for students with special needs and those with English as a second language.
