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Feel the need of a tutor to explain a concept a day before the midterm?

Project

nexT aims to provide assistance for students who are struggling to find on-campus tutors since not all classes needed are available with tutors especially in higher level science and engineering classes. Meanwhile, nexT also provides an opportunity for those who are eligible to work as a tutor. Our goal is to connect people of different background and give everyone opportunities to overcome difficulties at school. Current on-campus recruiting of tutors are inefficient such that lacking appropriate management and often students have to go to a certain place at school to find a tutor. Other services are either unknown to most of people or lack of consistency of providing tutors.

Involvement

User Research

Wireframing

User Persona

Prototyping

Work Type

Individual

Date

2017

Early Concept

nexT has a clearly defined outline of the product idea and a tight deadline for it’s implementation. Targeting university students meant there was a clear supply-demand relationship between users(students) and customers(tutors). With the new target audience and value proposition in place, I spent some time sketching through early conceptual models and ideas of how the product could work:

Interviews

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For the first step, I conducted semi-structured user interviews with 5 students to take a peek into their study habits, TA and professor office hours. The primary research goals informed the questions:

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  • their assignment types if it's write-ups, exams or group projects?

  • How they interact with their professors and TAs -- for instance, do they get enough help from them?

  • Do they need additional help?  

 

These studies were used to develop preliminary ideas that served as benchmarks for future design decisions.

Persona

Once clear with user behaviors, I outlined project scope based on client needs and research results: 

  • Create a platform for professional dialogue in the form of search tutors and how to apply as a tutor. 

  • Design an easy to use content development page that will be used to navigate the right course (department) and match.

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Below are the two personas developed based on the student who is looking for help and another one who is willing to help others and looks for a tutor position on campus.

Student

John Samson

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Finding tutors before exams while prepare for hard problem sets. Be able to tackle problem sets of each class due every week especially before due dates. Successfully balance schoolworks and social life.

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About

Goals

Frustrations

Habits

Expertise

Age: 20
Major: Applied Mathematics
Location: Los Angles
Education: USC

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  • Always have midterms condensed in a week

  • Struggle for some hard problems before midterms

  • Often finds himself hard to look for the right help with problem sets, especially when he has a lot of questions

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  • Assignments are mostly problem sets, but also some research paper that requires writing. There are also group projects for some classes

  • Have at least 3 classes every semester in math

  • Procrastinate sometimes when there are a lot of works to do

  • Like to do home works alone in quiet places

  • Become tense before midterms

Algebra

Statistics

Calculus

Linear Algebra

Real Analysis

Tutor

Nicole Amenta

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Find a tutor position to gain work authorization (SSN) in United States. Want to make some extra money in free time flexibly. 

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About

Goals

Frustrations

Habits

Expertise

Age: 22
Major: Theoretical Physics
Location: Los Angles
Education: CalTech

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  • Has interests in math and loves to help other students to learn

  • Was a tutor for a year and received positive reviews and feedbacks from student

  • Being a TA for some elementary undergraduate classes, including calculus 1 and 2

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  • Not able to find a tutor position on campus due to the lack of organization of tutor systems for students across different majors

  • Doing research works most of the time with professor and hardly have more time to actively looking for a tutor position as well as the right students

Calculus

Number Theory

Relativity

General Physics

Discrete Math

Design Objectives and Journey Maps

With this understanding of the user behaviors, there needs to be two apps, one for the student and the other for the tutor in order to easily manage the appointments. 

 

1. Create a platform for professional dialogue in the form of search tutors and how to apply as a tutor. 

2. Design an easy to use content development page that will be used to navigate the right course (department) and match.

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A student of nexT would:

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  • Launch the app when they feel they need someone to help their homework and exams

  • Enter a list of filters (classes, distances, prices, etc.) 

  • Upon finding the right tutor, the student can easily make an appointment based on the availability or save for later

  • Easy to consult the tutors if they have knowledge about certain course materials

  • Allow to manage preferences and track past tutors and/or review them

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Alternatively, the second user map allows the tutors to manage their appointments and settings

A tutor of nexT would:

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  • Launch the app when they want to start a session with potential students

  • Enter a list of settings (classes they've mastered, prices, acceptable distances, availability, etc...)

  • When they receive notifications of incoming students, they can contact the students directly about their needs or start to prepare materials right away 

  • Start a session with clocks and it is easy to transfer the earnings to their bank accounts

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Task Flow

Based on the user journey map, I designed the architecture for the two apps. Each features a chat function and appointment function on the home screen, allowing students and tutors to check their schedule and communicate easily.

nexT Student App

nexT Tutor App

Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

Student App

Tutor App

Similar strategy of user interface is used for the tutor app for the consistency graphically.

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