TUTORS
| An app solution targeting a key user issue in matching tutors with students.
✅ For who?
As a former English teacher/tutor, I aimed to tackle a core user issue amongst my fellow coworkers. Conceptual capstone project at DesignLab.
✅ What did I do?
I designed TutorS, an app platform aimed to efficiently match tutors with students.
✅ What impact?
During the user testing session, I addressed a user issue increasing the usability of the product by 36%.
Splash screen to the main login page.
My Role
Lead UX/UI Designer working in a company-wide team of 11
Technical Contraints
Conceptual capstone project
Product constrainted to MVP
Timeline
80-hour time constraint, November 2022
Background: Addressing the Online Tutoring Challenge in South Korea
Despite the growing demand for online tutoring since the Covid-19 pandemic, many of my co-workers lost their tutoring jobs due to the outbreak. This sparked my decision to investigate the underlying user problem and design a solution to address it.
Overview
Identifying and Solving the Tutoring Challenge
Through a combination of market research, secondary research, and user interviews, I identified a key problem:
Teachers were struggling to match their teaching styles with students' learning preferences due to the limited job opportunities and the influence of personal connections, like mom-networking.
To address this issue, I designed an app solution, TutorS, which allows tutors to connect with and reach out to their ideal clients directly.
2. User Testing and Improvement of Usability
Due to time constraints, I conducted just one round of user testing, which revealed key user problems on the first day. After addressing these issues, the usability score, which started at less than 35%, improved to 68% by the final day of testing.
Validating First Assumptions
A blue ocean in the tutoring/education industry in South Korea.
I began with secondary research to investigate the growing demand for online tutor matching platforms. Numerous articles highlighted the rapid expansion of this industry in South Korea, confirming its rising popularity and potential.
“Increasing Number of Video Tutoring Matching Platforms Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic”
Investigating for a Trend in the Industry
No sharp platform specialized in online tutoring.
The growing interest in online tutor matching platforms also brought significant competition to the industry. To better understand the landscape, I analyzed 4 tutoring app services specifically based in South Korea.
Key Findings:
Most platforms primarily focused on pairing tutors and students for offline tutoring.
Platforms dedicated entirely to online tutoring were focused on the teachers.
I found the second finding to be quite interesting as the teachers had very little control over their matchings. Below is a detailed breakdown of my findings for each platform during the research.
1
Soomgo.
Incredible amount of options of services.
Extensive, but online learning was not the main priority.
2
TeachUs.
Assigns students with a designated coordinator who helps with scheduling etc.
Teachers need to be “hired” and only except students from top elite schools.
3
Ossam.
Kept their service to the bare minimum - the business model and their platform interface.
Teachers had no way of reaching out to clients.
4
Kim Tutors.
Online tutoring is introduced as one of its subcategories.
Teachers had no way of reaching out to clients. Lots of ads and cluttered UI.
User Interviews
Talking to the Decision-makers
Teachers AND parents.
Conducting interviews was a crucial step in this project to understand firsthand user experiences and identify trends and patterns in how tutors find work.
I focused on 2 key user groups:
Teachers with tutoring or teaching experience – to understand their challenges and processes in finding tutoring opportunities.
Parents who have hired tutors for their children – because they play a pivotal role in networking and decision-making when selecting tutors.
Drawing out Themes
THEME 1: POWERLESS TEACHERS
Networking Reliance: 5 out of 6 teachers stated that they primarily find tutoring jobs through close connections or mom-networking.
Scarcity of Opportunities: Teachers noted that these opportunities are relatively "scarce and rare" compared to those available through broker platforms.
High Acceptance Rate: All interviewed teachers reported accepting any offers they received, highlighting the limited availability of opportunities.
THEME 2: THE HOW AND THE LEARNING STYLES
Curriculum as a Priority: Both teachers and parents emphasized that initial or pre-sessions primarily focus on curriculum-related information.
Teaching-Learning Style Mismatch: 84% of participants reported encountering issues in tutoring due to mismatches between teaching styles and students’ learning styles.
Problem: Insufficient Communication
Theme 2 leading to theme 1.
After synthesizing data above, there was a question that was raised from theme 2. This question helped me gain further clarity on one user problem to focus on.
The question:
Couldn’t they have communicated ’Theme 2 (The how and learning styles)’ before committing to sessions?
Short answer: no.
It was important to note that this ties back to theme 1 where teachers often have less control in deciding whether to commit to sessions.
KEY USER PROBLEM:
Teachers struggled to align their teaching styles with students’ learning styles due to a limited availability of job opportunities and an overeliance on personal connections, such as mom-networking.
Brainstorming the "How"
A flow that enables teachers to go first!
To address the identified problem, I explored various user flows with a key focus on communication. The primary question was:
What shape or form should this “communication” take?
Initially, I felt stuck, as direct messages (DMs) and text-based communication seemed like the only viable options.
Then, I reframed the challenge:
“If this approach is inevitable, how can it be improved or tailored to better meet user needs?”
This shift in perspective opened the door to refining the solution.
OR
1
1
Tutors first!
Whether talking to parents or the students themselves, communication starts with the tutors. This way, tutors are to seek & consider their options without having the pressure to committing to every single offer.
2
A more formatted form - quotes.
It went from DMs and text messages to forms, or quotes. This gives a clearer way of communicating additional details such as the non-academic information.
Now was time to figure out the precise flow of how these quotes would be sent. Drawing inspiration from the apps I had researched earlier, I designed a streamlined flow that made the most sense.
1
Landing on the page of “request”s.
Here, teachers are given the advantage to pick and choose which clients to choose from at their own pace. Once signed-up, teachers land on a page where students upload their "requests" on the platform.
2
Sending quotes to kick-start the interaction.
This stemmed from the thought of who gets to see the options first and starts the interaction.
The teachers are able to take a look at a summary of the client’s needs and decide whether they want to teach the student. IA point to note was who gets to see the options first and start the interaction.
3
Engage and report.
When the client further details, both parties can discuss through a chat function and once settled, the teacher reports session details in the platform.
4
Finalizing the match.
According to the recorded data, a service fee is calculated and the matching process is complete.
UI Design
Adding Some Life into a Design Concept
This platform is to provide learning services online but more importantly, to focus on the perspective of tutors and their matching. In this sense, I wanted to go with a name that was straightforward and one that sends the users the message right away: TutorS.
roof, flag, clock: symbolic points of school
Capital T and S: Walls of school building
Thoughtful Branding, Done Efficiently
I chose a deep blue color (2F1FE2) which gives the brand a meaning of trust, inspiration and intelligence.
Although the logos were personally designed, most of the icons were used from utilizing pre-made icon packs from the Figma Community to save extra time and abide by the time constraint.
Thought Designing, Done Efficiently
I decided to keep the strokes and lines of the overall UI minimal.
I put more emphasis on design specs to design components as clean and crisp as possible, paying attention to how the designs would be communicated for potential implementation.
Ubuntu, Medium, 20
Ubuntu, Medium, 16
Ubuntu, Regular, 13
Ubuntu, Regular, 15
Questions, input guides
Message texts
Page headings
Request answers
chayee678
English grammar
Grade 5
Female
Seoul, Korea
M/Tu/Thu/Sa
See more
goldbake06
Culinary
30s
Female
Seoul, Korea
Tu/Thu/Sa
See more
meraki78
English grammar
Grade 4
Female
Seoul, Korea
M/Tu/Thu/Sa
See more
English grammar
Grade 4
Female
Seoul, Korea
M/Tu/Thu/Sa
See more
nosinikg1
English speaking
Grade 1
Male
Seoul, Korea
W/F/Sa
See more
imkimmm
Korean
Grade 9
Female
Seoul, Korea
M/Thu/Sa
See more
arinialim
Biology
Grade 11
Female
Seoul, Korea
Sa/Su
See more
arinialim
Biology
Grade 11
Female
Seoul, Korea
Sa/Su
See more
Requests
9:41
Requests
Messages
Profile
Settings
1
20px
16px
We’re going to need some details to get you started!
Sign up
WHAT
WHEN
Continue
9:41
Profile
*1 is required
Name
Nickname
I choose to show my nickname only
Gender
M
F
Year/month/day of birth
MM
DD
YY
I choose to show age range only
Personality traits
*2 or more
Introverted
Extroverted
Critical
Calm
Humorous
Challenging
Warm
Bubbly
Earnest
Positive
Encouraging
Attentive
Check
Phone number
*contact info will be used when retrieving lost password
Based in
Time zone
CREDENTIALS
*This will help increase the chance of match
School
Campus
Major
Licenses/certificates
Other mentions
0/40 characters
12px
8px
32px
Testing out the product
Learning to Cope with Unexpected Occurances
I utilized the platform, Maze, to
gather in-depth analytics
garner people to interact with my product.
The final results were as the following:
19 responses (20 were asked, and 1 wasn’t able to participate due to scheduling issues)
About 68% were able to go through the process (direct/indirect),
the other 32% gave up.
Let’s dive deeper into the process to see how I got to these numbers.
During the beginning of the testing period, it was clear that something was up, and I looked into why people were having such a hard time with the testings. I contacted some of those participants to find out what the problem was.
Here is what I found:
Found out that from the first 6 tests, more than half of the results came back "give up/bounce".
It turned out that they weren't paying close attention to the instructions for each "mission" and had a hard time getting around the prototype.
1
Clicked on wrong user.
Participants(who gave up/bounced) were clicking on 'STUDENT' when the mission was to sign up as a 'TEACHER'.
2
Clicked on other buttons instead of CTA.
Many were clicking on input fields instead of the CTA button when they were instructed to just browse the input fields. (Mentioned in text before starting the tests.)
With the insights above, I had 2 options.
Redo Test
Carry On
Although I would have to compromise varying test results, with the time constraint in mind, I addressed the problem by carrying on with letting participants know of the instructions once more.
Having addressed the problem, what showed less than 35% of usability score on the first day of testing was able to reach 68% on the last day.
Reflecting the User Feedback
Users weren't getting to the CTAs.
One of the problems I came across during testings was when users weren’t able to get pass the sign up form fields. The expected flow was for them to browse the form and eventually find the CTA to proceed to the next screen.
I initally thought this was primarily due to the user error of them not understanding the instructions. This was true to some extent, but I also discovered one crucial flaw in the prototype.
In hindsight, this was a no-brainer. However, I was happy to see that test results resulted in discoveries of these mistakes. I definitely learned a lesson.
The CTA button that was at the bottom of the viewport was fixed in prototype settings so that users are able to view the “main” click point instead of panically clicking on other buttons.
In Hindsight
Another user testing session needed!
Although I got a mini-panic attack with the first user testing results, it was very interesting how that shaped the way I had to think after the “release” of the product. Similarly, I would love to see what different results the iterated prototype reveals.
Different country, different research?
During the majority of time I spent on this project, I was in South Korea and hence, the user research was mainly catered to those living in the country. Towards the end of the project, I am also keen to see how my designs would turn out if research was done in Canada or in a different country.
