StrongMind App

About the project

The StrongMind App is an iOS and Android application for StrongMind, an EdTech company supporting charter schools across the country. I had been leading the app since February, and the next major feature was a Student Overview, giving students and parents meaningful insight into academic progress directly on their phones.

Data-rich, but approachable

This was a much more data-rich and information-dense feature than anything the app had included before, with new patterns and new complexity. The Student Overview had to satisfy a strict set of constraints:

• Simple enough for a 6th grader to understand
• Actionable information based on real business requirements
• Include a circle graph (direct CEO request)
• Make sense from both a parent and student perspective simultaneously
• Be modular, agnostic enough that each client could use it without certain features

All of this information needed to fit in a hierarchically meaningful way while being approachable, digestible, and concise.

Define, sketch, test

I started by aligning the acceptance criteria with engineering and PM to ensure every data point was feasible and correctly scoped. Then I moved to sketching and wireframing possible combinations of the data, checking existing StrongMind products for patterns I could leverage.

Initial sketches and wireframes

After getting the initial layout established, I moved to wireframes and ran guerilla testing with a coworker who happened to be the parent of a student at one of our client schools, a quick gut check before working with our UX Researcher on a structured round of testing.

Low-fidelity prototype

Two rounds, real users

Working with our UX Researcher, we ran 8 moderated sessions with 4 students and 4 parents. Key findings from Round 1:

• Users successfully navigated to course-level breakdowns and back
• Missing Assignments and Average Grade rated as most important data points
• Catch-up assignments concept caused consistent confusion; users conflated it with missing assignments
• Weekly assignment goal graphic was poorly understood
• All users would use the app (students claiming daily) to check grades and progress

Armed with that feedback, I revised the designs and ran a second round with 7 participants (4 returning). The high-fidelity redesign improved comprehension across the board.

Visual design iteration board

Round 2 findings confirmed stronger comprehension of the layout and weekly progress circle. Attendance Status scored 4.9/5 for ease of understanding. The catch-up concept remained a challenge and was flagged for future iteration.

High-fidelity prototype tested in round 2

Shipped and in use

Measurable impact

What I learned

This was a large feature completed in a short timeframe with multiple rounds of real user testing. I'm proud of the speed of collaboration and the volume of learning it generated.

• 1Things that seem simple to designers are often misunderstood by users. The catch-up assignments concept seemed logical internally; users found it consistently confusing.
• 2Users generally want to dive deeper into specifics. The overview was appreciated, but course-level data was where engagement truly lived.
• 3Guerilla testing, even with one well-chosen person, surfaces issues worth solving before committing to full research sessions.