UPPINGHAM SCHOOL | Designing an App for a Modern Public School

ROLE

The object of this project was to provide Uppingham School with an app and to assess the requirements and users of such an app.

TEAM

Client workforce

Client stakeholders

Me - UX/UI Constultant

OBJECTIVES

The app had threee potential demographics:

  • Parents

  • Students

  • Local Residents

The desired result of the app had to be determined through user research. Though a desirable outcome for the school included

  • That the status of Public Schools as charities was a factor they were keen to emphahsise

  • Closer ties between parents and the life of the school and subsequently to the town

  • Greater accessibility for the school’s various booking systems of its various enterprises

Interviews and Research

I interviewed the stakeholders first, which gave me good overview of possible pain-points.

I conducted in-depth interviews with local businesses and residents of Uppingham. To understand the End User’s perspective I sat down with parents of pupils at the school and asked for 10 minutes of their time.

Next, I looked at the apps of other leading public schools and built up a competitor matrix. I found a diversity of uses:

  • The option to access the school portal

  • Local businesses being advertised for visiting parents

  • Contact numbers of staff and the rest of the school faculty

  • Maps of the campus

  • News and a calendarr

  • Sports news

  • The ability to make bookings at the school sports centre

I built a series of personas to undersand the various different services the app could provide and how useful they would be.

I found parents were particularly interested in quick access to sports results and fixtures, while local businesses stated they were very likely to advertise in the app.

User research revealed any booking system would most likely be used by local residents. This would necessitate integrating the pre-existing Uppingham Sports Centre online booking system.

I also interviewed the users of the Oakham School App, the neighbouring public school which shares many similariies to Uppingham School. The app itself was infrequently used by those interviewed. They cited a lack of features, and the availability of other resources for the infomation already offered, eg term dates and the school calendar.

The most popular feature was the live sporting fixtures in which the school was engaged.

Development

The following are some of the goals of the app, which I formulated based on my interviews with he stakeholder and the users

  • Easy user flow for the parent and the local resident alike.

  • Live news with notifications

  • Advertising of local businesses

  • Underlining and strengthening Uppingham’s role in the community

  • Providing easy use of the services the school offers to the public

  • Sports fixtures with notifications

  • Access to Uppnet, the school portal for parents, pupils and staff

  • To act as a guide and introductory app to the school for new parents, as they were more likely to download the app

  • To enable parents to plan their visit to the school and encourage repeated use of the app and greater engagement with school life and the town at large.

1 - Establishing user flows

On the right is the envisaged User Flow for the new user; in this case, a parent signing up to it as part of induction at the beginning of term.

The use of notifications as reminders, as demonstrated by other apps, will encourage repeated use of the calendar feature of the app. It was also a goal to introduce the notification feature to live fixtures, though this was dependent on further programming.

2 - Integrating the Sports Centre

This is the main page for the sports centre in the app. Uppingham Sports Centre’s administration and marketing was almost independent from the rest of the school.

It offers an extensive range of services. It takes bookings through its website and by telephone and has facilities across the campus.

For in-app booking to be possible, the online database would need to be made accessible. The online booking process was a feature which the school is continuing to work on realising.

The Sports Centre’s website had provided all information available to the public. It was also the only outlet through which the Sports Centre could make announcements.

Following the results of my user interviews, I designed a notification feature for the Sports Centre and a ‘latest news’ banner and page. It was important to make the notifications distinct from notifications for parents and pupils about the school itself.

The Sports Centre now had an easy and convenient way of reminding its customers of any alterations in its schedule, events etc. It could also keep and grow engagement with its community.

Conclusions

From my UX research and subsequent design of this app, I made a number of assessments about the important steps a school can take to reach its community through design while also serving as a useful tool for parents.

First, it can open up its app to the public by offering free advertising to a major customer group, visiting parents, for local businesses.

Second, opening up the information about the sports centre and streamlining its usability allows it to become more accessible in general.

The app can also become essential to parents, by offering:

  • tools to plan their visits

  • reminders of their child’s sports events

  • updates on school news

  • Ready access to the school intranet

The app was handed over to developers and the results are pending. In the future I will make a point of returning to work on subsequent developments and to conduct user testing of the finished product.