MQ
UXR | UXD | Client Project
Chapperone
A school trip management platform that streamlines trip planning and coordination for teachers, parents, and students.
Role
Target Audience
Timeline
UX Methods
Tools
UX Researcher, Designer & Prototyping
Chapperone users;
Teachers & students & Parents (middle and high school)
8 Weeks
Comparative Analysis, Interview, Surveys,
Think-Aloud Protocol, SUS, Rainbow Sheet, Observation Form, User Testing Analysis
Storyboarding,
Design Iterations
Figma
Project Overview
As the company prepares to launch its web platform to complement the existing app, the project focuses on enhancing workflow efficiency and user experience for a successful launch.
My Contributions
As part of a design interns team of four and working closely with the CEO, I led user research, facilitated usability testing, analyzed findings and translated insights into actionable design refinements in Figma to create prototypes that enhance the platform’s user experience.
Project Approach
To align with client expectations and maximize project impact, the process followed a structured, strategic approach mapped to the Double Diamond framework and broken into four key phases: Understand, Validate, Enhance & Expand.
We began by researching user needs, validated insights through usability testing, refined designs based on user feedback, and expanded features for future growth. This approach ensured a user-centered, iterative, and research-driven design process.
To Quantify Our Research
1oo+
Outreach Emails
5+
Comparative Analysis
10+
Usability Testings
10+
UX Strategic Approches
Discover & Define : Understand & Validate
So, how do we get a clear picture of the market? To familiarize ourselves with the landscape and industry standards, we began with a comparative analysis and feature review matrix. This process gave us a clearer understanding of the market, helped evaluate strengths and gaps in existing solutions, and uncovered opportunities for Chapperone to stand out.
What do we learn?
Feature Review Matrix
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Functionality Gaps: Chapperone lacks expense management, GPS tracking, and drag-and-drop functionality
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Enhancement Opportunities: Addressing these gaps can streamline trip planning, improve financial tracking, and enhance user interaction.
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Industry Standards Alignment: Many competitors offer batch processing, automated document uploads, and interactive itinerary tools, setting a benchmark for Chapperone’s feature expansion.
Comparative Analysis
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Market Positioning: Chapperone stands out with its intuitive UI, offline accessibility, and simplified document management, but lacks advanced risk management and collaboration tools.
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User Expectations: Competitors provide automated reminders, real-time GPS tracking, and seamless multi-role communication, indicating a demand for these features.
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Differentiation Strategy: Chapperone can focus on enhancing security, real-time coordination, and trip customization to carve a stronger niche in the market.
Feature review matrix & Comparative analysis
To bridge these insights from comparative analysis with tangible design enhancements, we conducted a Usability Audit of the newly developed web app. This evaluation focused on usability, accessibility, and overall user experience, identifying UI/UX inconsistencies, accessibility gaps, and specific performance issues. Using these findings, we developed initial design recommendations to enhance functionality, improve user interactions, and align Chapperone more closely with market expectations.
Usability audit
User Research
To create a seamless trip-planning experience, we needed to understand the pain points and needs of our core users—teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Managing educational trips involves multiple moving parts, from logistics and safety compliance to real-time communication.
Our research relied on two primary methods—1 : 1 Interviews and Usability Testing—to gain a deeper understanding of user experiences. Our key objectives were to:
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Uncover users' pain points, needs, and expectations in organizing and attending school trips.
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Identify opportunities to enhance the app to better support teachers, reducing planning time and stress.
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Gather feedback on underused or confusing features, ensuring a more intuitive experience.
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Explore ways to improve communication between trip organizers (teachers), students, and parents for smoother coordination.
1. Interview
We started our research from scratch to discover the core needs, challenges, and expectations of overall planning and attending educational trips. Through structured 1 on 1 interview sessions with teachers & school administrators, students, and parents, we gained firsthand insights into their experiences and frustrations. This established a baseline for evaluating Chapperone’s effectiveness, guiding key improvements and future enhancements.
To better empathize with our target audience, we transformed the key insights gained from interviews into first-person POV statements, allows us to clearly capture users' frustrations, motivations, and needs from their own perspective.
Teachers (mainly middle & high schools)
"As a teacher, I am responsible for planning school trips, I need a more efficient way to manage trip logistics because current manual processes and fragmented communication tools create inefficiencies and increase stress."
School Administrators
"As an administrator, I oversee trip compliance and security, I need a secure and flexible way to manage permissions and student data because handling permissions is complex and ensuring data privacy is a major concern."
Parents
"As a parent, I want to stay informed about their child’s trip, I need real-time updates and direct communication with trip organizers because a lack of timely information creates anxiety, especially in emergencies."
Students (mainly middle & high schools)
"As a student, I rely on the app for trip updates, I need a user-friendly platform that provides real-time notifications because filling out multiple forms and dealing with technical issues prevents me from accessing important information."
2. Usability Testings
To assess how effectively Chapperone supports its users, we conducted structured usability testings through task-based testing and real-time observations. These findings directly informed our design recommendations, ensuring they were actionable, user-centered and data-driven.
Preparation
Testing
Data Analysis
Preparation Phase
To ensure consistency and reliability, we developed a detailed usability test protocol, including:
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Defining what we aimed to evaluate and improve and Identifying specific areas of user experience to assess.
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Create opening script for participants to create a structured and unbiased testing environment.
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Developed User-Specific Task Assignments based on the unique workflows of teachers, parents, administrators, and students.
Testing Phase
We conducted task-based usability testing using the think-aloud protocol, allowing us to observe real-time user interactions, decision-making, and challenges. Our structured approach included:
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Navigation & Task Performance → Evaluating how easily users could complete essential tasks.
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Using observation forms to track:
1. Time-on-task; 2. User behaviors; 3. Direct user quotes; 4. Moments of confusion & frustration -
Post-Task Interviews → Gathering additional insights on usability issues and user expectations.
User observation form
Data Analysis Phase
To quantify our findings and identify usability trends, we applied:
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System Usability Scale (SUS) → Measuring overall user satisfaction and usability perception.
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Rainbow Sheet Method → Categorizing usability issues by frequency and priority, creating a clear visual summary of pain points to hand off to the client.
SUS
Rainbow sheets
Feedback Sessions & Prioritization with Clients
After synthesizing our usability testing findings, we conducted a feedback session with the client to discuss key usability challenges and potential design improvements. This session helped us align our recommendations with business goals, technical feasibility, user impact, and time constraints, ensuring that our proposed improvements were both impactful and achievable within the project timeline.
By evaluating feasibility, complexity, and priority, we identified key areas to refine in the next design phase. Our insights were organized by user group to ensure targeted solutions for different stakeholders:
For Teachers & Administrators
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Simplifying Student Management → Streamlining processes for handling student information and permissions.
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Optimizing Trip Management → Improving workflows for creating, modifying, and organizing trips to reduce planning time and complexity.
For Parents & Students
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Clarifying Intentional Limitations → Clearly communicating platform restrictions and constraints to prevent confusion.
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Building Trust Through Transparency → Fostering reliability with consistent and clear communication about trip details.
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Ensuring Confidence in Trip Registration → Simplifying and improving the trip registration process for ease of use.
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Improving Document Management → Enhancing transparency and accessibility of trip-related documents to ensure users can easily find necessary information.
Develop & Deliver : Enhance & Expand
Based on feedback from testing, we confirmed key areas for improvement, including enhancing communication tools, streamlining task management, and simplifying trip logistics. These insights shaped clear design solutions aimed at improving usability, boosting efficiency, and addressing the unique needs of Chapperone’s target audience.
Insight 1
Clarifying Intentional Limitations to Avoid Misunderstanding & Confusions
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Parents have expressed confusion when viewing only their own children under the “Students” tab, leading to an assumption that their child is the only participant on the trip. This lack of clarity risks undermining their confidence in the system.
Solution
Insight 2
Building Trust and Connection Through Transparency and Reliability
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The current absence of comprehensive chaperone details (e.g., phone number, profile photo) creates a gap in fostering trust and connection.
Solution
Insight 3
Ensuring Confidence in Trip Registration
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Users unable to identify the trip they are applying for.
Solution
Insight 4
Improving Document Management Transparency
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Parents are unsure if their uploaded documents are accurate and accepted, leading to uncertainty and more follow-up inquiries.
Solution
Insight 5
Simplifying Student Management for Teachers
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Teachers face difficulty locating how to add students to trips, which slows down their workflow and increases onboarding frustration.
Solution
Insight 6
Optimizing Trip Management Workflow
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Teachers and admins find the process of managing their created trips overwhelming due to the lack of organizational tools, particularly when there are numerous trips to navigate.
Solution
Feature Expansion
From usability testing, we also uncovered opportunities across all user roles to enhance existing features. Using our findings, we proposed new features that addressed users' needs to be added in current platform.
User Needs POV
As a teacher, I want to quickly locate the specific trip I’m working on, without having to scroll through past trips—so that I can manage it efficiently.
Designed filter and search functions for trips, make the trips layout adjustable (ie. by time created, start date, creator).
Design
User Needs POV
As a teacher, I want a clear and organized space where I can plan the trip itinerary, add activities, and easily share it with students—so the planning process feels structured and collaborative.
Design
Designed the itinerary feature and provided three layout options for clients to choose from.
Deliver - Let's see how the design plays out on a real-world scenario!
For our final deliverable, in addition to outlining key findings, we incorporated a storyboard and interactive role-playing approach to place our design solutions in a real-world scenario:
"For the 2025 school year, the freshmen class at Crestview Academy will embark on a five-day cultural tour to Paris, France."
This approach demonstrated the practicality and impact of our design decisions, making the user experience more tangible and engaging. The client was highly satisfied, highlighting that our deliverables exceeded her expectations and directly addressed her needs.
Reflection
It is better to underpromise and overdeliver, than to overpromise and underdeliver.
Being flexible and adaptive is key—you never know when things might need to change, and being open to that is so important.
Communication is everything, too. Whether it’s with your team, stakeholders, or users, keeping everyone on the same page and aligned toward the same goal really helps steer the team in the right direction and allows us to deliver the best possible outcomes.
Don’t get tired of testing—every testing session uncovers something new, often problems we hadn’t even noticed before. Sometimes, these issues come from small hesitations or things that didn’t seem like a big deal at first. As designers, our job is all about discovering, validating, refining, and repeating. It’s a continuous cycle of improvement.