PROJECT: 6 MONTHS | LEAD DESIGNER
Full Circle Montessori School
Website Redesign
With four locations in Arlington, VA Full Circle Montessori School is a well established institution in the community. The redesign utilizes a new Brand Identity reflecting the values of FCMS, while helping make the process of navigating the school website easier for parents, and streamlining administrative processes for the staff.
Services
Website Design
User Research
User Testing
Brand Design
Systems Integration
2020-2021
Project Highlights
• Applications for enrollment have doubled from the previous year.
• Online Enrollment Application
• Online Class Registration
• Online Scheduling for Parent Meetings and Open House
• More efficient Administrative Workflows
• In-house COVID-19 Screening
My Role
• UX/UI Designer
• Web Designer/Developer
• End-to-end design.
• Strategizing with the client
• User Research
• Prototype Design & User Testing
• Content Strategy and Visual Design
New Brand Identity
Reflecting core values. Fun and bold colors with patterns and shapes representing Montessori principles.
Responsive Website
Simple, easy to use across all devices. A mobile-first design without compromising Desktop experience.
Application Process
Parents can apply and pay all fees easily & quickly online without having to download forms .
Visits & Open House
Parents can easily plan a visit, attend an Open House with integrated scheduling and calendars.
The Ask
How can we redesign the out-dated school website for prospective parents looking to enroll their children and to introduce all that FCMS has to offer?
After a Heuristic Review we could have easily fixed the obvious design issues and quickly launched a new updated, modern site with the same content and flow; based on the clients assumptions of what a school website should be…
But…
We had the opportunity to reach out to users to find out what their experiences are using the FCMS site and other school websites. What can we learn in order to design for what users need?
The Users
With contact information on newly enrolled families and those that expressed interest in enrolling in the recent past, we were able to reach out to gather data on these parents’ experiences with the school enrollment process.
The Client
Working with the client we sought to best understand the total experience parents have when enrolling their children in a new school, not just the the experience of using school websites, while addressing the clients wants and needs as well.
Empathize and Define
In attempting to empathize with our users needs we were able to define the problems they faced in this process. This gave us insight that helped create ideas and challenge assumptions of what a school website should be.
What We Discovered
Through a combination of a user survey and one-on-one interviews we gained detailed information on who are users are, and who we were designing for.
Our User’s Journey
We looked at scenarios from our use cases and to better empathize and to understand where opportunities may exist to design for our users’ needs. From our User Journey we see problems that could arise for our users and possible solutions.
The Problem
Parents with young children who feel anxiety about finding a school to enroll their children, need to research school websites in the area but find information on admissions confusing and school philosophies are not clear.
The Solution
How might we design a school website with clear admissions information while conveying a sense of the school's philosophy in order to make the process of enrolling for parents feel easy and clear?
Designing for the Solution
MoSCoW, Sketching, Site Map, User Flows and Wireframes
Based on a combination of what heard from our users, insights gained from our Competitive Analysis plus adherence to the clients needs and brand vision, we were able to develop an agile project framework to begin to design and build FCMS new website.
Visual Design
We chose a creative direction for the website and worked with a new brand identity proposed by a previous designer. I was able to create a Design Element Collage that captured the essence of the new brand identity while also addressing the clients desires to have the new site be modern and fun.
We wanted to represent the identity of the institution, it’s philosophies of Montessori education while combining these needs with adherence to human-centered design principles for the web in combination with Accessibility guidelines and principles.
Design System / Prototype
After feedback from the client we moved onto applying the Design Element Collage to a Design System and working Prototype.
What We Learned
Problem Revisited
The initial problem the client presented was an out of date website that needed redesigning. But, from our research and iterative process we determined what potential frustrations users may have and what their potential problems where enrolling their children in a new school.
New Solution
How might we design a school website that addresses prospective parents needs while recognizing and attempting to ease their frustrations around the process of enrolling their children in a new school?
For more details on the User Research for this project,
click here.