iOS App
Pupil
My high school relied on an app that was cumbersome, slow, and inaccessible.
I joined forces with my best friend to change that.
We created Pupil, an iOS client for the student information system (SIS) used by our school and 6,500 others nationwide. Pupil is a native app built from the ground up with students in mind, employing modern development tools to create an experience that seamlessly fits into iOS, ensuring familiarity, accessibility, and great performance.
Inspiration
The official app for the SIS had frustrated students for years, with difficulties finding information, extended load times, and an interface that felt awkward and out of date. As we began development, the official app even regressed in functionality, losing key features.
Our explorations also revealed a much more impactful shortcoming: the app did not support the extensive suite of accessibility features on iPhone. Commonly used accommodations, like larger text size, had no effect on the official app’s interface. We knew oversights like this called for a new app experience that centered usability and accessibility.
How might we design an iOS app that addresses these performance, accessibility and usability issues, creating a fulfilling and motivating experience for students?
Ideation
The app design began with the exemplars of familiarity and integration: the default iPhone apps, like Settings and Mail. I created mockups inspired by these apps, relying heavily on the default iOS app components to create an interface that felt natural and comfortable. Through several rounds of iteration, we refined the app’s visual identity, giving the app a distinct but native feel, and explored ways to organize the app’s features.
Implementation
We released Pupil on the App Store at the end of our senior year, shortly after it won the Congressional App Challenge in our district. As the following school year began, the app grew to over 4,000 users from school districts across the nation, and it continued to be shared at our school.
The framework Pupil uses enables support for many built-in accessibility features, but they’re not guaranteed. Throughout the app’s creation, we made sure to program and design the app to allow for full support of these features.
Pupil’s colored visualizations present clearer insights into class grades. In addition to connecting to the SIS to show grades and schedule information, Pupil also brings the ability to customize class names and icons, allowing for easy identification and improved readability.
Next Steps
Pupil was created as a passion project during high school, and while we’ve continued some development since its release, I have my eyes on several ways to expand the project.
In-Depth Research and User Testing
While we did focus on other students’ experiences with the SIS’ official app, we haven’t done thorough research to define user needs and ensure we’re meeting or exceeding them in every area — they might have pain points we're not aware of.
Greater Functionality
Pupil supports the key features of the SIS, but there are additional components, such as attendance and mail, that we plan to incorporate in the future.
Platform Expansion
Currently, Pupil can be used on iPad, but it has yet to be fully adapted with tablet or laptop screens in mind. Doing so could broaden our reach and result in a flexible and scalable design.