CU Endo for Chulalongkorn University
Streamlining how dental professors and students manage clinical sessions. Finalist at Thailand ICT Awards 2022.
My Role
I took on the role of the project lead and UI/UX designer, leading the end-to-end design and pitch with a team of 4 engineers.
Project Scope
I worked on this project from May - Aug 2022 with 3 other full-stack engineers.
Project Outcomes
+ Finalist at the Thailand ICT Awards in 2022 for the university category
+ Pitched minimum viable product of “CU Endo” to professors at the Faculty of dentistry at Chulalongkorn University
Background
Fifth and sixth year dental students partake in clinical sessions, which is a practical, hands-on learning experience in a dental clinic or a simulated environment where students apply theoretical knowledge to real or simulated patient care.
Each student owns 6 pieces of paper, which serves the purpose of keeping track of their patients, work, and grades as well as keep track of their performance. Professors also utilize the same sets of paper for grading and checking student progress, allowing them to easily transfer the scores onto the university learning management system and support their students.
Challenge
The paper-based work management and grading system has been long described as “complex and outdated” by both students and professors.
Preliminary research
Since I had no background knowledge about how clinical sessions work at dental school and the current grading system, I had to familiarize myself by reading through related documents. I did concept mapping in order to visualize the relationships between different concepts, ideas, and pieces of information.
As the problem scope was still broad and I wanted to better frame the problem, I sent out a short survey to 10 professors and 10 students asking about their habits, satisfaction, and desires of the current system and potential new solution. From the survey, I found out that:
😣 70% of students and 45% of professors are not satisfied with the current system
The majority of users are in need for a change.
💻 85% of students and professors prefer digitized grading and work tracking
A digitized system would save time and provide opportunities for automation. Students would rather have all grading be on one centralized platform.
🙋🏻 85% of professors are willing to adapt to a new digitized system, even with a learning curve
Although professors have an age range from early 20s to late 50s and have various levels in technology proficiency, most are willing to try a new system because of their huge frustration with the current one.
Identifying pain points
With a clearer understanding of student and professor behaviors regarding the current system, I conducted user interviews with 4 professors and 4 students to dive deeper. Our conversations uncovered common frustrations shared by both groups, as well as unique strategies students use to make the system more manageable.
🧑🏻🏫 Professors
🧑🎓 Students
When we lose one of our papers, it is hard to recover our work because we have to trace back and provide tangible evidence of our work.
To prevent losing our work, we take photos of our papers as digital evidence.
We all have different methods of calculating our own grades (Ex. Excel).
We have to bring our papers on the day of our practical exam and professors will grade on the spot.
Synthesizing insights
🫤 The process of manual grading is repetitive, both physically and systematically.
Professors have to manually tally up the grade → enter into excel → transfer to university's learning management system. They would rather spend more time preparing for their next lesson and helping students.
🫤 Keeping all information on paper is unreliable and hard to standardize.
Students are only given one copy of the 6 pieces of paper utilized for tracking work and grading for the entire semester. They currently calculate their own grades to visualize where they are and where they need to improve.
Empathy mapping
I utilized empathy mapping to better get a better understanding of the common and unique thoughts, feelings, and actions of a professor and a student.
From the key insights and empathy mapping, I proposed the following how might we statements.
How might we minimize professors' time spent on grading and maximize their focus on teaching?
How might we make it easier for students to consistently meet their academic and career goals?
User Flows
As I was creating an entirely new web app, I proposed two user flows for the tutor and students experience.
Style guide
Some considerations for the style guide included:
Purple is the faculty's representative color.
Pink is the representative color of Chulalongkorn University.
Sukhumvit set was chosen for Thai readability and aesthetic.
Simple border icons assist in making the displayed information more visual and memorable.
Iterations through feedback
Before getting to the final screens, many iterations were made including changes to user workflow, UI, and technical requirements.
Simple search bar
Gradient color in search bar doesn’t comply to WCAG standards.
Simple search bar creates better distinction between search bar and search results.
Before
After
Created a labeling system
Labels for student including student year and ID number
Created badges for treatment case - test case and tooth number
Color coordination and badges increases scannability
Before
After
Adjusted information hierarchy
Moved “current patients” to the top to increase visibility of work that is to-do
Changed quality of work input style from dropdown to slider to decrease number of touch points
Increase whitespace between sections to space out dense information
Before
After
Visualized a more accurate mental model
Users took too long and found it confusing to get to what they where looking for
User did not think of patient information and session separately - made more sense to group together
Before
After
Proposed solution
Below are the final screens and features for the “CU Endo” progressive web app.
Login and Sign-up
Search for students (Professor)
Streamlined Grading (Professor)
Easy Work Tracking (Student)
Usability testing
I had weekly meetings with professors and students to receive immediate feedback in order to complete rapid iteration. With professors, I focused on simplifying the complex grading system with emphasis on accessibility. With students, I spotlighted the personal progress and ease of tracing work and patient information.
Demo video for the Thailand ICT Competition 2022
As we completed the minimum viable product for the progressive web app (PWA), we created a demo video to show the panel of judges at the Thailand ICT Competition.
What I learned
As this was the first time I led a project and completed end-to-end design, I learned the importance of having design processes such as persona and user flow to better guide how I tackle translating user needs into insights and then create a tangible solution.
If I had more time, I would...
Some next steps include developing a data and analytics dashboard to provide valuable insights into student progress. This tool would help measure student OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), allowing us to track achievements more effectively. By leveraging the data, I could continuously adjust and improve the curriculum to better meet student needs. Additionally, I would request developer funding and a consultant fee to ensure expert input throughout the process. Maintenance and hosting fees would also be essential to keep the platform running smoothly and up-to-date.