Sistema Tacet
Role: Product Designer
Team: 2 Product Designers, 3 Product Managers, 7 Developers
Timeline: 8 months (ongoing), UW Blueprint '24
Overview
Sistema Tacet is a class management platform that aims to help 50+ teachers to track absences, upload lesson plans, claim classes, and receive real-time updates on their absences. Administrators can access and track absence metrics while managing teacher absences across 5 different locations.
Administrators don’t have the time to process teacher absences, and manually find substitutes for teachers, the current process is inefficient.
THE PROBLEM
The Solution
An optimized absence management system that reduces administrative overhead, and enhances visibility of teacher availabilities.
What's out there?
FIGURE 1- COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS FINDINGS SUMMARY
To make sure we aren't creating something that has already been made, we took a look at the pros and cons of the current market of the most popular apps that could be used within the Sistema team for absence tracking.
Product Brainstorm
FIGURE 2 - INITIAL USER FLOW & FEATURE SCOPING
FIGURE 3 - INITIAL SKETCHES OF THE CALENDAR
Which way do we go?
The first roadblock we hit was the decision of whether to choose the conventional calendar navigation (left-right flip), or use a vertically scrolling calendar instead.
FIGURE 4 - LOFI CALENDAR NAVIGATION
Major reflections…
FIGURE 5 - AFFINITY MAPPING USER TESTING RESULTS
After our lofi screens were complete, we conducted user testing and the results led us to new problems to solve.
Overcomplicated widget states
Teachers struggled to differentiate multiple calendar states. The meaning behind filled vs. unfilled absences, circles, and outlines was unclear.
Misleading visual cues
Icons and circle indicators were not intuitive, leading to unexpected interactions and confusion about system behavior.
Unclear filtering system
The label "My Calendar" was too vague, making it unclear whether it referred to personal absences or those they needed to fill. Combined with other filters, the system became overly complex.
Revisiting the drawing board
After conducting the user tests, we found that many of the problems came back to the same problem of poor information architecture. We revisited the primary tasks that the teachers had, and found that they would be going on Tacet to either (1) declare and absence or (2) fill for another teacher. We decided to split those two tasks into separate calendars.
FIGURE 6 - NEW TOGGLE FEATURE INTRODUCED
Redesigning the widgets
After multiple brainstorming sessions, we explored various options and landed on a clearer way of communicating the information on the widget, mainly the teachers filling for an absence, and the use of icons.
FIGURE 6 - WIDGETS BEFORE AND AFTER
Work in Progress…
The project is still in the works, updates are coming soon!
