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 a student information system (SIS) used by 6,500 schools nationwide. Pupil is a native app built from the ground up with students in mind, employing modern tools to create an experience that seamlessly fits into iOS, ensuring familiarity, accessibility, and great performance.
Three main frustrations with the official app stood out to us:
Usability
Cluttered layout and poor visual design made navigation difficult
Performance
Load times and lag increased friction while navigating
Accessibility
Even basic iOS accessibility features were unsupported
We weren't the only ones, either.
The goal became clear:
How might we design an alternative app that addresses these performance, accessibility and usability issues, creating a convenient and fulfilling experience for all students?
Early inspiration came from exemplars of familiarity and integration: default iPhone apps like Settings and Mail, drawing on users' existing familiarity to improve usability.
Several rounds of iteration refined the app's design, creating a distinct but native feel.
Rapid prototyping in SwiftUI during the design process allowed for efficient handoff from design to dev.
The technologies Pupil uses enables support for many built-in accessibility features, but they’re not guaranteed. Throughout the app’s creation, we programmed and designed the app to allow for full support of these features.
At launch, Pupil loaded grades 2.3x faster than its official counterpart.
Pupil has been downloaded by more than 4,000 students across the nation.
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.
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In-Depth Research
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.
