Audience
This case study is for designers, developers, and product owners who are interested in mobile application development within the Department of Education.
Introduction
The QTeachers Mobile Application (formerly known as OneSchool Mobile Experience) is an example of an excellent mobile application development project in several ways:
- User experience (UX): The project incorporated many of the department’s recent Enterprise UX audit findings, with an emphasis on user engagement and persona-based design principles.
- User interface (UI): The interface was designed to be mobile-friendly and accessible from the start.
- Architecture: Security-by-design and offline-first design principles were at the heart of the application’s design.
- Microservices: Early API experience influenced many of the Data Hub’s enterprise characteristics.
- Product management: QTeachers was one of the department’s first Agile projects, and the project team learned a lot while aligning modern Agile with the existing PRINCE2 frameworks.
Goals and objectives
In addition to creating a user-friendly mobile application specifically for teachers inside and outside the classroom, the team also aimed to establish mobile design patterns that were repeatable and scalable.
Context
The application was a part of two broader initiatives - to reduce the administrative burden on teaching staff and to modernize components of the department’s ecosystem.
Approach
The team employed Scrum/Agile and Lean design methodologies to plan, design, and develop the application. Along with internal stakeholders, a group of interested teachers were appointed as ‘Change champions’ to be part of the ongoing UX journey. Initially, a prototype was created using Progressive Web App (PWA) technology and then tested in a select group of schools. Based on business and technical feedback, the project shifted to the near-native Xamarin framework. The primary reason for the architectural change was the need for secure and reliable offline data management. The Change champions stayed involved through various channels, including a dedicated Teams forum.