RDM Pro: An Employee Onboarding App
Project Overview
Redemptive Dance Ministries is a Dance Studio and nonprofit founded in Littleton, CO. RDM currently has chapters in Colorado, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, with the goal of expanding to other countries in the next few years.
RDM’s CEO, Heather Johnson approached our team of design students to create an employee onboarding app for use across all RDM chapters.
Mark Amella
Information Architecture Lead
This site will eventually have multiple use cases, including on the administrator side
However, constraints forced us to prioritize one use case: newly hired employees of Redemptive Dance Ministries.
The Team
Kelsey Buckley (me)
UX Research Analyst
Project Secretary
Lia Janeiro
UI Lead
Client Communication
Process
research
Trends From User Interviews
Special considerations shaped our design process. For example, RDM requested that the app contain downloadable materials, as many of their dance teachers in Kenya and Zimbabwe have an unreliable internet connection. Read further to see how keeping our intended users in mind helped us make our product accessible.
only 40% of users are satisfied with communicating via Teams
60% struggle with RDM’s Teams content organization
“When you’re starting out teaching, there’s a check-list of things you need to do”
“Updating profile progress in Teams is kind of challenge”
Problem
solution
sketches,userflows, prototype, screenshots
“Onboarding’s biggest struggle is that stuff is all over the place- everything needs to be all in one place ”
Users have a hard time finding documents and managing storage
Users need to track progress to avoid confusion or incomplete documents/training
Users need to organize and easily refer to resources or content during classes
Users need to be able to download materials, as internet access can be unreliable in Zimbabwe and Kenya
RDMPro is a mobile app that enables new hires to seamlessly track their onboarding tasks, submit their paperwork, and access downloadable RDM files all in one platform.
This streamlines onboarding so nothing is missed, and teachers feel supported in teaching their classes.
We started by conducting 10 User Interviews with RDM Employees, RDM management, and dance instructors of various dance styles
After discovering user pain points, the team conducted Market Research on existing team/educational management platforms.
Platforms that inspired us: Microsoft Teams, CLI Studios, General Assembly’s My GA, and Linkedin Learning
We were asked to deliver 1 high fidelity mobile prototype of an internal employee onboarding app, from the landing page to completion of the task.
RDM needs to streamline their communication and onboarding for employees, providing them the necessary resources to succeed as RDM dance instructors.
Currently, their process can feel disorganized and lead to miscommunication between the various locations/teams.
Goals:
Streamline communication and onboarding for employees
Organize the content & resources instructors need to succeed
Currently, the on-boarding process isn’t fully digitized, and is managed mainly through Microsoft Teams- but staff members revealed usability issues, which will be discussed under Research.
Reflection
Next Steps
Our team began the design phase by sketching what the new landing page might look like based on our research findings. We then combined our sketches and data from market research to create the look of RDMPro.
To the left are the initial sketches depicting the landing page and the side menu that opens upon swiping left.
Our mid-fidelity prototype showed a percentage to indicate user progress.
Our high-fidelity prototype has a breadcrumb visual instead- this shows users where they are in the module.
In our high fidelity prototype, we included an overview and moved the Call To Action Button to the bottom of the screen to jump into their training.
Now users have a clear next step with a highlighted CTA.
Discuss the results or impact of your design. Include metrics, user feedback, or client testimonials if available.
12/12/23
RDM plans to get iphones for Mutare, and build RDM as an iOs app
They are gonna use the app and update it as well
Lia described the style guide to them, asked how they want deliverables (will send them via Teams)
“US Resouce library” Heather added a new folder called “UX design GA deliverables”
Once we decided on the layout, we created low-fidelity wire frames.
Training Screen from our High-Fidelity Prototype
The low-fidelity wire frames were developed into a wire flow of a user opening the app, completing a training module, answering a knowledge-check question, and then downloading and signing the employee agreement.
2 rounds of usability tests were conducted with 3 users each round. We wanted to test our UI for learnability, memorability, error recovery, and user satisfaction. All users were able to complete their task.
These tests informed the changes we made from low to mid fidelity, and mid to high fidelity wireflows.
Training Screen from our Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Priya Ramakrishnan
Project Coordinator
Client Communication
This design sprint taught me and my teammates the value of taking time to understand client needs. Constant transparent communication helped us deliver a design that RDM can use to strengthen their team, and eventually expand their reach.
The team handed off the prototype and a design system to keep future RDMPro changes consistent.
We recommended that next steps for RDM would be to find a developer to build this framework, and then expand to include a UI flow for the management team to set up and check individual’s onboarding progress.
