PROTEA
SUITE
My role
One of the two designers on the team
Team
Six people
Platforms
iPad for teachers in schools, macOS for staff at headquarters
Validation
Usability testing with the stakeholder, on-site in Johannesburg
iSchoolAfrica
An NGO based in South Africa that works to reduce inequality through technology and education. It gives young people in under-resourced schools, from early childhood to Grade 12 and in both mainstream and special-needs schools, the tools to thrive and reach better economic opportunities.
Visit website ↗iSchoolAfrica has to produce many reports on how its programmes affect students' skills, but it had no single data system to build them from.
Data was scattered, collection was manual and reporting took a long time. The solution had to work for two very different people: teachers in schools, often new to iPads and with patchy connectivity, and administrative staff at headquarters.
ONE SUITE.
TWO APPS.
ONE SYSTEM.
Teachers log their sessions on iPad in Calyx, the data reaches headquarters automatically, and staff consult, manage and export it in Corolla in seconds. Two apps, one data pipeline.
iPad app
CALYX
Logging a session has to fit into a teacher's day without adding friction. Every decision in Calyx aims at fewer steps and fewer things to understand, for people who may be using an iPad for the first time.
One login per school
The app opens with a login tied to one school's iPad. It was a deliberate architecture decision: loading only that school's data avoids connectivity problems in areas with limited bandwidth.
Cards, not a dropdown
We chose cards over a dropdown or a list to keep the interface approachable for teachers who may not know iPads well: large tap targets, clear names, a familiar metaphor.
A clean session list
Teachers can review, edit or delete past records. The full record opens with a tap, so the main list stays clean while every detail is still one step away.
Fast data entry
The form asks for class, app used, date, duration and feedback. Notes is the only optional field: entry stays quick, and the records stay complete enough for reporting.
macOS app
COROLLA
Corolla covers the whole data lifecycle for the head office: adding schools, classes, teachers, donors and programmes, reading the sessions logged in Calyx, and exporting everything as CSV for reporting and impact assessment.
One pattern for everything
Schools, classes, teachers, donors and programmes all follow the same add, edit and link pattern, and the "add" button is always in the same place. It's a small detail that makes the whole app feel consistent and easy to learn.
Hierarchy, validated on-site
Clicking a school opens its full profile, where staff add classes and teachers and link them to each other. We validated this hierarchical flow directly with the stakeholder, through usability testing on-site in Johannesburg.
Data out in one click
Every session recorded in Calyx lands in one filterable table. Staff export it as a .csv file for external reporting and impact assessment, so reports start from clean data.
TESTED, ITERATED,
DELIVERED.
Both apps were well received in usability testing with iSchoolAfrica, on-site in Johannesburg.
Users didn't run into problems, so only small iterations were needed before shipping.
Calyx and Corolla were delivered to iSchoolAfrica, for its teachers and its head office.
LIKED THIS PROJECT?
LET'S TALK.
I'm open to UX/UI and product design roles. Write to me, or grab my CV.
micaelagiannetti94@gmail.com