Scenario
Ms. Frizzle’s 3rd grade is going ice skating! Ms. Frizzle needs to obtain signed permission slips from all her students’ parents. From past experience, Ms. Frizzle knows this task is going to be a hassle, especially due to forgetful Arnold who always forgets to give his parents permission slips. Even if Arnold does remember to give the permission slip to his parents, they can forget to sign it. And even if they do, Arnold can forget to bring the signed slips back to school. This used to be very frustrating for poor Ms. Frizzle and disappointing for Arnold to miss the exciting class outings and watch the Magic School Bus leave without him. But now, the school has adopted this outstanding system design by ConnectEd. So, Ms. Frizzle goes to her computer and opens ConnectEd. This allows her to create a permission slip and send it to the students’ parents online. The parents can then sign the permission slip online as well. Furthermore, Ms. Frizzle can be notified, in advance, if some parents haven’t yet signed the slips or if parents have questions. Ms. Frizzle will also be notified at the point all the parents have signed. Reminders can also be sent to the parents so that they don’t forget to sign it.
1 Comment
Unknown User (jks@mit.edu)
Feedback from the weekend
This scenario is missing the whole problem of a communication channel between teachers and parents - that is, parents are only able to respond with a 'yes' or 'no', but can't ask questions to the teacher.
Your designs seem like they will extend well to other kinds of communication - about behavior, assignments or grades. Might want to explore these, however, as they might call for some specific UI features that would really improve usability.