The Genplus concept was created during Meg’s role as a consultant working across 36 schools and colleges in Queensland. Meg realised that schools lacked a functional tracking system for case management of students with a disability and learning difficulties. Personalised learning case management is essential under disability legislative frameworks of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005. Meg found that proper note taking and availability of these notes and subsequent management plans were needed across different teachers of that student, from year to year, and even across different schools should that student move. On the one hand through records needed to be kept, affecting the care and management of the student and available government funding, but the process needed to be straightforward and easy for the teachers to use so as to not add to an already busy full workload.
In order to secure NCCD (Government) funding, the case managers/ teachers need to capture and provide evidence in 4 separate areas to qualify.
Schools were finding that really difficult from various perspectives: time, resources and understanding technology that could support their data collection. They were literally doing it old school with templates and handwritten notes; it was very clunky, time consuming, easy to lose information and there was little continuity of support for students.
And so the idea was born, to create a mobile app to simplify case management in schools for students with a disability. And by doing this, help prevent discrimination and improve consultation and communication with families, the students and teachers; creating better support for the students so that they get access to the curriculum which is what they are legally entitled to.
“The workshop is so worthwhile - I'm much more excited about the project after completing the prototyping process, because it really gets you thinking outside a narrowed focus, helps visualize and shape the application into reality.”
Meg Ryan, Founder/Owner
GenPlus
Referred to reinteractive by her Salesforce Account Executive, Meg chose reinteractive because of their specialisation in custom app development and the in-house expertise.
Meg had the idea for the app, but no real concept of how it would work in the real world. And so the App Design Workshop was the ideal point to start, taking the concepts and putting them into a tangible form.
The workshop was run by reinteractive’s Lead Designer/UX Developer, Carl. Carl started by asking lots of questions and listening carefully to the responses. From this he was able to understand the purpose of the app, who would be using it, and how it would be used.
Based on this he was then able to start designing the UX of each screen of the web and mobile versions of the application, reviewing each step with the Gen Plus team, and verifying the features included.
As the UX started to take shape Carl also completed the design overlay, adding colours, fonts, logos and images to the design.
The end result was a complete clickable prototype and design templates. In this was the project came to life, not just for the gen plus team, but crucially for potential investors, who were not able to see what the finished application would look like.
Based on the fully functioning prototype a full development scope and work estimate for the MVP were generated; an asset to help secure further funding and investment, as well as completing the full blueprint for development of the application and launch as a live tool.
“In the first couple of meetings with reinteractive designer, I felt very comfortable and could see that he quickly got what I was trying to do. With the high level of communication, trust was established very quickly.”
Meg Ryan, Founder/Owner
GenPlus
Through the process Gen Plus principal Meg learned three key lessons:
Be ready to be challenged, be flexible and be able to pivot in the workshop process, as what you think will work, in reality might not be the best choice
Simplicity is best - the more refined and streamlined the app is, the easier it is for users to enjoy and use.
Be ready to embrace new possibilities because it is those possibilities that make a much better application and experience.
The idea is now developed and planned out in reality resulting in a tangible, fully clickable prototype with UX design, colours and graphics- all tried and tested for usability
An asset with full development phase costings and ongoing costs that Meg can take and present for further funding and investment
Increased confidence in the workability and process flow of the app concept.
“The whole workshop went better than I ever expected! The testing of the prototype and customer feedback helped refine the app so that it's more targeted and simplistic.
Communication and transparency was very high. The designer was very upfront about what would work and what wouldn’t and invited participation from my side, resulting in a collaboration built on a sense of trust.”Meg Ryan, Founder/Owner
GenPlus
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