A web-based operations platform integrating scheduling, student records, attendance, contracts, and inventory.
COLLABORATORS
Client operations lead, engineering team
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
BACKGROUND
The client was a pre-launch art studio, but the operations team had real experience running a previous studio.
In the previous studio, Managing schedules, student records, and operations across spreadsheets led to fragmented information, repeated work, and frequent omissions.
Before launching the new studio, the client wanted to avoid repeating the same chaos — and instead build a system that could automate and centralize operations.
Fragmented student records
Class hours, leave, make-up classes, contracts, project photos, and teaching progress were recorded in different spreadsheets and documents, making lookup and cross-checking costly.
Chaotic make-up class prioritization
Rules such as first-come-first-served, priority for students with more absences, and same-day-only scheduling for unexcused absences existed — but had no system support.
Manual entry errors caused overbooking
Manual scheduling often resulted in too many make-up students being assigned, exceeding teacher capacity and creating operational chaos.
High front-desk pressure
Staff had to handle multiple issues simultaneously, without prioritization or automated reminders.
Manual parent notifications
Make-up classes, leave replies, and contract-expiry notices all required staff to manually check lists and spreadsheets, which led to missed notifications.
PROBLEM
Front-desk staff manually tracked low stock, expiring contracts, absences, and parent messages across scattered records, making urgent tasks easy to miss.
DESIGN
Designed a Priority Sorting to-do panel: the system displays to-do items and next steps directly based on urgency.
OUTCOME
In simulated tasks, the time to identify the highest-priority item fell from 2 - 3 minutes to under 30, while missed urgent items fell from 2 to 0.
PROBLEM
Staff had to cross-check absences, make-up requests, student progress, and available seats across spreadsheets, increasing the risk of missed or incorrect assignments.
INITIAL HYPOTHESIS
Fully automate makeup lesson scheduling to eliminate manual operations.
CONSTRAINTS
Priority varies by case:
Staff balance first come, first served with the number of missed classes. Students absent without timely notice can only be placed on the day, not booked in advance.
Schedule data may lag:
Teachers and classes can change before an administrator updates the system, leaving automatic assignments to be corrected.
An open seat may not be a suitable seat:
Placement also depends on student progress, learning goals, and the teacher’s ability to teach that level.
Parent-selected slots add coordination:
If a teacher or class changes, staff must renegotiate the placement.
DESIGN
Full Automation → Intelligent Recommendation
System filtering + teacher confirmation
The system records availability and ranks the waitlist by missed classes and request time.
Two-way availability filtering
Select a student to see time-compatible slots, or select a slot to see available students.
OUTCOME
Scheduling process from 6 steps → 2steps
Before (6 Steps):
Roster → Hours → Leave → History → Capacity → MatchingAfter (2 Steps):
Select Student → Apply Recommendations
30 min → 5-10 min per weekly scheduling task
About 67% - 83% less time in simulated tasks.
The system flags scheduling gaps in red and identifies teaching levels without coverage. Select an affected class to see available, qualified substitute teachers and assign one.
PROBLEM
Teachers had to manually search for templates in their notes, scrolling through dense text to find the right one, then adjust the wording for each parent and manually fill in student and parent names and suffixes.
CONSTRAINTS
Automatic sending would save another step, but：
Tone & Context Sensitivity: Automated messaging lacked nuances in communication tone for different parents and couldn't account for unique, manual
DESIGN DESICISON
Designed a "Contextual Auto-Generation + One-Click Validation" workflow. Triggering an action immediately auto-populates a targeted, editable message template alongside a task checkbox. Teachers retain absolute control to tweak context and sign off with a single click.
Mark Absent → Generate Draft → Edit & Review → Send
Real-time tracking and data logging for teaching progress, attendance records, and project records.
Impact
< 30 sec Priority identification
30 min → 5–10 min Weekly make-up preparation
2 → 0 Urgent tasks missed
Reflection
Automation introduces new risks
Automation reduces repetitive work, but outdated schedules, incomplete records, and contextual exceptions can still produce convincing yet incorrect results.
System assistance, human accountability
The system consolidates information, applies rules, filters options, and surfaces pending actions. Staff retain final control over teaching fit, schedule exceptions, and parent communication.
Designing for recoverability
The goal was not maximum automation, but a balance between speed, visibility, and error recovery. Staff should be able to recognize incorrect suggestions and correct them before they affect operations.
Next step
Test the system under real workloads to evaluate whether prioritization remains reliable, exceptions are visible, and staff can recover efficiently as the studio scales.