Student Age Forcasting Report | Naomi's Portfolio.

Student Age Forecasting Report

A tool to show forecasted classroom openings and students' future birthdates for teachers and administrators.

TL;DR

The Challenge

Directors and teachers had no way to see children’s future ages or upcoming classroom openings, forcing them to rely on manual calculations and pen-and-paper tracking.

The Solution

I designed a forecasting report that displays students’ projected ages and classroom availability at future dates, in both Excel and PDF formats, with clear visual cues for transitions.

Impact at a Glance

Eliminated manual calculations and tracking
Enabled proactive classroom planning
Delivered a competitive differentiator that no other platform offered

What I Learned

Even highly functional tools like reports benefit from deliberate UX design. Clear hierarchy, labeling, and iteration can turn a spreadsheet into a feature that drives efficiency and business impact.

Summary

Designed For

Procare Clients- Enterprise and GA

Make of the Team

1 UX designer, Product Manager and Dev Lead

My Role

UX designer, UI designer, User Interviewer.

Collaborated with UX Researcher and UX Writer

High level Timeline

July 2024 to Sept 2024

Methods Used

Design Thinking model. User interviews, alignment diagrams, personas, scenarios, user flows, IA, sketches, wireframes, clickable mockups, prototyping, conceptual walkthroughs, usability tests, internal design reviews.

Prototyping and Research Tools

Figma, Microsoft Excel, Figjam, Great Question

Project Details

For this project I designed a net new feature that allows teachers to predict how old a child will be by a selected future date. The goal was to help teachers and administrators predict a child's future age to ensure appropriate classroom placement and readiness for the next level. I worked as the lead UX designer in a team of 3 over a 3-month timeline, ultimately providing a report that none of our competitors currently have.

BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS

Introduction

Our online platform lacked a report that displayed children's names and birthdates beyond the current date. Our largest client requested an improved report to eliminate the need for manual calculations and notes on classroom placement.

Problem Statement

Users were relying on pen and paper to estimate a child's future age for proper classroom placement and readiness for the next level due to the lack of relevant information the current report offered on our online platform.

Goals

Reduce the time and effort required for users to efficiently identify classroom openings so that they can fill spots and maximize the center’s profit.
Allow user to be able to assess a child's age at a future date to ensure readiness for milestones and registration.
Allow the user to determine if there is sufficient space in the next room when the child is ready for promotion.

RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY

User Research

We conducted user interviews with five owners and directors of both franchise and non-franchise schools to understand their use of the current student age report. This helped us identify their pain points, gaps in the report's information, and the creative systems they employed to meet their goals.

Personas

I created two key personas:

1. Owner or Admin – prioritizes identifying and filling openings so they can maximize their center profit.

2. Teacher – prioritizes assessing the child to ensure readiness for classroom graduation

Competitive Analysis

We learned from sales and marketing that none of our competitors had a forecasting report for ages and classroom openings which is the first step to predictive enrollment. Something our customers have been asking for over an extended period.

Key Insights

Users felt that the current report lacked the information they needed in order to achieve their goals.
Users wanted to know children’s birthdates so they can know when they age out of a classroom.
Users were creating their own systems to track student birthdays and milestones.
Users got more value when they used the report to help them fill classroom openings.
Some users used the report for financial planning.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

Based on the research, I defined the key problem areas:

1. Report was not built with the true use case in mind.

2. Lack of information was causing users to create their own tracking systems or use pen and paper instead of our software.

IDEATION AND STRATEGY

Brainstorming

The team held an “How Might We” session followed by a solutioning session to review documented flows and brainstorm ways to add missing information and create more value. I proposed adding a PDF and Excel spreadsheet as our usual report format, along with a second table showing open spots and projected ages, which was classified as a nice-to-have feature.

The proposed solution was brought to our dev lead to ensure that these calculations were feasible with the information already generated within the application.

User Flows

Since this was a report, we couldn't create a journey map to highlight user pain points. The platform’s user experience had no significant issues other than the missing information, which our research revealed. Therefore, I concentrated on enhancing the visual aspects of the report to improve the overall experience.

DESIGN PROCESS

Wireframes

I started by creating a mock excel spreadsheet to outline the structure report. I worked on the formatting of titles and labels to ensure that the information architecture was clear. Lastly, I worked on the layout of the two tables and how they would best appear to show how the information corresponded with each other. From there, I played around with color to highlight cells, drawing inspiration from a method one user showed us during our research.

Next, I tackled the PDF version, which posed a challenge in laying out the information across complete pages without splitting content, as often happens with standard spreadsheets. It was essential to design the table with all its options and parameters to ensure users received the same value from the PDF as from the spreadsheet while maintaining intuitive readability. These wireframes were presented to stakeholders for feedback and refined based on their input.

Prototyping

Using Figma and Microsoft Excel, I created high-fidelity prototypes ready to show to the rest of the team as well as our developers so that they could see the proposed solution all fleshed out. Key features included a spreadsheet and a PDF, both with the ability to highlight when a child reaches an age that exceeds the limit for the classroom and a new report generation modal to house the parameters.

Iterations

After several rounds of feedback on the PDF, I refined the design to ensure the new flow was intuitive, included all necessary information, and mirrored the spreadsheet format. I developed a new template for all of our platforms reports with the collaboration of two senior designers. This will be used on new reports moving forward.

UI Design

The design maintained a clean, minimalist style suitable for a report. A standard sans serif font was chosen to ensure clarity and accessibility for all users. Information architecture was utilized to verify that the correct data was presented at the right time. Cells for birthdates exceeding the maximum age range turned red, while those for recommended assessments (the month prior) were highlighted in pink. Users had the option to toggle this feature on or off based on their needs.

USABILITY TESTING

Plan

Tested directly in production because of the tight timeline.
Users navigated it easily and felt the solution exceeded the original request and met broader needs.
Red-on-black text didn’t print well in grayscale, so it was updated to white for better visibility.

Outcome: Report was a success. After monitoring we learned customers wanted larger date ranges but there was also technical constraints due to platform stability. It would be too costly to meet this demand for all users.

OUTCOMES AND IMPACT

For Directors & Teachers

No more manual age calculations or pen-and-paper planning.
Clear visibility into upcoming classroom transitions.
Faster, more confident enrollment and placement decisions.

For Families

Quicker, more accurate guidance on future classroom moves.
Smoother planning conversations with staff.

For the Business

A standout feature that set our product apart in a crowded market.
Increased trust and satisfaction among current clients.
Stronger positioning during sales and competitive evaluations.

For Other Teams

Created a data foundation that supports future reporting enhancements.
Enabled smoother collaboration with product, engineering, and support teams building adjacent features.

REFLECTIONS

Food for Thought

This project reinforced my ability to turn complex workflows into intuitive, actionable interfaces. I learned how small visual and interaction details impact usability and user confidence, and gained experience validating solutions quickly under tight timelines. It strengthened my skill in creating clarity from complexity, guiding teams, and delivering user-centered outcomes that drive both efficiency and business impact.