RCA House Points App
Region
USA
Year
2025
RCA House Points App
RCA House Points App
Role
Role
Lead UI/UX Designer
Lead UI/UX Designer
Year
Year
2023-25
2023-25
The project itself :
Project Overview
The RCA House Points App is a behavioral tracking application that allows teachers and faculty to reward students points which are then shared across a school or even global leaderboard.
By the “end” of the project the scope had shifted from simply creating a behavioral tracking application to a one stop shop for everything teachers, students and even parents to engage with to stay up to date with their school community.
View the application here.
The Problem:
The RCA House Points App needed to be upgraded from a few standpoints including overall functionality, navigation and general design.
The Results:
The RCA House Points app currently has over 30,000 users from 800 schools across North America and a $2 million investment grant via Truist Bank.
My role:
I was the lead UI/UX designer on a team of 7 including junior designers, devs and a project manager.
Responsibilities:
conducting research,
storyboarding,
paper and digital wireframing,
iterating on designs,
making high-fidelity prototype
All about the user :
User Research
Working within the private school system, it was easy to define our goals and analyze our users’ needs because they were so specific. We had no shortage of users to test our product and provide feedback.
Pain Points
Navigation:
Users found the then current iteration of the app difficult to navigate.
Visual Design:
The aesthetic didn't match the the school's and was a just a bit dull.
Web App Integration:
Users needed an interface beyond mobile.
User Personas
Personas were selected by conducting user research and identifying common pain points that frustrate and block the user from getting what they need from our app.
These users included teachers, parents and students.
The project schematically :
Starting the Design
A version of this app already existed but it was difficult to navigate and frankly not fun to look at. Educators needed to be able to input data quickly and accurately while simultaneously engaging a classroom full of children.
Additionally, the aesthetic didn’t match the other aspects of the school so a redesign was necessary.
Version 1-6
The initial redesign up until the final.
The first few attempts at a redesign were fine but nothing stood out and overall still didn't capture the magic of the school. Additionally the navigation was improved but still we knew it could be better. Several prototypes later we arrived at a flow we felt comfortable with and the aesthetic came after.
Usability Testing
Those selected to test the app were teachers and staff who were early adopters of the original app.
After the initial design was completed, we were ready to begin testing. What started as a beta test turned into several rounds of A/B testing. What was initially only going to be a behavioral tracking app turned into a an app with messaging, a store and several other features.
Create a One-Stop-Shop for all things RCA:
Users expressed a desire to spend the points they earned, message teachers and stay up to date with a live feed.
Mirror the design on the mobile and web app:
Create a web app that mirrors majority of the functionality for teachers and administrators.
Make it scalable:
Create assets and features that can grow with the user base.
The clear version :
Refining the Design
No modern design can exist without change but our goal was to make this application as evergreen as possible. After more rounds of iterating and testing we settled on a final design with assets and branding.
The "Final" Design
Mock ups of the final designs
I created all of the designs for each page of the app, the individual assets and even the backgrounds. We had to create a brand guidelines and even tutorials for users. After the app launched we applied for additional funding with some of the school's bigger sponsors.
The project schematically :
Outcome
The Truist Charitable Fund rewarded us a 2 million dollar grant to support the House System of RCA in order scale with the hopes to truly reach teachers across the globe.
Takeways
A summary of the "completed" experience.
Impact:
Our target users have found the redesign to be intuitive, user-friendly, and easy to navigate.
What I learned:
Even with a solid baseline of an initial design, assets and users, the design process is never clean and those hiccups can lead to innovation.
Next Steps
What's next?
Iterate on potential integrations with our schools' most popular events.
Identify any additional areas of need and ideate on new features.
RCA House Points App
Region
USA
Year
2025
RCA House Points App
RCA House Points App
Role
Role
Lead UI/UX Designer
Lead UI/UX Designer
Year
Year
2023-25
2023-25
The project itself :
Project Overview
The RCA House Points App is a behavioral tracking application that allows teachers and faculty to reward students points which are then shared across a school or even global leaderboard.
By the “end” of the project the scope had shifted from simply creating a behavioral tracking application to a one stop shop for everything teachers, students and even parents to engage with to stay up to date with their school community.
View the application here.
The Problem:
The RCA House Points App needed to be upgraded from a few standpoints including overall functionality, navigation and general design.
The Results:
The RCA House Points app currently has over 30,000 users from 800 schools across North America and a $2 million investment grant via Truist Bank.
My role:
I was the lead UI/UX designer on a team of 7 including junior designers, devs and a project manager.
Responsibilities:
conducting research,
storyboarding,
paper and digital wireframing,
iterating on designs,
making high-fidelity prototype
All about the user :
User Research
Working within the private school system, it was easy to define our goals and analyze our users’ needs because they were so specific. We had no shortage of users to test our product and provide feedback.
Pain Points
Navigation:
Users found the then current iteration of the app difficult to navigate.
Visual Design:
The aesthetic didn't match the the school's and was a just a bit dull.
Web App Integration:
Users needed an interface beyond mobile.
User Personas
Personas were selected by conducting user research and identifying common pain points that frustrate and block the user from getting what they need from our app.
These users included teachers, parents and students.
The project schematically :
Starting the Design
A version of this app already existed but it was difficult to navigate and frankly not fun to look at. Educators needed to be able to input data quickly and accurately while simultaneously engaging a classroom full of children.
Additionally, the aesthetic didn’t match the other aspects of the school so a redesign was necessary.
Version 1-6
The initial redesign up until the final.
The first few attempts at a redesign were fine but nothing stood out and overall still didn't capture the magic of the school. Additionally the navigation was improved but still we knew it could be better. Several prototypes later we arrived at a flow we felt comfortable with and the aesthetic came after.
Usability Testing
Those selected to test the app were teachers and staff who were early adopters of the original app.
After the initial design was completed, we were ready to begin testing. What started as a beta test turned into several rounds of A/B testing. What was initially only going to be a behavioral tracking app turned into a an app with messaging, a store and several other features.
Create a One-Stop-Shop for all things RCA:
Users expressed a desire to spend the points they earned, message teachers and stay up to date with a live feed.
Mirror the design on the mobile and web app:
Create a web app that mirrors majority of the functionality for teachers and administrators.
Make it scalable:
Create assets and features that can grow with the user base.
The clear version :
Refining the Design
No modern design can exist without change but our goal was to make this application as evergreen as possible. After more rounds of iterating and testing we settled on a final design with assets and branding.
The "Final" Design
Mock ups of the final designs
I created all of the designs for each page of the app, the individual assets and even the backgrounds. We had to create a brand guidelines and even tutorials for users. After the app launched we applied for additional funding with some of the school's bigger sponsors.
The project schematically :
Outcome
The Truist Charitable Fund rewarded us a 2 million dollar grant to support the House System of RCA in order scale with the hopes to truly reach teachers across the globe.
Takeways
A summary of the "completed" experience.
Impact:
Our target users have found the redesign to be intuitive, user-friendly, and easy to navigate.
What I learned:
Even with a solid baseline of an initial design, assets and users, the design process is never clean and those hiccups can lead to innovation.
Next Steps
What's next?
Iterate on potential integrations with our schools' most popular events.
Identify any additional areas of need and ideate on new features.