RCA House System App

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.

At RCA, students are placed in a house similar to the students in the Harry Potter books. When students achieve, their house achieves and this app is our method of keeping track of these accomplishments.

The app later evolved into a an event tracker, shop and even a two-way messaging platform.

TL;DR

  • The RCA House Points App needed to be upgraded from a few standpoints including overall functionality, navigation and general design.

  • I was the lead UI/UX designer on a team of 7 including junior designers, devs and a project manager

  • The RCA House Points app currently has close to 700,000 users from 800 schools across North America and a $2 million investment grant via Truist Bank.

Background

I was contacted by the Ron Clark Academy (my current place of employment) by a mutual who informed me the school would be looking for a UX designer soon and asked if I’d be interested in applying. As a denizen of the internet I immediately recognized the name from the iconic meme of the kid dancing in the chair in Timbs.

A version of this app already existed however, both the web and mobile versions were difficult to navigate and frankly were a bummer 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 hold up to the level of every other aspect of the school so a redesign was necessary.

The work

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. We were encouraged and able to iterate and ideate quickly. Each of us knew our role and feedback was given freely and adjustments were constant. 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.

The Results

After a few initial releases and iterations, we were ready to extend the reach of our app to a broader audience. 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.