Ignite Rootics is a robotics organization based in Bellevue where students design, build, and test robots using professional tools with peer mentorship. They compete in the VEX Robotics Competition across three programs: Exothermic (High School), Quantum (High School), and Blaze Qubits (Middle School).
When
In Progress
Role
UI/UX Design Intern
What
UI/UX Design
UX Research
How
Figma
Miro
Draw.io
Team
Kevin Wang
Josephine Li
Challenge
For my internship, I’m tasked with developing an administrative dashboard to streamline workflows and improve communication between the admin team, parents, and students, all from scratch.
Current System
The administrative team currently relies heavily on multiple spreadsheets to organize programs, manage teams, and track various tasks.
The following images are blurred to protect sensitive information.
User Needs
I focused on the primary users who need to quickly assess the status of student tasks and efficiently create and manage teams at the start of each competitive season.
Prioritized Use Cases
Use case #1:
As an administrator, I want to quickly view the status of student payments, waiver completion, keycard access, and safety quiz results so I can easily identify and follow up with students who still have outstanding tasks.
Use Case #2
As an administrator, I want to see relevant data (e.g., age, program enrollment, roles, preferences) so I can create and manage student teams across programs more efficiently and accurately.
How might we…
streamline administrative processes and make viewing student information more efficient?
The project will be a successful if administrators:
No longer rely on spreadsheets. Instead, they have a real-time dashboard where all key student and program information is easily accessible.
Feel confident that the data is accurate and up to date.
Spend less time on manual steps.
Can clearly see what tasks are complete, in progress, or missing.
Entity Relationship Diagram
Using data from our current spreadsheets, I created an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) with an object-oriented design approach. This diagram provides the development team with a clear, structured visual representation of the system's data relationships, showcasing how objects in the current system relate to those planned for future updates.
Site Map
Low-Fidelity
To create the structure for the dashboard, I mapped content from existing dashboards that administrators were already familiar with. The initial low-fidelity designs helped us visualize how the dashboard would function and look familiar to administrators, allowing me to build on their prior experience and ensure the design was intuitive while incorporating familiar features and layout patterns.
Feedback
After receiving feedback on potential edge cases and realizing that the developers lacked the technical expertise to implement them, I decided to start over to simplify the flow and create a more feasible design for the development team.
By meeting with an administrator, here's what I learned:
The team creation process is heavily dependent on interpersonal relationships.
Administrators get to know students personally and understand how they work together.
Relying solely on data doesn't always result in the best team formations.
Initial Design
Redesign
High-Fidelity & Testing Currently In Process
I am currently in the process of designing and testing the high-fidelity version of the dashboard while collaborating with developers to bring it to life. As a result, I’m unable to showcase the entire final design at this stage.
Success Metrics We're Testing For
Reduction in Time for Team Creation: Aiming for at least a 50% reduction in the time it takes to create and assign teams compared to the previous process.spend less time on manual steps.
Task Completion Visibility: Ensuring that 100% of task statuses are visible, making it easier for administrators to track and follow up on incomplete tasks.
User Satisfaction: Targeting 80%+ of users to report improved workflow efficiency and satisfaction with the dashboard.