Kishor Aproduct designerAvailable for work
BackZenClass01 / 13

Replacing four tools with one class platform, built around two seats

GUVI’s bootcamp ran on Zoom, Drive, email and a chat app taped together. I designed the one platform that took their place.

ZenClass: a class with its session, activities and task
Role
Product design, shipped with developers
Company
GUVI
Users
Mentors and students
Scale
About 200 learners per batch

Collapsing four tools that never talked into one place

Class links crossed between batches, questions sank in email and work hid in Drive folders.

Z ZoomClasses, and links that crossed batches
D DriveWork hidden in folders
# A chat appEverything else, scrolling away
ZenClass: the class, its recording, activities and tasks on one screen
One class, one place

4→1

tools collapsed into one platform

Live, still in use, still being improved.

Designing one platform for two seats, so neither carries the other’s clutter

Students join, ask, submit and find material. Mentors run classes, answer doubts and review work.

The student’s class: session, activities and the task to submit
Student
The mentor’s class: the session to run, activities and resources to add
Mentor

Turning doubts into tracked queries, so none sink the way email did

Every doubt has an owner, a status and an end. A student always knows where theirs is.

  1. Ask
    Create a query
    Raise a queryTyped, tagged and attached in one form.
  2. Instant
    An instant solution before the query is created
    Try an answer firstCommon doubts answer themselves.
  3. Assigned
    An assigned query with its conversation
    A mentor takes itOne owner, in one thread.
  4. Close
    Close a query and rate the experience
    Rate and closeThe student says when it is done.
  5. Appeal
    Appeal a query marked solved
    Or push backSolved is not final until they agree.

Answering common doubts before they reach a mentor

Before a query is created, the student can get an answer to the issue they typed. A mentor’s time goes to the doubts that need one.

Before you create a query: the issue, an answer with code and solution tabs, and a way to say it did not help
Create query, instant solution

Showing every query’s history, so nobody has to ask what happened

Created, assigned, answered, resolved, closed: each step stamped with who and when.

A query’s history: each status change with its time
Query, history

Making the irreversible actions deliberate, and the reversible ones quick

Error prevention, scaled to the stakes: the more a mistake costs, the more the dialog asks.

  1. Low
    Take up query: one tap to confirm
    Take up a queryCheap to undo, so one tap.
  2. Medium
    Action pending: close the resolved query before raising a new one
    Raise a new queryClose the last one first, so mentors are not buried.
  3. High
    Delete module: type the module name to confirm
    Delete a moduleType its name to confirm.

Letting mentors build a course themselves, module by module

Modules, sessions, resources and links, without asking a developer. Scheduling a class is one small dialog.

Create module: sessions, resources and tasks

Carrying students past the course into jobs, in the same place

Companies post requirements, students apply with what they already built, and mentors track the applications and interviews.

Requirements: open roles for students
Student
A requirement as the mentor sees it: details, task, applications and interviews
Mentor

~200

learners per batch, on average

The batches already running became my filter: I watched what people used instead of arguing in meetings.

Giving students a reason to come back between classes

Progress, tasks and a leaderboard, so a batch can see itself moving.

Rating a closed query
The batch leaderboard
The student dashboard: activity, performance and tasks
Task submissions with mentor feedback

Kill features faster

A few things I pushed for, the batches never used. Now my own ideas get the same suspicion as the old tools did.

Next caseRelayDesigning a messaging app where a letter is held, never kept
kishor · agent · ~/portfolio