Simplifying Government School Inspections - Shala Sambalan 2.0

Government school inspections in Rajasthan are already digitized. They happen mostly via a mobile app and sometimes via google form (when specific aspects need to be checked).

We recently did a major upgrade of the app. The key themes of upgrade are as below

Human Centric Design

Our biggest focus in this upgrade was to improve the design. To keep our user in the focus. For this we followed the following principles:

• Using mobile UI elements instead of desktop ones. Its a mobile app. People use their thumbs to operate on mobiles. That is why you need bigger and more spaced out icons. Instead of long, minute lists, you need simpler UI elements. Instead of small radio buttons and checkboxes, you need big tap buttons.
• Avoiding hero effect. Your users are not heroes. You can't present too many things on one screen and expect them to go through them all. It creates cognitive load and puts them off. We decided to put only one thing at a time on the screen so that the user is able to interact easily.
• Minimalistic design. We decided to keep our design simple, fonts bigger and well differentiated. The color theme is vibrant with enough contrast.

The images below capture these changes from the old version to the new one.

Simplified User Experience

Our focus was to reduce the cognitive load on the user during the entire process of inspecting a school. Simplification of UI was an integral part of it. Other than that, we followed the following principles:

• Reducing time taken in a school inspection from 2 hours to 20 minutes. If one were to conduct an inspection on the old version, one needed at least 2 hours! This was huge and the result of it was people had started finding shortcuts. We reduced and simplified the inspection form so that now the entire inspection can be carried out via the app in just 20 minutes. At the same time, we ensured we capture all the essential data needed from an inspection.
• Replicating actual inspection journey on the app. The previous version had 11 types of activities and the app flow didn't replicate an actual physical inspection. We simplified it down to 3 only and the app flow replicates an actual school inspection now. For instance, first section is class inspection where the person goes to a class and inspects the academic levels of kids. The second section is school infrastructure inspection and the third one is feedback. Simple.

• Simplification of questions. We not only reduced the number of questions in the inspection form, but also simplified them - to an extent where one needs no specialized knowledge to answer that question. The app just needs to be our eyes and ears, not the brain. We have simplified it to an extent where literally anyone can inspect the schools now. So for instance, in the image below, the user just has to conduct an easily defined activity. The app gives enough hints on how to do it. The user needn't know the specific departmental program and its guidelines.

• Brain in the backend. We use the data captured from the app to run analysis on our backend and generate actionable flags if any. So for instance, in the question below, the user simply has to count the number of students present in the class. He/she needn't be bothered about enrolment in the class or checking whether the actual attendance matches the attendance marked in the attendance register. All this analysis will be done in backend and in case a discrepancy is found, automated action will be taken.

Covering all schools

In the previous version, the user could choose the school to inspect. So to meet the targets, it was observed, that there was a general tendency to pick the urban schools or schools near the highways. As a result, schools in hinterland remained unvisited. We changed this in the upgrade and now a list of 10 schools is thrown by the backend to the user. The user has to pick his/her next school from this list only. The backend logic ensures that all schools are covered by at least one user during one inspection cycle.

Special inspections

Earlier, the questions in the inspection form were hard-coded. As a result, when special inspections had to be carried out, google forms or offline inspections had to be used. In this version, we have kept it flexible, so that when we need to carry out special inspections, the app will throw only those questions.

Conclusion

Through these changes, it's our endeavor to give our users a better experience. At the same time, make school inspections more effective.