Problem
Team Excel helps schools and nonprofits engage students by using innovative solutions and the power of teamwork, making student success fun, engaging, and results-driven. Working with Start-Up Virginia at a Capital One incubator, they reached out for assistance.
They sought help from Capital One to rebrand, improve marketing, and transform their website into a cross-platform app. A team was formed through the community office, including members from Brand to work on identity and marketing strategy, followed by the formation of a tech team to develop the native app. Several developers and tech leads from the consumer card servicing team were recruited, and having worked with many of them before, I was brought on to help with the UX and UI design.
The development team used this project as an opportunity to learn Flutter, Google’s open-source UI development kit, aiming to create a cross-platform app for both iOS and Android.
Action
In a meeting with Team Excel leadership, we reviewed their existing web experience, which is based on fantasy sports. Schools can create leagues, teachers or coaches form teams, and students compete based on criteria such as grades, attendance, and community service, earning points along the way.
While the brand team focused on the new identity, I began wireframing. The developers requested that I start with Android, and I worked through several ideations, which were then presented to Team Excel and the Capital One team. Together, we discussed different approaches, addressed edge cases, identified gaps in the web experience, and ultimately finalized the flows.
Results
We launched the MVP with the original branding, using OS-based components: Android featured a blue app bar, while iOS used a blue navigation bar, both with their respective default fonts. Once the new branding and marketing campaign were completed, the app was reskinned with the updated green and blue colors. Team Excel continues to grow.
Skills
- UX design
- UX strategy
- Wire framing
- UI design
- Rapid ideation
- Android
- iOS
- Figma