Nicky Dyer

Study planner tool

A cool tool to solve a challenging planning problem.

People studying for the CA Program have lots of choice. There are many subjects offered often, lots of challenging pre and co requisites to consider alongside all their personal family and out things filling up their calendars. Plotting all the subjects they want to study, when they want to study from a paper based time-table will hundreds of possible permeations is hard.

We made this easier by doing all the hard maths stuff behind the scenes in clever code.

We ask the users 7 simple questions up front. The tool uses these answers to refine the data and then to plot an accurate programme of study; observing all the pre-co requisite study rules, only plotting subjects in the terms they are offered, AND it plots the fastest way to complete that study too.

Try it out here: https://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com/become-a-member/plan-your-study

The tool has lots of yummy functionality which we did fairly easily. Interacting with the planner allows users to delete, swap or add new subjects or to extend their study by adding years. All the good stuff for those that change their mind!

And helpful tool tips along the way if they forget to do something along the way.

Challenges:

• Working within an existing website structure and CSS.

• Getting an MVP out fast so we could test with real users.

My Role:

Ideation, prototyping, design, and PM.
Now focussed on a roadmap to maintain and improve the tool over time, based on user feedback.

Collaborators:

Milan Kapisi - Code Genius, creative problem solver and Dab hand at CSS.

Tracy Richardson - Does the tricky tight-rope walk of championing users needs and business needs with perfect balance, and, has a knack for remembering functionality specs in her head over long periods of time.

Dream little MVP project encompassing, research, ideation, UX, UI, collaboration AND delivery.