Insight Capture: Turning fragmented school data into structured, reportable insights.
I designed Insight Capture, a flexible system that allows organizations to digitize any form, centralize data collection, and generate reports with confidence.
Schools relied on a mix of documents, spreadsheets, and manual processes to collect important data. This made reporting slow, inconsistent, and prone to error.
Context
Schools used disconnected tools like Google Docs, Sheets, PDFs, and paper forms to collect data.
Approach
Designed a flexible form authoring system that centralizes data collection and enables reporting.
My Role
Led research, UX, and UI design from discovery through prototyping in collaboration with product and engineering.
The Problem
Schools needed to collect data across many use cases such as classroom observations, coaching feedback, travel logs, and surveys. To do this, they relied on a mix of tools including Google Docs, Sheets, PDFs, Excel files, and printed forms.
A typical workflow involved a coach completing a form during a school visit, uploading it to a shared drive, and notifying an admin. The admin would then manually enter that data into another system for reporting.
This process was slow, fragmented, and highly error prone. Data lived in multiple places, formats were inconsistent, and reporting required significant manual effort. As a result, insights were delayed and confidence in the data was low.
Users And Research
I worked closely with large school organizations that were actively paying for development hours to digitize their forms. Instead of continuing to build one off solutions, I took a step back to understand their broader needs.
I reviewed a wide range of existing materials including Google Docs, spreadsheets, PDFs, and printed documents. I also spoke directly with school leaders and coaches to understand what they were trying to measure and why.
Primary users included school leaders and coaches who needed to collect and report on data. Teachers also contributed by submitting forms and participating in observations.
Through this research, it became clear that the problem was not just digitizing forms. It was creating a system that could standardize data, reduce manual work, and support reporting across the organization.
Plan And Tradeoffs
Instead of building individual forms for each customer, I proposed a flexible system that would allow organizations to create and manage their own forms.
The core idea was to centralize data collection while giving admins full control over how forms were structured and used. This required balancing flexibility with usability. The system needed to support a wide range of form types without becoming overly complex.
We focused on creating a structured authoring experience using familiar input types such as text fields, date pickers, file uploads, radio groups, and checkboxes. At the same time, we ensured that all data would be stored in a consistent format to support reporting.
This approach allowed organizations to adapt the system to their needs without requiring ongoing development work.
How We Worked
I led the design effort from early research through final prototypes. I worked closely with product management and engineering to align on requirements and feasibility.
The process started with reviewing existing documents and mapping common patterns across them. From there, I created wireflows to define how forms would be authored, distributed, and completed.
I designed the information architecture and built out the core flows for admins, coaches, and teachers. This included creating prototypes to validate usability and ensure the system could handle different use cases.
Throughout the process, I collaborated with engineers to ensure the system could be implemented in a scalable way.
What We Built
Insight Capture is a centralized system for creating, managing, and completing forms across an organization.
Admins can author custom forms using a flexible set of input components such as text fields, date pickers, file uploads, and selection controls. They can define who each form is available to, including school leaders, coaches, teachers, and other roles.
The system includes dashboards for admins, coaches, and teachers to access assigned forms, view completed submissions, and manage their work.
All data is stored in a structured format, enabling organizations to generate reports and track key metrics over time. The system is mobile friendly, allowing users to complete forms in the field on any device.
Additionally, certain events can trigger escalation paths, ensuring that important signals are surfaced quickly.
Results
- Centralized data collection across the organization
- Reduced manual data entry and human error
- Faster reporting with higher confidence in the data
- Fewer tools and less fragmented workflows
- Mobile friendly access from any device
- Reduced delays between data capture and insight
- Increased adoption due to simplicity and flexibility
Reflections
This work reinforced that the real problem was not forms, it was fragmented systems.
By focusing on structure and flexibility, we were able to create a solution that worked across many different use cases without needing constant customization.
It also highlighted the importance of understanding how data flows through an organization. Collecting data is only valuable if it can be trusted, accessed, and used to make decisions.
Designing for that end to end flow was what made this system successful.