In many schools, teachers are expected to find their own substitute teachers and create lesson plans for those substitutes when teachers are feeling their worst. The goal of SubHub is to lighten the load on teachers when they’re already feeling overworked and overwhelmed.
Designed with love by a former educator for current educators.
End-to End Mobile App
Role
Branding
UI Designer
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Skills
UX Research & Interviews
Branding and Logo Design
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Visual Design and Iteration
Spring 2025
16 weeks
Timeline
The Problem
Teachers are often tasked with finding their own substitutes, uploading lesson plans, and ensuring all important documents are in order when they are feeling sick.
Currently, there is no app or software that exists, that can streamline the process of connecting teachers with subs, share lessons and important documents directly from a school’s LMS or a teacher’s preferred mode of organization, offer communication amongst all crucial parties, and provide critical feedback post substitution.
I aim to change that.
Research and Discovery
I began my research with comparative and competitive analysis, seeking out similar companies that paired vetted substitute teachers with school districts and open subbing positions. I investigated companies like Tagg Education, Edustaff, and Kelly Education; all companies that hire subs and partner with school districts to connect vetted subs. However, given that many teachers are expected to find their own subs within both the public and private sector, I realized that my User Interviews would be most helpful to understand what would work best for teachers who don’t have access to subs through organizations like Tagg, Edustaff, or Kelly Education.
The User Interviews made it clear that there were three personas worth keeping in mind: teachers, substitute teachers, and administrators. Though most faculty members wear multiple hats and could potentially fall into any of the above categories, the faculty member’s primary role (teacher, sub, or admin) is a key factor to consider when thinking about what their experience and needs are while partaking in the substitution process.
Comparative & Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
User Personas
Administrator Andrea
BIO: Andrea is an administrator and teacher. She has to navigate managing her classes, the faculty that she supervises, and the pressures of running her department or division. She is pulled in many directions and needs systems in place that can help to streamline her work. She is often called upon to handle long term substitutions.
QUOTE: Scheduling and finding available subs is always the greatest challenge. A teacher left earlier this year who was teaching 5 classes. That’s 5 blocks we had to answer for and in-school teacher availability is all beholden to peoples’ schedules. I don’t really have anybody outside of school who I know to call that is available.
NEEDS AND GOALS
Easy scheduling system to find vetted, reliable subs
System that assists with lesson planning in emergency situations
Seamless communication amongst the teachers, subs, and admin so everyone is on the same page
Solid feedback from the subs so the teachers know how to proceed once they return
FRUSTRATIONS AND PAIN POINTS
Teacher availability and scheduling conflicts
Inefficient current system where teachers and subs need to access multiple locations to get all the information they need to provide coverage, lessons, and communication
Teacher Taylor
NEEDS AND GOALS
Better communication amongst administrators, subs, and the teacher
Continuity and stability in know who the sub will be
Desperately wants a streamlined system that connects all important key players
Have a vetted sub list to make it easier to choose from subs who have worked well in the past
FRUSTRATIONS AND PAIN POINTS
Anxiety around taking time off because it would:
Cause more work for other teachers and administrators
Cause more work for the teacher needing coverage
Insufficiently trained/knowledgeable subs - special teaching practices that need to happen weekly and subs are not trained for or understand the language
Lesson planning for a variety of subbing abilities
QUOTE: I think one of the biggest challenges is that there isn’t always continuity. Even though we have in-house subs, their availability and knowledge base is not consistent with my students’ needs and my curricular schedule. Even when I ask for subs in advance, there’s not guarantee who I’m going to get as a sub, or even that my administration will remember I’ve requested days off.
BIO: Taylor is a seasoned teacher who is so frustrated by the substitute request and substitute teaching process that they would rather come to school than take their sick or personal days. They feel anxious asking for coverage because they know that it will make someone else’ job more complicated and will disrupt learning for their students.
Substitute Sarah
NEEDS AND GOALS
Lesson plans are not shared directly in her current system and would like to have one place to streamline all information
She would love to have some form of AI for Education integration to help with emergency situations when a teacher can’t leave detailed lesson plans
FRUSTRATIONS AND PAIN POINTS
Doesn’t know what to expect day to day - she could be told one thing and then have to perform an entirely role
If she is already assigned to a class for a long term situation, she can be pulled to cover other classes and she does not feel that is fair to her or her students who have become accustomed to her - it can also take time away from planning and prepping for the class of which she is already in charge
QUOTE: Sometimes things happen where you just don't know that somebody's going to be sick and they have to do a quick shift, but generally, I am not assigned ahead of time so for me, it's when I go in that day, I'm kind of the catch all person. A utility player.
BIO: Sarah is a part time substitute teacher. She is passionate about working with children and enjoys the flexibility of part time work. Though she understands that flexibility is a part of the job, she would appreciate a little more transparency about the role she is taking on prior to coming into school not only so that she can understand her position that day, but also so she can be the best educator possible for her students.
There is a lack of platforms that integrate with school LMS systems, forcing teachers to manage content across multiple locations when preparing for substitutes.
Many substitutes feel disconnected from platforms due to difficulty finding assignments and a lack of ongoing relationships with schools, reducing their incentive to return.
Scheduling and support is inconsistent.
Key Insights from Competitive Analysis:
Teachers often depend on colleagues to cover their responsibilities
Frontline Education Software offers the closest existing model, though a mobile-first solution is lacking
Teachers would benefit from a streamlined sub request, document sharing, and communication platform that connects teachers, subs, and administrators
AI Integration is essential for supporting both teaches and subs, especially in urgent situations
Positive reinforcement within the app can reassure teachers that taking personal time is a responsible choice
Key Insights from User Interviews:
I interviewed 6 educators, all of whom hold multiple roles in their schools whether it is a teacher who also covers for her colleagues’ classes, an administrator who also teaches and handles substitutions, or a substitute teacher who had been called in for longterm teaching.
These educators teach in both the public and private education sectors as well as teach at a variety of different levels spanning from early childhood education through high school.
Research Synthesis
The User Interviews provided such rich feedback that creating the affinity map was a fairly straightforward process.
Primarily, users were looking for reduced anxiety while searching and preparing for a sub; a streamlined process for document sharing, sub request, and communication; AI and other platforms’ integration to make lesson planning easier; positive reinforcement to encourage taking time off—something that is often frowned upon and creates teacher guilt.
Prioritization & Roadmapping
After conducting my research and keeping the user personas in mind, I compiled all pertinent information into project goals, a feature roadmap, a sitemap, and created two user flows.
All the while remembering that the goal is to relieve the pressures placed on teachers and help them during their moments of need.
While considering the project goals, I examined business goals, user goals, and technical considerations. I wanted to continue to prioritize essential features and optimize users’ needs.
This meant that, moving forward, I would need to focus on creating an app that would provide a streamlined and user-friendly system of centralized communication and document sharing ensuring stress-free lesson planning with increased faculty satisfaction.
Creating the feature roadmap was an essential part of this process as it helped to prioritize the most critical features needed based on user interviews, primary and secondary research, and project goals. I was able to establish, for example, that every teacher needed to be able to chat with their subs and admin, they needed a place to schedule, a way of sharing crucial documents and lesson plans, and a notifications and alerts system to keep everyone in the loop.
Teachers also wanted to ensure that they had a place to keep track of their personal days, an easy reminder for providing and receiving feedback on the day, and LMS integration to easily connect their classwork. Teachers were also extremely intrigued by the concept of including AI integration to make their emergency or unplanned sick days a little easier.
While thinking about the first couple of flows that I wanted to focus on, it made sense to think about the most important tasks a user might need to complete in SubHub: onboarding and requesting a sub. How would a teacher register for the app and how would they find the support they need?
Project Goals
Feature Roadmap
User Flows
Branding
This was such a fun part of the creative process. Before SubHub had its name, I considered the main adjectives that emerged from user interviews to brand the feel of the app.
Teachers wanted an efficient, connected, stress-free, warm, welcoming, and whimsical technical assistant.
Keeping the previously mentioned adjectives at top of mind, I leaned in to muted primary colors evoking a sense of nostalgia within education while maintaining a calm and welcoming feel.
I approached designing the logos in a similar way as I did with choosing the color palette. I wanted the logo to clearly elicit thoughts of teaching, using the apple as primary symbol for education. The script type is intentional as well, as it is reminiscent of writing in cursive on a chalkboard, especially with the dark mode examples. Finally, the half open apple connecting with the words “SubHub” is meant to evoke the feeling of connectedness and collaboration. I want the words to feel as though they complete, in a small way, the missing part of the apple.
F9E4C6
FFB7A1
Neutrals
D0DFE3
Primary
063651
ECB759
Accent
EA6C50
Secondary
Mobile/Tablet
SubHub
SubHub
Desktop
SubHub
SubHub
Mobile/Tablet
Homescreen Icons
SubHub
SubHub
Color Palette
Logos
Wireframes & Usability Testing
I focused on the “Teacher” persona while developing my wireframes as they are the primary user of the app. Down the road, I will build the same flows, but from the Substitute Teacher and the Administrator perspectives.
I conducted two stages (LoFi and HiFi) of wireframing and usability testing ensuring to make iterations after each stage to smooth out the wrinkles users experienced in the process.
Requesting a Sub
LoFi Wireframes
HiFi Wireframes
The final versions of SubHub’s wireframes are a result of multiple iterations after frequent feedback from various users. Though a formal usability test was conducted, I chose to check in with users throughout the process of creating to ensure I received consistent feedback and thus make progress that fit users’ needs as I designed rather than waiting until the end. I was able to make small refinements as I went, rather than major changes all at once.
I conducted Usability Testing with 5 participants. Though I received wonderful feedback from all of my participants, I had veered from my personas by having a mix of users who were educators and non-educators. I thought it would be interesting to hear from a variety of perspectives, however, I wish I had stuck with my initial participants as they understand the education world best and could provide more insight into what was missing from the information provided, and what would feel most comfortable in the two flows tested.
My non-educator participants provided great insight into UI and navigation concerns, but couldn’t provide as much insight into content.
Example of refinements in the iterative design process:
Small changes were made to create a more accessible bottom navigation.
Original Bottom Nav
Home
Calendar
Classroom
Chat
Profile
Final Bottom Nav
All users appreciated the clean, professional, and slightly retro feel of the app.
All users agreed that navigation of both flows felt easy, intuitive, and familiar.
Most users required clarification for certain educational elements with which they were unfamiliar.
Most users wanted clarification for required vs. optional fields.
Several users were concerned with the wordiness of the notifications page.
Key Insights from Final Usability Testing:
Guided by the user flows, I sketched out the LoFi wireframes for both the onboarding process and the substitute teacher request process. As I sketched, a number of considerations came to mind about how to best chunk important information and how to make navigation as intuitive as possible. For example, during user testing of the sub request process, most users mentioned the desire for back buttons, bottom navigation, and progress bars on each screen. Though these were all elements that I had intended to include in the HiFi mockups, it was a great reminder that providing these types of UI elements in the LoFi stages can help to ease user and stakeholder concerns down the road.
Results & Conclusion
Creating SubHub was a passion project for me, and I strongly feel it reflected in my work. I designed with joy, enthusiasm, purpose, and confidence knowing that I was designing something that would help others and ease their anxiety in a profession that is already overworked and overburdened.
As someone who loves color, I learned to tone down my palette to maintain a clean and sleek look but still be playful. This design is both a reflection of me and my aesthetic, as well as the project goals.
The project results address key user pain points during initial interviews as well as feedback provided during usability testing. The final prototype offers teachers a streamlined, intuitive process, making it easier and more efficient for them to request a personal day with greater confidence and ease.
Having worked on a number of different types of projects for a variety of clients, I am thrilled to find myself working on a project that brings me so much personal joy. My mission is to do work that is purposeful and collaborative. Even though this design was my own, its ultimate purpose will be to connect. I look forward to completing more work that helps others.
Reflections