Gako: Student Documentation
Gako is an AI-powered app designed to help special education teachers streamline student documentation. Developed as our final project at Apple Developer Academy @ BINUS, we had three months to complete the end-to-end process, from research to iteration. As the Design Lead, I oversaw all aspects of design, including research, ideation, prototyping, user testing, and exhibition materials.
We showcased Gako at the Harvest Festival (Nov 24-25, 2024) to 100+ visitors, including educators and therapists, gathering 120+ feedback points. Gako has since been tested in three schools by 10+ teachers, all of whom provided positive feedback on its ability to simplify their workflow.
Platform
iOS
Role
Design Lead
Date
Nov, 2024
Duration
3 Months
Type
Personal Project
Tools Used
Figma, Jira, Lottie, Notion
Challenge
Throughout Gako’s development, we faced several key challenges:
Time Constraints – With only three months to complete the end-to-end process, including showcase preparation, we had to work efficiently while balancing our full-time jobs.
Limited Initial User Exposure – Although we had personal connections to individuals with ASD, we had never directly engaged with special education teachers and therapists. Building relationships with them during the research phase was crucial.
Stepping Out of Comfort Zones – As a team of introverts, actively engaging with new people—whether for research, feedback, or networking—pushed us beyond our comfort zones.
Results
We successfully deliver Gako, an app that simplifies documentation by allowing teachers to narrate daily activities, which AI then structures into student records. These records can be shared with parents via messaging apps as PNG files for easy access.
Role and Responsibilities
As the Design Lead, I collaborated with a cross-functional team of six members (1 PM, 3 Engineers, and 1 other Designer) to develop Gako. My key responsibilities included:
Translating user insights from interviews into design requirements.
Managing design tasks and delegating work to the other designer.
Driving design decisions through iterations and discussions.
Creating user flows, wireframes, and prototypes in collaboration with the design team.
Conducting user testing to validate and refine our solutions.
Facilitating design sprints for brainstorming, ideation, and collaboration.
Leading design handoffs to ensure smooth coordination with developers.
Overseeing merchandising for the Harvest Festival, including design, procurement, and third-party negotiations.
Assisting with stakeholder relations, including reaching out to guiding resources and industry experts.
Method Used
In this project, we primarily followed the Challenge Based Learning framework, while I adapted design thinking methodology for the design sprints.
Design Process
Empathize – Understanding the Problem
We aimed to create a socially impactful product, leading us to focus on ASD children—not directly, but by supporting their teachers. Through interviews with teachers, therapists, caregivers, and parents, we discovered that manual student documentation is a major burden:
Teachers fill out 30-45 reports per day, often after exhausting classroom sessions.
Documentation is essential for tracking student progress and updating stakeholders (parents, therapists, and other teachers).
The process is time-consuming and inefficient, reducing time for student interaction.
Define – Identifying the Core Challenge
Special education teachers must document each student’s activities daily, which can mean filling out 30-45 activity reports per day. This is time-consuming yet essential for sharing insights with parents, therapists, and other educators.
❗️Problem Statement
How might we simplify the documentation process for special education teachers while ensuring accuracy and efficiency?
Ideate – Finding the Right Solution
Since we wanted to utilize AI, we explored different applications. Our breakthrough idea:
Teachers “tell a story” about the day instead of manually filling out reports.
AI extracts key details and organizes them into personalized student reports.
❗️Early validation:
We pitched this idea to our guiding resources, received positive feedback, and moved forward confidently.
Prototype – Bringing Gako to Life
About Gako
Gako (from the Japanese word gakkou, meaning “school”) simplifies student documentation by allowing teachers to:
Submit one generalized story instead of filling forms individually.
Use natural language like “All students…” or “All except…” to describe activities efficiently.
Automatically generate personalized reports for each student.
User Flow and Wireframes
We prioritized efficiency by designing a straightforward user flow, eliminating unnecessary steps. Submit one generalized story instead of filling forms individually.
Visual Design
Used a green and yellow-orange color palette to represent growth, stability, warmth, and energy.
Went through 10+ design iterations to refine usability and aesthetics.
Test & Iterate – Validating the Solution
User Testing
In this early stage, we created an early prototype to emphasize the flow and design concept to get early feedback about it.
💡 Key Feedbacks:
Clarify Gako’s purpose visually – Users should instantly understand its function through the UI.
Remove unnecessary animations – Streamline interactions to improve efficiency.
Use familiar design patterns – Align with users’ behavior for better usability.
Enable report generation – Ensure reports can be easily sent to parents.
Iterations
1st Iteration
Our first iteration focused on ensuring the usability of Gako. Since most of our target users are millennial teachers, we aimed to create an interface that felt intuitive and self-explanatory.
💡 Key Iteration Goals:
Enhance visual clarity so users instantly understand Gako’s purpose through the UI.
Streamline interactions by removing unnecessary animations.
Improve usability by using familiar design patterns that match users’ behavior.
Enable seamless report generation to allow easy sharing with parents.
Real User Testing
At this stage, we developed a mobile prototype to give users a hands-on experience with Gako’s AI capabilities. We conducted user testing across two schools, involving 5+ teachers, and gathered valuable feedback that informed the next phase of development.
User Testing with Special Education Teacher.
💡 Key Feedbacks:
AI-generated sentences need refinement – Some outputs were exaggerated and required better accuracy.
UI needs better accessibility – Older users found some parts unintuitive.
2nd Iteration
Based on the feedback from our first round of user testing, we refined the app and proceeded with further iterations. We then conducted additional user testing during the Harvest Festival Exhibition and through a visit to a growth and development clinic, gathering valuable insights to drive the next phase of development.
💡 Key Iteration Goals:
Refine AI-generated sentences to ensure more accurate and natural outputs.
Enhance UI accessibility to make it more intuitive, especially for older users.
Real User Testing
Towards the end of the project, we participated in Harvest Festival exhibition where we tested the app with approximately 100 visitors, predominantly educators and child therapists. And a week later, we tested our app to therapists in a growth and development clinic.
Testings to visitors during Harvest Festival exhibition.
Testings to Thereapist in a Growth and Development Clinic, Jakarta.
💡 Key Feedbacks:
Need to add a collaboration system so that teachers can input documentation of one student together.
Need to add Media (image, video) attachment in the documentation so that parents can receive visual reports about what their kids' doing while in school.
“ It helps us organize all the documentation just from one device, where we can easily document while also share it from one device.”
Therapist,
Yayasan Sayap Ibu, Bintaro.
What's Next?
Gako is an ongoing project, and we’re excited to continue enhancing its capabilities to make a greater impact on the education sector in Indonesia. For the next phase of development, we plan to introduce the following features:
Collaboration Feature – Allowing multiple users to contribute documentation for the same student.
Media Attachments – Enabling teachers to add multimedia files (photos, videos, etc.) to the documentation.
We are committed to refining Gako based on user feedback and continuously improving the app to better serve teachers, students, and the special education community.
Key Learnings
Throughout the development of Gako, I gained valuable experiences that shaped my growth as a designer and leader:
Maintaining Connections with Guiding Resources – Building strong relationships with mentors and experts helped ensure the project was on the right track.
Leading a Design Team – As Design Lead, I learned how to effectively guide the team through design decisions, ensuring alignment with user needs.
Time Management – Balancing a full-time job while working on this project taught me how to manage my time effectively, meet deadlines, and prioritize tasks.
Staying Open to Possibilities – The iterative design process reinforced the importance of keeping an open mind to new insights, feedback, and potential pivots.
Adapting to Stakeholders’ Needs – I learned how to tailor the design to meet the diverse needs of stakeholders, ensuring the product was both effective and user-centered.
Collaboration with Cross-Functional Teams – Working with engineers, PMs, and other team members taught me how to navigate different workflows and collaborate effectively across disciplines.
User Testing and Iteration – Conducting user testing and integrating feedback helped refine the product, reinforcing the importance of continuous improvement.
Leadership in Design and Non-Design Tasks – Beyond design, I took on leadership roles in merchandising and communication tasks, broadening my skill set and expanding my leadership capabilities.
Conclusion
Developing Gako has been a rewarding journey that not only allowed me to address a significant challenge in the special education space but also helped me grow both personally and professionally. The project taught me how to lead a design team, manage time effectively while balancing a full-time job, and adapt to stakeholder needs. Through user testing and iterative design, I also gained a deeper appreciation for the value of feedback in refining products.
Although Gako is still in its ongoing development phase, we are confident that it has the potential to make a meaningful impact in the education sector, especially for special education teachers and their students. I’m excited to continue working on Gako’s evolution and to carry the lessons learned from this project into future design challenges.
