Hendy Oktavian | Product Designer

Context

Tarea was created as part of Challenge 3: “Within the Circle” at the Apple Developer Academy. Our goal was to design a product that truly meets the needs of a specific user group within our community.

Through our research, we discovered that tutors often face communication challenges, they receive student messages outside of work hours and experience delays when waiting for replies. This constant cycle of off-hour messaging and slow communication creates unnecessary stress and disrupts their work-life balance.

To address this, our team designed Tarea, a productivity app that helps tutors assign, track, and manage homework seamlessly. By integrating communication and task management in one platform, Tarea allows tutors to skip administrative hassles, maintain healthy boundaries, and give students a clearer, more engaging way to stay on top of their work.

Problem & Goals

Tutors often face challenges in managing their workflow effectively. Many of them have to juggle between messaging apps, notebooks, and calendars just to handle class schedules, assignments, and student progress. This scattered process not only consumes time but also causes unnecessary stress, especially when students message them outside working hours or take too long to respond.

The lack of a centralized system makes it difficult for tutors to maintain boundaries, keep track of student performance, and communicate efficiently. As a result, their productivity and work-life balance are often disrupted.

Our goal with Tarea was to create a solution that simplifies tutors’ administrative tasks while improving communication and clarity. We aimed to:

Provide an all-in-one platform where tutors can assign and track homework easily.
Reduce communication friction between tutors and students.
Inconsistent language and copywriting
Help tutors manage time better and maintain healthy work boundaries.
Offer students a clear, engaging way to stay organized with their assignments and deadlines.

Research Insights

Interview Documentation With Magdalena (one of the tutors we interviewed)

To better understand tutors’ real challenges, we conducted interviews with tutors from diverse backgrounds, covering different subjects, age groups, and locations across various parts of the world. This diversity gave us a broader view of how tutoring practices and struggles vary depending on context, tools, and cultural expectations.

From our interviews, we identified several recurring patterns that shaped the foundation of our design decisions:

Tutors rely heavily on multiple disconnected tools such as messaging apps, Google Calendar, notebooks, and spreadsheets to manage classes and communicate with students. Many mentioned that while these tools help, switching between them daily creates friction and slows down their workflow.

We also found that communication boundaries are often unclear. Tutors frequently receive messages from students outside of working hours, leading to burnout and stress. On the other hand, when tutors send messages, students often take a long time to respond, delaying feedback and lesson progress.

Another common issue was manual tracking. Most tutors still write student progress in notebooks or personal documents. This makes it hard to access and share updates efficiently with parents or institutions. Additionally, many tutors expressed a need for a more organized and transparent way to monitor student performance.

Despite these challenges, tutors shared a strong sense of commitment to their students. They invest time in creating personalized lessons, tracking individual struggles, and maintaining a human connection beyond digital tools. This insight reinforced our belief that technology should support, not replace the empathy and dedication at the heart of teaching.

Solution

After identifying the core issues faced by tutors, fragmented tools, unclear communication boundaries, and time-consuming manual tracking, we designed Tarea, a productivity app built to streamline the tutoring experience. Our goal was to create a space where tutors could focus on teaching, not chasing messages.

Tarea simplifies the entire process of assigning, managing, and tracking homework through an integrated workflow. Instead of switching between chats, calendars, and documents, tutors can now handle everything in one place.

Key Features

Centralized Student Management

Tutors can view all their students and their homework status in one dashboard. Color coded progress indicators help tutors quickly identify which tasks are due soon or need attention, minimizing the need for constant check-ins or reminders.

Seamless Homework Assignment

The homework creation flow lets tutors assign multiple tasks, set due dates, and attach files or links within a single screen. This reduces administrative effort and ensures clarity for students.

Transparent Progress Tracking

Each student’s page displays a clear timeline of assigned tasks, completion status, and deadlines. Tutors can easily monitor progress at a glance, improving lesson planning and communication with both students and parents.

Organized Student View

For students, Tarea consolidates all homework into a simple, checklist-style interface. They can see what’s due next, mark completed tasks, and stay on track—helping them develop accountability and consistency.

Outcome

By integrating these features, Tarea removes the stress of scattered communication and manual updates. It helps tutors maintain professional boundaries, save time, and support their students’ learning in a structured and engaging way.

Wireframe

Results & Impact

Although Tarea has not yet been publicly launched, early testing during an exhibition received positive feedback. Many visitors appreciated its clean user interface and found the concept of simplifying tutors’ workflow both relevant and practical.

These responses validated our design direction and showed strong interest in a tool that helps tutors manage tasks and communication more efficiently. The feedback also motivated us to refine the user experience further before moving into broader testing.