Helping teachers track attendance without reliable internet
Compassion International • April to June 2026 • Product Designer
Problem
How do you help busy teachers record attendance when they go days without internet?
In partnership with Awana, Compassion is partnering with Zimbabwe schools to deliver after school activities that serve over 2 million children.
To secure funding and measure impact, teachers record attendance on Salesforce, an internet-dependent tool.
With…
67%
of Zimbabweans living in rural areas
$530+
in annual Starlink subscriptions
Updating attendance became a costly and burdensome process for schools with unreliable internet.
Solution Preview
An offline-first attendance tracking app designed for speed and clarity
Teachers can track attendance offline and sync when they have connection.
Discovery & User needs
Attendance is a big administrative burden
Teachers track attendance on Salesforce, which comes with many difficulties.
Low Scannability
Scanning through hundreds of students gets to be a lot.
Everything looks the same
Different records, from activities, students, or teachers -- all looked the same!
Teachers need a way to intuitively track attendance, without the extra cognitive load.
Offline-first syncing required clear communication.
Unlike other apps, the app remains offline by default, with users syncing updates manually.
App stays offline, even when a device has internet
Teachers need confidence and awareness that changes are saved offline until syncing
App requires users to manually sync updates
Teachers need visible sync statuses to decide when to sync
Decision 1
Reduce cognitive load, even if it costs clicks
Start with a dashboard over direct activity lists (87% prefer)
Though on the surface, an extra click would add work, users preferred a dashboard style homepage (87%) during an online A/B test*.
Iteration 1
Detailed list of attendance activity records
Iteration 2
Dashboard view of all data available on app
Decision 2
Support how teachers already think and work
Mark attendance by classroom
I initially explored faster patterns of attendance, but stakeholder feedback revealed a greater priority: familiarity. We grouped participants in classrooms, supporting the mental model that teachers use everyday.
Iteration 1
All students are shown in one list, regardless of class
Iteration 2
Students are grouped in their classes by default
Mark attendance by classroom
Check, then uncheck
Instead of redesigning a workflow that teachers already enjoyed, I preserved a familiar interaction teachers used on Salesforce: selecting all students first, then unchecking absent students.
Decision 3
Make the offline-sync statuses obvious, but not distracting
Leveraging insights from a similar product, I designed persistent sync and offline statuses to reassure teachers their data was safe without distracting them from attendance.
Reminder, you are offline!
A banner on the home page reminds users that they are working offline and need to sync when possible.
Which updates still need to be synced?
Sync icons let teachers know whether their updates have made it to Salesforce.
Clickable chips give direct info on what each icon means, helping teachers understand the sync process.
Final Solution
Seamlessly track activity attendance in rural, offline areas
Quickly track attendance in the hundreds
The Blue Sky app’s attendance model works parallel to well-established workflows teachers rely on, ensuring efficiency and reliability.
Confidently record attendance, even with no bars
Offline banners and sync indicators work together to communicate exactly when attendance is saved locally and when it has synced to Salesforce.
Tools
Designing with AI
I used AI tools such as figma make to explore different UI and review my own design choices.
AI was not only a tool, but a partner in my design process.
Exploring interaction possibilities during attendance
Refining the visual design of the dashboard
Reflection
Next Steps and Learnings
The beta version is in development and will receive feedback by October 2026. Once the app is made available, thousands of schools will track attendance offline!
*Working with constraints
Instead of direct user research (which was unavailable), I learned to rely close contacts, online usability test tools, and user research insights form similar applications.
Don’t stop at ‘good enough’
Many of the preferred iterations came from questioning an initial design that worked, but didn’t feel perfect. Always go for delight and don’t stop at good enough!
Understand the details
While understanding the details of offline technology and user workflows takes time, it is precisely these details that can cause user confusion in a design. Design must anticipate these possible roadblocks and prevent them.