Case Study — EdTech · Acquired

Eduba — "Mishwarik"

A real-time school bus tracking and management feature, designed for a market with almost no digital infrastructure to build on — built during COVID-19, adopted by 48% of Iraq, and acquired by the country's top telecom firm.

RoleSenior UI/UX Designer

Timeline2019 – 2021

Team3 collaborators — founder & engineering

ToolsFigma, FigJam, Maze, Illustrator, Jira, Slack

Acquired

by Iraq's top telecom firm

Adopted by the Iraqi market

Growth during COVID-19

Secured

Ministry of Education accreditation

Overview

Designing resilience into every step

Mishwarik is Eduba's real-time school bus tracking and management feature, built for parents, drivers, and schools to make student transport safer and more reliable. In Iraq's startup ecosystem — limited infrastructure, almost no funding — we weren't just designing user flows, we were designing for a market that had never trusted a system like this before.

Discover

Understand the people and the problem before designing anything.

Define

Turn raw findings into personas and a sharp problem definition.

Ideate

Explore directions with HMWs and user flows before touching pixels.

Design

Build the flows, system, and UI that bring the concept to life.

Validate

Test with real users, refine trust and usability, and iterate.

Problems we solved

No real-time visibility

Parents reported anxiety and confusion from not knowing the bus location or exact arrival times.

No centralized management

Schools lacked a system to handle student transfers, scheduling, and rescheduling efficiently.

No reliable communication

Parents and students needed a real-time, user-friendly solution to reduce stress and improve safety.

Goals

Goal 1

Real-time visibility

Ensure real-time visibility of school bus locations through accurate tracking.

Goal 2

Streamlined scheduling

Streamline management for student transfers, rescheduling, and attendance tracking.

Goal 3

Peace of mind

Give parents peace of mind and safety while improving operational efficiency for schools and drivers.

Discover

Workshops and interviews across all three sides of the problem — parents, drivers, and school staff — to understand where safety, communication, and scheduling were actually breaking down.

Workshops

4 workshops

With parents and drivers, surfacing pain points in real conversation, not just surveys.

Interviews

11 in-depth interviews

With parents, drivers, and school administrators.

78%

Demand for real-time tracking

Of surveyed parents reported feeling confused by not knowing the exact bus location in real time — often resorting to calling drivers or other parents for updates.

82%

Need a management system

Needed a centralized system to handle student transfers, scheduling, and rescheduling efficiently.

68%

Inefficient communication

Currently relied on manual communication — calls, WhatsApp groups, driver texts — unreliable and inconsistent.

Interview and survey highlights — Interview & survey highlights

Sometimes I call the driver or other parents just to know where the bus is.Sarah Jamal, 38 — Parent

I often receive late updates about delays, which makes me worried about my child's safety.Nour Al Mousawi, 36 — Parent

Define

Three problem statements, one for each side of the system — and a hypothesis for each that we could actually design and test against.

Problem Statement

Parents face confusion and anxiety about their children's bus location and arrival times. Schools lack a centralized system for transfers and scheduling. Drivers and staff struggle with miscommunication and last-minute route changes.

Hypothesis

If we provide real-time tracking and instant notifications, parents will feel more secure. If schools have a centralized management system, operations will become more efficient. If the interface is simple for parents, staff, and drivers alike, adoption will increase significantly.

I want something that just tells me when to leave the house to pick up my son.Hisham Ahmad, 40 — Parent

We don't have enough time to wait, we prefer to arrive on time to avoid delays.Ahmed Saeed, 45 — School Bus Driver

Ideate

User stories and information architecture, guided by HMW questions that kept every idea anchored to safety and trust.

HMWGive parents real-time visibility of the bus location to reduce anxiety?
HMWCreate a centralized system for schools to handle transfers and rescheduling?
HMWHelp drivers communicate delays or emergencies in real time?
HMWDesign a simple interface that works regardless of tech skill?
HMWEnsure timely notifications so parents and schools stay updated without manual calls?

Value proposition

Parents — peace of mind via real-time tracking Schools — centralized scheduling & transfers Drivers — clear, automated route updates

Design

Low- and high-fidelity wireframes, prototypes, and a design system built for low-bandwidth conditions and near-zero onboarding friction.

Flows

Real-time tracking & profiles

UI screens for the live tracking flow, student profiles, and notifications — built low-fidelity first, then refined into high-fidelity screens and a shared design system.

Constraint

Optimized for low bandwidth

Onboarding was simplified specifically to work in infrastructure-limited conditions — this single decision moved adoption from 5% to 48%.

Validate

Usability testing with parents and drivers across three iterative design cycles — refining notification clarity, dashboard readability, and trust.

Market adoption

5%→48%

Growth during COVID-19

700%

Outcome

Acquired

Reflection

What this project reinforced

Great design isn't just about aesthetics — it's about solving problems in the toughest conditions. Startups can thrive even when the ecosystem isn't ready, if the team is. And timing and persistence can turn infrastructure gaps into an advantage: the same low-bandwidth constraint that looked like a limitation became the reason adoption climbed nearly tenfold.