Case study / Product design / Frontline Education

Getting paid, a little sooner.

Substitute teachers work today, and because K-12 pay schedules are irregular, they can wait weeks to see the money. Frontline partnered with Wagestream so substitutes can reach pay they have already earned. The design was shared between the two teams: Wagestream designed their service, and I worked on how it shows up and hands off inside the Frontline apps, from the first banner to a transition that feels like one product.

Client: Frontline Education
Partner: Wagestream, who shared the design work with me
Users: Substitute teachers in K-12 districts
Scope: Shared with Wagestream’s team: entry points, first-time and returning flows, onboarding and hand-off, on mobile and desktop
Recognition: 2023 EdTech Breakthrough Award, K-12 EdTech Deployment of the Year ↗

01 / The context

A paycheck on someone else’s calendar.

Frontline’s Absence Management is where substitute teachers find and accept jobs. They are paid by the districts they work for, and K-12 districts pay on irregular schedules. A sub can work a full week and wait a long time for it.

That wait matters to the districts too. EdTech Breakthrough, the awards program that later recognized this work, put it plainly: payroll delays of several weeks can discourage substitutes from accepting positions.

Wagestream offers earned wage access: the chance to move money a person has already earned into their bank account before payday. Frontline brought it into the app subs already open every day.

2 wks

Ahead of payday, in the first version’s in-app copy

4 + 4

Places the service appears, on mobile and on desktop

2 brands

One experience for the substitute

02 / The challenge

A second company, handling money, inside an app people already trust.

Offering a financial service is different from adding a feature. Substitutes had to understand it, trust it, and be able to ignore it, all without leaving the flow of finding work.

Earn trust first

Money and personal information are involved, so the app explains the service, asks for consent before sharing anything, and tells people clearly when they are leaving Frontline.

Visible, never in the way

A new service needs awareness, but a sub looking for work shouldn’t be nagged. Some placements can be dismissed. Others stay put where the pay matters most.

One experience, two brands

The Wagestream side had its own look. The hand-off needed to feel like a continuation, not a different app.

03 / Entry points

Four places to find it, on every device.

On mobile, the service appears on the home page, on a job’s detail, on the scheduled jobs list and in the menu. Every path asks the same question first: does this person already have a Wagestream account?

Home

A banner a substitute can dismiss.

Job detail

A banner that stays, right beside the job that will become pay.

Scheduled jobs

The same banner, between the jobs a sub has already accepted.

The same four doors, in a bigger room.

Desktop adds an Important Notifications message, a side-navigation item, a banner above the calendar that returns on the next session if dismissed, and a menu entry. A returning user doesn’t see the banner at all. They see an icon showing the service is set up.

04 / The journeys

First time, or coming back.

The mobile journey board maps first-time and returning users side by side. Open questions lived on it as sticky notes until they had answers.

Questions we worked through

Is this in or out for the first release?

Messaging for subs who work in several districts, or in a district that has opted out, was marked for version two.

How often should the banner appear?

A dismissed banner returns on the next session. We also asked whether to show it after every few jobs.

What if a sub works in more than one district?

Each district is its own stream. Setup picks the district, and starting from Scheduled Jobs fills it in automatically.

Where is the most valuable placement?

Job detail, with a quick link from the scheduled jobs list, and release notes as the easiest first win for awareness.

05 / The hand-off

Leaving Frontline without feeling lost.

On desktop, a substitute passes through three quiet steps before Wagestream opens: what Wagestream is, a clear consent to share their information, and a splash page that says they are leaving Frontline.

On mobile, Wagestream opens inside a Frontline frame. The header sits on a transparent background so Wagestream’s gradient runs behind it, with a close button and refresh always within reach. The header was explored with and without an icon, against each Wagestream screen.

About Wagestream

What the service is, in plain language.

Consent

Permission to share personal information, before anything is sent.

You are leaving Frontline

A splash page, then the sign-up or the dashboard.

Onboarding

Four steps, explained as they happen.

Setup asks a substitute to choose a district, connect a bank, add a debit card and link their payroll. The last step is the hardest to understand, so it gets its own short explainer.

Welcome back screen with the Frontline and Wagestream logos — Welcome, with both brands side by side.

Select your school district screen — Choose the district to set up.

Connect your bank account screen — Connect a bank account.

Add your debit card screen — Add the matching debit card.

What is payroll linking? explainer — What is payroll linking?

How to enable payroll linking explainer — How to enable it.

How do I get my paycheck? explainer — How the paycheck arrives.

Terms of service screen with an accept checkbox — Terms, with a clear accept.

06 / When things go wrong

Design the empty and the error first.

When money moves, an unexplained “no” is the worst answer. The dashboard has a state for each reason a transfer can’t happen, and each one says why and what to do next.

Dashboard with a banner asking the user to update an invalid debit card — Invalid card: a banner with a Fix now action.

Dashboard with a banner saying the debit card doesn’t match the linked bank — Card and bank don’t match.

Why can’t I transfer? modal asking to add a debit card — No debit card yet: a modal that explains why.

Dashboard with a zero balance and no activity yet — No jobs yet: a zero balance with a clear empty state.

Why do I have a temporary limit? modal explaining the transfer limit — A temporary limit, and how it lifts.

Choose your district menu listing three school districts — More than one district: a menu to switch between them.

07 / The outcome

K-12 EdTech Deployment of the Year.

In June 2023, Frontline and Wagestream were recognized in the fifth annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards for the partnership that gives substitutes access to their pay when they choose, as they earn it.

EdTech Breakthrough Awards · 2023

K-12 EdTech Deployment of the Year

Awarded to Frontline Education and Wagestream from more than 2,400 nominations across 16 countries.

Read the announcement ↗

What happened next

From a substitute feature to Frontline Flex Pay.

In May 2024, Frontline announced Flex Pay, powered by Wagestream, for every district employee, not only substitutes. Frontline reported that more than 3,000 U.S. districts have implemented it, and that employers using the toolkit report filling vacancies 27% faster.

Read the Flex Pay announcement ↗

Figures are Frontline’s and Wagestream’s, from the May 2024 announcement.

What I took from it

Borrow trust, then hand it over

Showing both brands together, and a gradient between them, helped a new service feel like it belonged.

Let people say not now

A banner that can be dismissed, and a menu item that never goes away, respects both the busy and the curious.

Explain every “no”

Money raises the stakes of empty and error states. Each one tells the person what happened and what to do.