Phase 1 — Problem Brief

Phase 1 -- Problem Brief

Version: 1.0 Date: February 25, 2026 Organizing Principle: Weekly Rhythm -- "The app follows my weekly learning cycle."

The Disorientation Problem

QuranFlow's core failure is that the app provides no temporal orientation. Students cannot answer three fundamental questions by looking at the app: "What week am I on?", "What should I be doing right now?", and "When does the next thing happen?" The program has a clear weekly cadence -- lesson, practice, submit, receive feedback, attend live sessions -- but the app treats each of these as isolated features scattered across tabs and buried menus, with no connective thread tying them to the student's actual position in the semester. The result is that students who skip reading onboarding emails (most of them) arrive in an app that gives them no sense of place, no sense of time, and no sense of sequence -- and some give up within the first two weeks.

The Weekly Rhythm

Each week within a 15-week semester follows the same critical path:

• Saturday: New weekly lesson unlocks (1-2 short videos, 3-5 minutes each, explaining that week's concept)
• Throughout the week: Student watches lesson videos, practices the concept using their Level Notes binder
• When ready: Student records themselves reciting the assigned Quranic passage and submits to their Quran Coach
• Within 48 hours of submission: Quran Coach reviews the recording and sends back audio feedback in-app
• Student reviews feedback: Listens to audio feedback, makes notes on what to improve, optionally asks follow-up questions via comments
• Live Level Class (2 timings offered): 1-hour weekly class covering that week's topic in depth, with Q&A -- one weekday, one weekend slot
• Quran Reading Circles (~12 sessions/week): Drop-in live practice sessions with any Quran Coach, gender-specific, open to all levels
• Repeat the following Saturday when the next lesson unlocks

Critical completion requirement: 12 of 15 weekly submissions must be completed, plus a successful End of Course (EOC) assessment, to graduate the level. Students may submit up to 2 recordings per 7-day period, allowing catch-up if they fall behind.

Task Inventory

[Core] Tasks -- Must be reachable in 2 taps or fewer

[Supporting] Tasks -- Important but app still functions without them

Hidden Features Table

Pattern: The hamburger menu is a graveyard for features. Every hidden feature lives behind it. The menu itself is a deprecated iOS pattern that violates platform conventions, and its icon (a small QuranFlow logo) does not signal "menu" to users. Anything placed here is effectively invisible.

Student Lifecycle Phases

Phase 1: Enrollment & Assessment (approx. 2 weeks before semester)

The student signs up via an external sales page and receives login credentials by email. Upon first app login, they are presented with an assessment screen where they record a reading sample. Within 48 hours, a Quran Coach listens to the recording and places the student in one of four levels (Level 1-4), assigning them a same-gender Quran Coach. The student should see their level and coach prominently in-app. Currently, both are buried in the hamburger menu.

Phase 2: Pre-Semester Orientation (remaining days before Day 1)

The student is waiting for the semester to begin. They should see a countdown to semester start, welcome/tutorial videos explaining the program, and information about pre-semester "housewarming" live sessions they can attend. Currently, the app shows none of this -- the semester start date exists only in emails, there are no orientation videos in-app, and pre-semester sessions are not distinguished from regular ones.

Phase 3: Active Semester -- Weekly Cycle (15 weeks)

This is the core phase. Each week the student follows the rhythm: lesson unlocks Saturday, watch videos, practice, record and submit, receive feedback, attend live sessions. The student needs to always know what week they are on, what is due, and what has been completed. This repeats for 15 weeks. The student may fall behind and catch up (up to 2 submissions per week). Currently, there is no week indicator, no "what to do this week" summary, and the various activities (lessons, submissions, live sessions, feedback) live in disconnected tabs with no temporal context.

Phase 4: End-of-Course Assessment (final weeks of semester)

After completing at least 12 of 15 weekly submissions, the student accesses the End of Course Assessment -- a single submission that combines all concepts from the level. The Quran Coach evaluates it and determines whether the student graduates. The student needs to clearly see: EOC availability, what it covers, their submission/feedback for it, and their graduation status. This phase is not well-documented in the current app.

Phase 5: Level Transition / Graduation

If the student passes, they are promoted to the next level (e.g., Level 1 to Level 2). They may receive a new Quran Coach. The next semester's start date and onboarding cycle begins. The student returns to Phase 2 with a new level context. If the student was in Level 4, they are eligible to enroll in QuranFlow Advanced (Year 2), which has a fundamentally different model: no weekly submissions, replaced by 1:1 appointment bookings with Quran Coaches, elective-based curriculum. This transition must be clearly explained since the app interaction model changes entirely.

Phase 6: Year 2 -- Advanced (ongoing)

Year 2 students have graduated from the structured submission cycle. Their primary interaction is booking and attending 1:1 appointments with Quran Coaches, attending live sessions, and pursuing elective content. The weekly rhythm is less rigid -- driven by appointment scheduling rather than submission deadlines. This phase has not been fully audited but shares the same platform and many of the same usability problems (navigation, discoverability, schedule access).

Summary of P0 Issues

For reference, these are the six P0 (critical/blocking) issues identified in the original audit, plus one elevated from the PM discussion:

1. Video playback failure -- lessons cannot be watched reliably (Task 3A.3)
2. Missing submission history -- past submissions and their feedback are not accessible in a unified view (Task 3B.6)
3. Broken notifications -- notification content is useless; no timestamp, no submission reference, no deep link (Tasks 3C.1, 6E.2)
4. Non-standard Quranic font -- default font is not mushaf script; correct font hidden in settings (Tasks 3B.2, 6B.1)
5. Inadequate user profile -- missing billing, subscription, learning history; broken photo upload (Task 6A.1)
6. No timezone on live sessions -- international students cannot determine correct local time (Task 3D.3)
7. Feedback inaccessible from progress screen -- progress shows percentages but no way to reach actual feedback (Tasks 3C.2, 3C.4) [elevated from PM discussion]

The Design Challenge

The app must be rebuilt around the weekly rhythm so that a student at any point in their lifecycle -- from pre-enrollment to Year 2 -- can open the app and immediately answer:

• What week of the semester is this?
• What should I be doing right now?
• What have I completed and what is still due?
• When is my next live session, in my timezone?
• Where is my Quran Coach's feedback on my last submission?
• How do I get help?

No emails. No manuals. No digging. The app itself must be the single source of truth for the student's relationship with the program.