Rebuild & Refresh for Usability & Engagement
Timeline
6 Months
My Role
UX/UI Lead
Skills Used
Self-Directed
Frameworks & Procedures
Developing Workflows
Emerging Technologies
AI Image Generation
Heuristic Analysis
Product Design Strategy
Metrics
User Research
User Interviews
Goal
Work cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Engineering and the other Product Management team members to identify and deliver strategic improvements to a product that has been patched together over the last 25 years.
Constraints
Back to School 2026 ("BTS 26") launch date of July 1.
Set resources for development
Must move all existing Admin Center functionality off the old platform and into new microservice to complete Tech Debt goals
Summary
When faced with a product with multiple portals, all needing improvement, the Admin Center and Middle School Experiencew were strategically chosen for the BTS 2025 launch. The redesign resulted in more intuitive, usable interface for admins and an age-appropriate, engaging experience for middle school students.
0.5 Increase
Rating of age-appropriateness of new middle school (5-point scale)
33% Increase
User Task Completion
47% Decrease
Time to complete task
68% Decrease
Clicks to complete task
Award Winning
100% Compliant
REsponsive & WCAG 2.2AA
Process
Where to Start?
As the first team member on-boarded onto the new Produce Management team under the VP: Product, I needed to determine the strategic priorities for the BTS 2025 launch, which was to be delivered in a tight timeline with expectations of making a large impact.
I hit the ground running, performing a top-to-bottom audit of the existing product, to identify areas of concern and learn the product.
The current product had been built over 25 years, with a lot of hands in both design and development. It was clear it had been built on a feature-based philosophy rather than from a task-based perspective, resulting in complicated, disjointed workflows for end users.
There were so many places that needed attention to better serve the needs of our users. Where to start?
Where to Start?
As the first team member on-boarded onto the new Produce Management team under the VP: Product, I needed to determine the strategic priorities for the BTS 2025 launch, which was to be delivered in a tight timeline with expectations of making a large impact.
I hit the ground running, performing a top-to-bottom audit of the existing product, to identify areas of concern and learn the product.
The current product had been built over 25 years, with a lot of hands in both design and development. It was clear it had been built on a feature-based philosophy rather than from a task-based perspective, resulting in complicated, disjointed workflows for end users.
There were so many places that needed attention to better serve the needs of our users. Where to start?
Inputs
UX/UI Audit
Internal Stakeholder Interviews
Customer Success Interviews
Customer Support Interviews
User Interviews & Feedback
Tech Debt Priorities
Inputs
UX/UI Audit
Internal Stakeholder Interviews
Customer Success Interviews
Customer Support Interviews
User Interviews & Feedback
Tech Debt Priorities
Findings
Admin center:
Severely outdated with poor information architecture leading to low usability
Still on old platform (part of planned engineering tech debt for BTS 2025)
Smallest number of users
Not WCAG compliant
Straight-forward user needs - add/edit users and classes, set up integrations with LMSs, etc. Best practices and common UI patterns for these administrative needs can be followed for first-pass design
Student center:
Same UI for ages 4-15 resulting in user experience that was not age-appropriate for most students
Outdated graphics and lesson formats
Need to coordinate with content development to a greater degree when working on this interface
Teacher center:
Built in a feature-centered way that resulted in disjointed workflows and decreased usability
Features that didn't meet how teachers work - such as creating groups that are separate from the class rather than nested within the class
A larger number of users than the admin center
A large number of pain points across a complicated series of interconnected features - changing any of them would cause changes in many others
User needs that are more diverse and complicated, necessitating more user research and more collaborative co-design process
Findings
Admin center:
Severely outdated with poor information architecture leading to low usability
Still on old platform (part of planned engineering tech debt for BTS 2025)
Smallest number of users
Not WCAG compliant
Straight-forward user needs - add/edit users and classes, set up integrations with LMSs, etc. Best practices and common UI patterns for these administrative needs can be followed for first-pass design
Student center:
Same UI for ages 4-15 resulting in user experience that was not age-appropriate for most students
Outdated graphics and lesson formats
Need to coordinate with content development to a greater degree when working on this interface
Teacher center:
Built in a feature-centered way that resulted in disjointed workflows and decreased usability
Features that didn't meet how teachers work - such as creating groups that are separate from the class rather than nested within the class
A larger number of users than the admin center
A large number of pain points across a complicated series of interconnected features - changing any of them would cause changes in many others
User needs that are more diverse and complicated, necessitating more user research and more collaborative co-design process
Decision 1: Administrator Portal
Complete redesign & rebuild
Large tech debt: Current admin portal is on the original platform, maintenance of which adds significant overhead to engineering. If engineering was committed to moving that functionality to the new microservices, it needed to be redesigned to prevent the poor user experience from continuing.
First step: Admins are the first users of the product, and if they struggle to get started, teachers, and most importantly students, will never have a chance to use the product.
Accessibility: The admin portal was the last piece of the product that had not been updated to meet WCAG.
Decision 1: Administrator Portal
Complete redesign & rebuild
Large tech debt: Current admin portal is on the original platform, maintenance of which adds significant overhead to engineering. If engineering was committed to moving that functionality to the new microservices, it needed to be redesigned to prevent the poor user experience from continuing.
First step: Admins are the first users of the product, and if they struggle to get started, teachers, and most importantly students, will never have a chance to use the product.
Accessibility: The admin portal was the last piece of the product that had not been updated to meet WCAG.
Decision 2: Middle-School Portal
Complete redesign & rebuild
Age Appropriateness: Usage was lower in this age group and user research showed students and teachers felt the experience was too "baby-ish" for middle school, decreasing student engagement.
Large content refresh project underway: The content team was undertaking a large 4-8 grade content update - adding 104 new lessons. Great new content wouldn't make the impact we'd hoped if we didn't fix the barrier to students accessing that content - their overall experience.
Decision 2: Middle-School Portal
Complete redesign & rebuild
Age Appropriateness: Usage was lower in this age group and user research showed students and teachers felt the experience was too "baby-ish" for middle school, decreasing student engagement.
Large content refresh project underway: The content team was undertaking a large 4-8 grade content update - adding 104 new lessons. Great new content wouldn't make the impact we'd hoped if we didn't fix the barrier to students accessing that content - their overall experience.
Admin Portal
Problem
Users had difficulty finding what they were looking for, resulting in low task completion and high support requests. This was an unnecessary burden to implementation.
Problem
Users had difficulty finding what they were looking for, resulting in low task completion and high support requests. This was an unnecessary burden to implementation.
Take-away
The administrator portal needed to be built for busy education administrators that have too much on their plate and not a lot of time to learn yet another specialized application.
Take-away
The administrator portal needed to be built for busy education administrators that have too much on their plate and not a lot of time to learn yet another specialized application.
Solution
Intuitive Information Architecture
Stream-lined workflows
Accessibility compliance
A large site structure was greatly condensed while increasing intuitiveness, allowing users to greatly decrease the time it took to find what they need to complete their task!
Solution
Intuitive Information Architecture
Stream-lined workflows
Accessibility compliance
A large site structure was greatly condensed while increasing intuitiveness, allowing users to greatly decrease the time it took to find what they need to complete their task!
Solution
Modern user interface patterns, such as:
live filtering for each table column
in-line editing and on-page forms to reduce cognitive load
Use of common UI patterns results in reduced onboarding time for users
Solution
Modern user interface patterns, such as:
live filtering for each table column
in-line editing and on-page forms to reduce cognitive load
Use of common UI patterns results in reduced onboarding time for users
Impact
Head-to-head usability of the original platform and the new design resulted in users finding what they needed far faster
33% increase in user task completion
47% decrease in time to complete task
68% decrease in clicks to complete task
100% WCAG 2.2AA compliance
Impact
Head-to-head usability of the original platform and the new design resulted in users finding what they needed far faster
33% increase in user task completion
47% decrease in time to complete task
68% decrease in clicks to complete task
100% WCAG 2.2AA compliance
Middle School Portal
Middle schools had the lowest utilization of our product. User research revealed that the content was out-dated and repeated across grades within the grade band, and the platform experience was too "baby-ish" for students which decreased engagement and therefore teacher buy-in.
The content team was tackling the out-dated content while I revamped the overall experience.
Middle schools had the lowest utilization of our product. User research revealed that the content was out-dated and repeated across grades within the grade band, and the platform experience was too "baby-ish" for students which decreased engagement and therefore teacher buy-in.
The content team was tackling the out-dated content while I revamped the overall experience.
Take-away
Middle-school students are quick to dis-engage when an edTech platform doesn't meet their expectations of personalization and engagement that they experience in their other apps.
Take-away
Middle-school students are quick to dis-engage when an edTech platform doesn't meet their expectations of personalization and engagement that they experience in their other apps.
Solution
Updated student experiences
simplified user settings/information panel
updating graphics on middle-school student experience
student choice of themes
Solution
Updated student experiences
simplified user settings/information panel
updating graphics on middle-school student experience
student choice of themes
Impact
Head-to-head testing with parents and teachers of middle school students resulted in a significant increase of perceived appropriateness
0.5 increase in age appropriateness of new middle school portal (5-point scale)
Award Winning
The Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager submitted to ISTE 2025 awards based on the new middle school experience and won "Best of Show" for Secondary Education. | |
Impact
Head-to-head testing with parents and teachers of middle school students resulted in a significant increase of perceived appropriateness
0.5 increase in age appropriateness of new middle school portal (5-point scale)
Award Winning
The Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager submitted to ISTE 2025 awards based on the new middle school experience and won "Best of Show" for Secondary Education. | |