Previous look
Design process:
Approaching the issue with the double diamond.
Two main types of thinking were applied to the design challenge
Divergent thinking: exploring multiple possibilities
Convergent thinking: focusing on the best ideas
User Empathy:
Personas &
User Journeys
After gaining a clear understanding of the users, we created personas representations of our ideal customers shaped by research insights and user archetypes. These personas guided our decisions, ensuring that the platform’s features and overall experience were thoughtfully aligned with their needs, goals, and expectations.
MVPs:
Looking for
opportunities within insights
Following the ideation session, ideas were prioritised based on value and effort. Early focus was placed on quick wins like streamlining navigation, refining the menu structure, and introducing student progression tracking. Higher effort features such as data visualisation and student activity management were also explored through informed assumptions, aiming to deliver clearer insights for admins within known technical limitations.
Information Architecture:
Reviewing the structure of Coursebox
The existing information architecture was analysed and revealed a navigation system with redundant pathways and unclear structure making it difficult for users to find what they needed. Although the scope was focused on the dashboard and reporting features, the decision was made to redesign the navigation bar to better support the overall user experience. The improved site map introduced a more streamlined and intuitive structure for both admins and learners, laying a stronger foundation for the redesign to follow.
Handover
Looking for
opportunities within insights
Following the completion of the final designs, documentation was prepared and structured in Figma to support a smooth developer handover. Focus was placed on building a clear component library, outlining key interaction patterns, and ensuring visual decisions were easy to interpret and implement. Additional annotations were included to guide future iterations, allowing Coursebox to scale beyond the current scope with consistency.
Key Learnings
Working alongside the engineer really shifted how I approached design. It helped me understand what’s technically realistic and pushed me to think more critically about how our ideas would actually be built saving time and making our work more purposeful.
Creating the business model canvas gave us a clear way to keep scope in check. It was a simple but powerful tool that helped us stay focused, manage Coursebox's expectations, and deliver quality work on time.
Being proud of the work didn’t come naturally at first. I’m someone who tends to overthink or be overly critical of what I make but seeing what we achieved as a team in such a short time really helped shift that mindset. It gave me more confidence to back my work as I presented .
User feedback was the best validation. Hearing that the design felt like “exactly what they wanted” made all the work and design decisions feel worth it and reminded me why I enjoy doing this in the first place.
Stakeholder management and scoping. Learning how to align with stakeholders early on made a big difference. Clear scoping and honest conversations around priorities helped keep the work grounded, purposeful, and moving in the right direction.
