Scholarin
The digital education market has experienced significant growth over the past decade, a trend that has been further accelerated by the global pandemic of 2020.
Scholarin hired me to spearhead several critical initiatives:
Initial Business Strategy: I was tasked with formulating Scholarin's foundational business strategy, outlining its vision, mission, and core objectives to guide its growth and development.
User and Competitor Research: Conducting thorough research on users and competitors was essential for Scholarin's success.
Branding Positioning and Assets: Developing Scholarin's initial branding strategy was crucial for establishing its identity and presence in the market. This included defining its unique value proposition, brand positioning, and designing key branding assets such as logos, colors, and visual elements.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Design: Creating the MVP for Scholarin's product was a pivotal step in its journey. I was responsible for designing the core features and functionalities of the product that would address the needs of its target users while staying aligned with the overall business strategy.
Throughout these endeavors, my goal was to equip Scholarin with the necessary tools and insights to thrive in the dynamic and competitive landscape of the digital education market.
In the domain of business strategy, our aim was to create a product and model primed for success in the competitive e-learning market. We targeted a younger demographic (ages 9-18) while offering a premium e-learning experience, allowing students to earn micro-degrees for academic advancement.
For user experience, our goal was broad appeal across age groups and skill levels. Our MVP featured a curated course catalog prioritizing quality and personalization, with a focus on accessibility.
Managing stakeholders' expectations was crucial due to tight time constraints and extensive project scope. I led the development of the business model, conducted market research, crafted branding assets, devised UX architecture, built a clickable prototype, and conducted user testing.
Competitor analysis was pivotal in shaping our business strategy and design choices for this project. Subsequently, after building the prototype, we conducted user research to identify usability issues and user pain points.
For this project, UX development entailed crafting research-based personas, defining key user stories, constructing a site map, and delineating a comprehensive feature set. We identified three main categories of users: Students, Instructors, and Free Users, each with distinct personas, and user stories. The overarching aim was to create a streamlined and intuitive platform that catered to the needs of each user category.
I aimed to maintain a minimalist visual design for both aesthetic appeal and due to time constraints. The design system primarily utilizes a combination of the primary red and grayscale colors. The logo features the letter "S" from Scholarin and depicts two books stacked on top of each other, symbolizing education.
*Please note that the following screens do not outline full features or flows, and only serve to get a better holistic view of the project. If you would like to see the full project, please request the UX architect guide.
The project involved building out three main categories of pages:
Marketing Site: This site is designed to capture users' attention and educate them about the benefits and offerings of Scholarin. It highlights the advantages of earning micro-degrees and AP credits.
Student Portal: The student portal enables students to access course materials, submit assignments, communicate with peers and instructors, and track their course progress.
Instructor Portal: Instructors use this portal to monitor their students' progress both individually and on a class-wide level. The goal is to provide full functionality for teaching online courses while also offering metadata and safeguards for students at risk of failing the course.
While I was unable to fully develop the mobile-responsive screens, I emphasized to the client the critical importance of mobile responsiveness for their project. To illustrate this, I provided examples of how key screens might appear on mobile devices, emphasizing the need for seamless user experience across all devices.
This project encompassed an extensive scope, where I translated the stakeholders' concept into various components, spanning from business strategy to branding materials and a clickable MVP prototype. Due to the project's breadth and time constraints, I couldn't dedicate as much time to visual components as desired.
I particularly enjoyed outlining the business model, as it granted me significant control over product fit and strategy, a rare opportunity for UX designers.
Though I haven't followed up with the stakeholders post-handover, I've learned they changed the company/platform's name, which I was pleased to hear. I'm immensely grateful to the stakeholders for entrusting me with their concept and the design of this project.