Big Ideas Learning: EdTech Platform
In compliance with this project's NDA, proprietary screens and internal documentation cannot be shared. This case study focuses on the design process, key decisions, and outcomes; with visuals sourced from the product's publicly available help documentation.
ROLE
Senior UX Designer
TEAM
Product Manager
Engineering
2 UX Designers
TIMELINE
18 months
Jun 2023 - Jan 2025
TOOLS
Figma
Miro
01. OVERVIEW
This case study explores the end-to-end UX design of a K–12 math learning platform, from research and architecture through to a shipped product serving 800K+ students and teachers across the US.
About myADA Math
myADA Math is a live B2B platform by Big Ideas Learning, built to support students struggling with foundational math skills while giving teachers the tools to plan, teach, and track progress, all in one place. Shipped successfully after two formal client review cycles with zero major revision requests at final handoff.
My Role
I was the Senior UX Designer on this project, leading a team of two - one junior UX designer and one junior UI designer - while reporting to the UX Manager. In practice, I owned the platform end-to-end: leading the competitive analysis, facilitating stakeholder workshops with the client at Big Ideas Learning, making core design decisions across the teacher and student experiences, and presenting across two formal review cycles. The junior designers worked on components and visual execution under my direction.
02. PROBLEM
Two users. One platform. Completely different mental models.
Teachers need dense, structured information: which students attempted an assignment, how they scored, where they stumbled, and what to do next. Students need the opposite: a calm, focused experience that doesn't overwhelm them before they've even attempted a problem.
Existing LMS platforms in the market (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and others) consistently failed at this balance. Their teacher dashboards were data-heavy and difficult to scan. Their student-facing experiences were cluttered and confusing. Both user types suffered from the same root cause: too much information presented without hierarchy or intent.
The design principle that guided every decision:
Right information. Right context. Right time.
03. RESEARCH
Direct user interviews weren't possible in the early stages of the project. Rather than treating this as a blocker, we built a research foundation from three sources: competitive analysis of 3 leading LMS platforms, synthesis of public user feedback from G2 and Capterra, and structured conversations with teachers about what data actually mattered to them and what didn't.
What competitors got wrong
Teacher dashboards were built around data completeness, not data usefulness. Every metric was shown because it could be - not because teachers needed it. The result was visual noise that slowed down the most time-pressured users in the system.
What teachers actually said
When we asked teachers what they needed from reports, the answer was consistent: clarity over comprehensiveness. They didn't want to analyse data. They wanted to know what to do next. That single insight shaped every reporting decision in the product.
What students needed
We couldn't interview students directly, so we went to the people who knew them best: their teachers. Through structured conversations, we built a clear picture of the common pain points: interfaces too busy to navigate, dashboards surfacing data students couldn't act on, and a persistent sense of not knowing what to do next.
The constraint that sharpened us
Working without early user research forced rigour. Every assumption had to be grounded in evidence - competitive data, or teacher input. It built a discipline of designing from signal, not instinct. That's something I'd now build into every project from day one.
04. DESIGN PROCESS
Six phases from requirements to handoff - with one north star throughout: ease of use.
Phase 01
Requirements mapping
Led client discovery sessions and reviewed flow documentation to align on product vision before any design work began.
Phase 02
Secondary research
Competitive analysis of 5 LMS platforms + synthesis of public user feedback from G2 and Capterra.
Phase 03
IA & user flows
Built the IA, defined a role-based permission matrix, and mapped distinct journeys for teachers and students - clarifying where their paths diverge and where they must converge.
Phase 04
Wireframes & iteration
Lo-fi wireframes for dashboard, course player, assignments, grading, and reports. Two layout concepts presented to the client - iterated based on structured feedback.
Phase 05
High-fidelity & prototype
Complete UI screens for all user types. Clickable prototype simulating the full teacher and student journey for stakeholder review and sign-off.
Phase 06
Stakeholder presentation & handoff
Two formal review cycles with the client. Collaborated with the dev lead throughout to validate feasibility before final handoff.
05. SOLUTION
Rather than one interface trying to serve everyone, we designed role-based experiences - each tailored to what that user actually needs to accomplish; unified under a shared design system and a point-of-use architecture.
All screenshots sourced from publicly available myADA Math help documentation. Original design files under NDA.
TEACHER EXPERIENCE
Everything a teacher needs, surfaced where they already are. No jumping between modules.
Home Screen
The entry point for every instructional day. Rather than a dashboard full of options, each course card surfaces exactly two actions - Plan and Present. Teachers orient in seconds and move directly into their workflow. This two-action model was the single biggest navigation simplification from competing platforms.
Assignment Creation
Before touching UI, we mapped the assignment flow through diagramming - what does a teacher already know when they start? What decisions feel natural in sequence? The result was a progressively disclosed settings model: essentials upfront, advanced configuration tucked behind an expandable. Assignments are created directly from the content - no separate module, no context switching.
Reports
The hardest design problem on this project wasn't the most complex feature. It was the reports. Specifically: what data to include, what to leave out, and how to present it so teachers could act on it without opening a spreadsheet.
We asked teachers directly. The answer was unanimous: clarity over comprehensiveness. That informed three distinct reports, each serving a single, specific need.
Gradebook report
A single view of class performance across all courses and assignments. Filterable by status, searchable by student. Class-wide overview to targeted detail in two steps.
Item analysis report
Attempt rate, score range, and average at a glance. The By Question tab breaks down response distribution, average time, and accuracy per question. The By Student tab shows individual responses with teacher feedback attached. Everything needed to act on results, without a spreadsheet.
Progress report
Groups students into Emerging, Proficient, and Advanced in real time. Teachers see who needs attention immediately. No manual scanning of individual scores required.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
For a student already struggling with foundational math, a cluttered interface isn't just a UX problem - it's another obstacle between them and the work. Every decision on the student side was about one thing: reduce friction, build confidence, make it obvious what to do next.
Home Screen
Students enter a focused view of only the courses they're enrolled in. No dashboard cluttered with statistics. No data they can't act on. Just their courses, and a clear path into each one.
Gradebook
A clean record of their own scores - course by course, assignment by assignment - with teacher feedback attached directly to their responses. It mirrors the teacher's gradebook in structure, scoped entirely to that one student. Familiar enough to navigate immediately, personal enough to feel like theirs.
ACCESSIBILITY
myADA Math is an accessibility-first product. The design system was built with a WCAG 2.1 AA-compliant colour palette covering all UI states - default, hover, disabled, error, and focus. Interactive elements were designed with clear focus states and logical tab order for keyboard and screen reader support.
Accessibility wasn't audited at the end. It was the bar every component had to clear before it moved forward.
06. RESULTS
~800k
Students & Teachers
Zero major revision requests at final client sign-off
07. REFLECTION
A complex system that feels simple to use. That's the hardest thing to ship.
For a project of this scope - multi-role LMS, adaptive learning, assessment creation, grading, layered reporting, accessibility requirements - delivering within scope, on schedule, and with minimal revisions at final handoff was itself a meaningful result.
Design without direct user access
Working without early interviews sharpened every assumption. Competitive data, public feedback, and teacher conversations became the research foundation and it held.
Constraints accelerate decisions
No direct user interviews, live client review cadence, tight sprint cycles. Each constraint sharpened instinct for when to push for more information and when to make a principled decision and move.
Reports are a UX problem too
The hardest design work wasn't the most complex feature - it was deciding what not to show. Clarity over comprehensiveness is a design decision, not just a product one.
Connect design to sales and support
Keeping design connected to sales and support is one of the most cost-effective research loops available. It surfaces real-world friction faster than any formal study.
"The thing I'm most proud of isn't any single screen - it's that we shipped a genuinely complex system that feels simple to use."
If I were starting this again, I'd push harder to get even one round of direct student interviews. Our teacher-proxy research was rigorous but filtered. Hearing directly from students struggling with math would have sharpened the emotional design decisions on the student-facing experience.
