myCourses Redesign
UX Design and Product Design
LMS & SAAS Design, User-Centered Design,
Design System, Interaction Design
myCourses is a redesign of an academic course management platform, focused on making course content, assignments, and progress easier for students to navigate and manage.
More than 65% of enrolled students reported difficulty navigating course content and assignments. Important information is spread across different sections, progress is difficult to track, and students have little guidance on what needs their attention next. Instructors also lack a single view to track student progress and course activity.
The redesign organizes course information around clearer navigation, visible progress, and upcoming priorities. It introduces a unified calendar, progress tracking, and a consistent design system to help students manage their coursework and instructors monitor learning activity.
THE GOAL
The goal of this project was to give students direct access to course content and assignments in fewer steps, create a clear structure for planning coursework and managing deadlines, organize the homepage around weekly tasks and upcoming assignments, and make course progress visible so students can easily track completed and remaining work.
PROBLEM INTRODUCTION
Students struggle to keep track of assignments and course activity because three parts of the experience break down.
Lack of content hierarchy: Course materials, announcements, and assignments compete for the same attention. Students have difficulty identifying what is important and what requires action first.
Confusing navigation: Finding a specific module or assignment requires moving through multiple sections without clear wayfinding. This adds unnecessary steps to common academic tasks.
No continuity between sessions: myCourses does not clearly show where students left off or what they should continue next. Each return requires students to find their place and review their course activity again.
USER RESEARCH & TESTING
ANALOG RESEARCH
Research was conducted with 50 current myCourses users — undergrad and graduate students across design, engineering, and humanities programs at RIT. The survey covered five key areas: platform usage frequency, material accessibility, deadline management, progress tracking, and collaboration tool effectiveness.
SYNTHESIS AND FINDING KEY INSIGHTS
Using the insights gathered from research, I identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats linked with pursuing a redesign in this problem space. The data revealed a clear disconnect: students visit the platform frequently but route critical tasks — deadline tracking, assignment planning — to external tools because myCourses fails to surface that information clearly. The most urgent gaps aligned directly with the three redesign objectives: content access, progress tracking, and assignment submission.
USER TESTING
I conducted contextual interviews and task-based usability tests with 5 students drawn from design, product, and research backgrounds. Testing surfaced three recurring failure patterns: students losing their place mid-session, missing deadlines because assignment due dates were buried, and abandoning the submission flow from confusion about where to upload.
OBJECTIVES
One click submissions, deadline countdowns, and direct professor contact simplify assignment management.
Progress tracking and color coded course card help students monitor coursework.
03 SUBMITTING ASSIGNMENTS
What’s due and when!
02 PROGRESS TRACKING
Know where you stand!
01 CONTENT ACCESS
Never miss a place, remember where you left and plan for tomorrow!
Students access weekly assignments, deadlines, and course content in one task focused homepage.
USER RESEARCH & TESTING
Two core user flows were designed to address the primary pain points identified in research: How students access and progress through course content, and how instructors monitor and manage their learners.
User Flow I streamlines access to course content through filtering options, scheduled notifications, clear status indicators, and weekly content previews — giving students a clear path forward at all times.
User Flow II focuses on understanding progress tracking and long-term engagement: How students monitor completion, how instructors view class-wide analytics, and how both groups use the calendar system for planning.
SCOPING THE PRODUCT
To scope the redesign, I mapped each student need using the MoSCoW framework, separating essential features from those that could be introduced later.
The journey map helped define five core features around the moments that matter most. When students log in between classes, the dashboard should answer three questions in under 60 seconds: What is due? What have I submitted? Where did I leave off? Features outside this core flow were prioritized as Should, Could, or Would, keeping the first release focused on the most common student challenges.
UI EXPLORATION
The UI was shaped by four principles: Time, Focus, Aim, and Target.
Time surfaces deadlines, recent activity, and upcoming work.
Focus uses modular layouts to keep attention on one task at a time.
Aim uses progress indicators to show completion at a glance.
Target keeps the most important action easy to reach.
These principles informed the card layouts, progress rings, grids, and timeline views used across the interface.
Each screen was evaluated against the project goals and refined through usability testing.
KEY FEATURES
Interactive Course Cards with Progress Tracking
Course cards provide quick access to favorites, bookmarked content, and detailed course views with resource links.
The progress bar visually tracks course completion, complemented by a simplified, playful design for an intuitive and engaging experience.
Unified Communication and Smart Search
Smart communication and
search tools for efficient student interaction and access.
Weekly Task Overview
Displays upcoming tasks
and deadlines for streamlined academic planning.
Assignment Tracker and One-Click Submission
Track deadlines with a live countdown, submit assignments instantly, and connect with professors when needed.
Color-Coded Calendar for Course Deadlines
Students easily identify which courses have tasks or assignments due on specific dates.
This visual aid simplifies deadline management, ensuring students stay organized and focused on their academic responsibilities.
Upcoming Events Tracker with Task Management
The upcoming events section provides color-coded tasks and deadlines, allowing students to bookmark, highlight, or add tasks to their calendar.
Quick Access Tools
Students can ccess Google Drive, RIT Portal, and Help via navigation bar.
Simplified Course Details
& Resource Links
Offers assignment updates and descriptions along with quick links to key course resources, making course navigation more straightforward.
USER TESTING & FEEDBACK
PROJECT RECAP
This design significantly enhances the student user experience by addressing three critical challenges: fragmented course material access, inefficient assignment management, and disorganized progress tracking.
By centralizing course resources, simplifying submissions, and improving visual clarity, students can better manage deadlines, prioritize tasks, and stay informed about their academic progress.
These improvements reduce stress, enhance productivity, and create a more supportive and efficient learning environment.
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20∞ designed at midnight, perfected by dawn!