ASCD
Empowered Educators Empower Students.
I redesigned the ASCD platform to improve usability and engagement, introducing intuitive navigation, filtering, and annotation features that streamlined workflows and enhanced how educators interact with and discover resources.
ASCD is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting educators with the tools, resources, and professional development they need to excel. With a mission to inspire excellence in teaching and leadership, ASCD offers online courses, publications, and resource hubs tailored to the evolving needs of education professionals worldwide, promoting equity and excellence in learning environments.
Role
UX/UI Designer
Team
2 UX Designers
1 Project Manager
1 Business Developer
3 Engineers
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Adobe Suite, Invision
Timeline
5 months (Dec 2020 - April 2021)
About ASCD
ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is a non-profit organization founded in 1943 with the mission of providing tools for all educators including superintendents, teachers, principals, and professors.
Problem
Educators found it difficult to locate resources on the ASCD platform
Educators and administrators reported frustrations when navigating the ASCD platform. Our user interviews revealed that the resource library lacked intuitive categorization, making it challenging for users to locate specific teaching materials. Analytics showed a 60% drop-off rate on the resource search page, confirming that users were abandoning their searches due to frustration.
The business goal was to improve resource discoverability, thereby increasing user engagement and retention on the platform.
UX Audit
Research goal: Understand the user frustration with navigating resources and identify content engagement patterns
A UX audit of the existing site revealed significant challenges. Over the years, an accumulation of content pages had cluttered the site and weakened the brand identity. This clutter also led to a confusing and frustrating navigation experience, making it difficult for users to find the information they needed. As a result, the brand began losing users to newer, more streamlined competitors in the market.
Key Findings
Simple
Streamlined Navigation
Simplify navigation with intuitive, user-focused labels
Seamless Transitions
Ensure smooth user experiences across subdomains, minimizing disruptions or jump off points
Reduce Clutter
Highlight relevant content and remove underperforming elements to reduce noise
Current Pages on ASCD
Content Types on ASCD
User Journeys on ASCD
User Research Findings
Users:
Want to easily find what they are looking for
Want to come back to read article
Want the ability to save or share articles easily
We want to answer
How do the users want to consume content? How do we want them to consume content?
How might we increase engagement with users so that they come back daily/weekly?
How can we most effectively onboard new members?
How can we shape users habits so it benefits the business as well as the users’ learning goals?
Challenges
Confusing navigation due to excessive pages and unclear labels.
Overwhelming and lengthy articles, especially for mobile users.
Low user retention (8% return users)
Broken links and poor intentional content linking
Goal
Design a tool that helps users effectively engage with long-form content, making it easier to read, navigate, and interact with. Simultaneously, the tool should address the business objective of increasing user retention by encouraging users to return to the platform daily for ongoing engagement.
Guiding UX Principles
Based on the insight from speaking to existing ASCD users and the UX audit of the pages, these are the principles we followed when creating our solutions.
Delightful
Visual Consistency
Incorporate icons, illustrations, and patterns to create a cohesive visual experience
Personalize
Incorporate icons, illustrations, and patterns to create a cohesive visual experience
Engaging Tone & Voice
Establish a distinctive tone and voice to better connect with users and reinforce the brand
Information Architecture
We started by creating a detailed user flow to map the entire experience—from accessing an article to exploring the site, viewing video content, and completing the subscription process. This flow helped us identify the key pages that required attention and improvement.
Wireframes
As we developed the wireframes, we took a deeper dive into refining crucial elements such as intuitive navigation, ensuring design consistency across the platform, and introducing features like personalized learning tools. These additions aimed to support users in building effective learning habits while improving overall engagement with the platform.
Features
Streamlined Navigation
Visual Consistency
New Feature
Over 30 topics
Updated and simplified ‘topics’
Users had voiced concerns of 'confusing labelling', 'too many links', and 'not sure what topic this is'. So instead of topic categories that are too specific and non intuitive like 'building radical justice and equity' and 'social and emotional learning', we grouped the topics in more general and easy to understand buckets like 'equity' and 'curriculum'
Previously, “Topics” was the first menu item, featuring a list of most-viewed topics. However, research showed users preferred starting with content types (e.g., blogs, books, videos) and refining by topic later. We reorganized the navigation to prioritize content types, streamlining the user journey and making it more intuitive.
Old Navigation Style - Topic flow
The new navigation has an updated hierarchy of grouping; Resources, Events, Services. In order to assist users when they do want to filter the material, we placed suggested filter guides in the search suggestions (search by: topic, grade, subject). This update allows for topic to be part of the search flow, which suites the users’ journey better - focusing on the content first.
Intentional
Enhanced Search & Filters
Optimize search functionality with refined filters for better usability
Improved Copy
Craft clear, engaging copy for landing pages, microinteractions, and CTAs
Subtle Membership Prompts
Encourage membership sign-ups without overwhelming users
Feature 1: Streamlined Navigation
We revamped the topics navigation to better align with user behaviour. ASCD features over 30 topics, many with lengthy and complex names.
Feature 2 - Visual Consistency
The previous website was full of dead end links, outdated designs, and overall lacked design consistency. This created friction and confusion for the user that stumbles upon these pages because of the drastic difference in appearance.
Membership
Store
Feature 3 - New Reading Feature
Lots of ASCD users voiced concerns that on content on ASCD is hard to find, the long articles just feel like a 'wall of text' and that it is hard to navigate through an overwhelming amount of resources on the site. Research backed up the complaints and showed that there are 75k live pages, most of which are archived pages, and 85% of the pages are underperforming. ASCD users, who regularly consume large amounts of reading material, needed a more engaging and manageable way to interact with content. We explored different ways to create a user first experience that makes long written content easier to digest and navigate.
Competitor Audit
Through our research on long-form content features, we looked at platforms with long form content (blogs, article, books, document app, etc) offering interaction options for written content. Most provided basic functionality like saving or bookmarking articles, highlighting sections, or leaving comments for the author. However, we identified a gap: users lacked the ability to personalize the content as they engaged with it. Features like taking notes directly on the article or sharing a specific section with a friend were missing. These insights guided us to prioritize tools that allow users to make the content their own, enhancing engagement and usability.
Building on our competitor analysis, we identified that enabling users to take notes and highlight text, much like they would on paper, could significantly improve content retention and engagement.
New Navigation Style - Search & Topics
Books & Publications
Navigation
A common complaint we got from user research was that overall there was too much content, it was hard to find the pages/links they needed and that the overall clutter made the site overwhelming. The inconsistent designs contributed to the feeling of clutter and overwhelm. We collaborated with a design agency for a new brand style.
We collaborated with a design agency for branding updates. The apple logo mark represents knowledge and education, a universal symbol. The rounded elements, geometric shapes and colour add to a new fresh on ASCD, while speaking to ASCD's mission of diversity, equity and inclusion.
we applied the updated design styles as well as adding visual hierachy between each content blocks, including prominent buttons with each component to make scrolling through events pages easier.
The new ASCD Notes feature lets users interact with content seamlessly. By selecting a passage and holding it down, users access the Notes/Highlight dialog. Choosing “Add Note” opens a sliding Notes Sheet with the selected passage displayed and a field to enter their note. Once saved, the passage is highlighted, and the Notes Sheet allows users to view and scroll through all their notes. A snackbar at the bottom indicates the total number of notes made, while numbered highlights provide clear visual organization.
Notes & Highlights Flow
Highlighting follows a similar process. Selecting “Highlight” in the dialog applies a distinct color to the passage for easy differentiation from notes. Users can tap a highlighted passage to edit or delete it, maintaining full control over their interactions. These features create a more dynamic and personalized reading experience for ASCD users.
The desktop view offers an enhanced user experience, allowing users to view both the document and their notes side by side. As the notes slide in from the right, they seamlessly integrate into the interface, enabling users to reference or edit their notes without losing sight of the document. This layout ensures a streamlined workflow, making it easier to engage with content and annotations simultaneously.
The Notes feature is exclusively available to ASCD members, with all notes saved directly in their profiles, encouraging users to become members. This functionality enhances the reading experience by allowing users to annotate and highlight content, making it easier to track important information and revisit key points. The integration of notes and highlights fosters a more interactive and personalized learning journey, motivating users to return to the platform, continue their learning, and stay engaged with ASCD's resources over time. This feature not only adds value for members but also drives ongoing user engagement.
Results from the project
In the month after its launch
Pageviews per user session increased 25%,
users are more engaged with the website and its content.
Bounce rates decreased by 13%,
user experience has become more enjoyable and efficient