Language learning software is a competitive market, with a few established providers strongly positioned to resist challengers and change. In a space primed for evolution, LingroLearning saw an opportunity to bring new value to high school and university language courses with fresh instructional content and methodologies shaped by the latest in linguistic education pedagogy. But the original design of its platform was difficult to navigate for many of its users, so they asked us to create a redesign plan to improve the experience and increase engagement.

The LingroLearning team asked us to identify places to update its platform’s look, feel, information architecture (IA), and content management features to minimize friction and maximize user engagement in the delivery of its unique instructional offerings. They also requested estimates for the level of effort required to implement each recommendation, so they could start moving forward with less complex tasks quickly while preparing the way for more impactful changes down the line.

We conducted a full audit of the platform’s UI, IA, and key user flows, from the perspectives of teachers and students, identifying patterns to rework and individual opportunities to improve the UX. In addition to the areas highlighted by LingroLearning (modernizing UI, simplifying navigation), we also identified a need to update the platform’s content management tools, making it simpler for teachers to create lessons and lesson plans (the core activities of the platform that determine the usage frequency for instructors and students). We organized these insights by category, ranked them according to complexity, and set out to generate high-fidelity design assets illustrating our recommendations for evaluation by LingroLearning’s team.

Ed tech is plagued by outdated-looking software, and LingroLearning wanted to stand out from its slow-to-change competitors. We updated the branding used in the platform – including fonts, colors, and other stylistic elements and conventions – to elevate LingroLearning’s UI to match its innovative, future-focused energy (taking accessibility standards into account in the process).

The icons used throughout the platform had been added at different times in LingroLearning’s evolution, introducing inconsistencies in style and ambiguities in meaning. We reevaluated the goal and appearance of each element in relation to its function and to the updated UI, making adjustments as needed to create a consistent, intuitive iconography system to reinforce the platform’s new navigation pathways and updated aesthetic.

When it comes to creating lessons and activities, LingroLearning offers instructors plenty of options – but in the platform’s original version, non-technical users had difficulty putting those pieces together. We redesigned the content creation interface to surface primary actions (like “add section” and “edit”) and incorporated toasts and help text to help teachers keep track of potential and completed actions within the creation flow.

Both teachers and students had access to summary performance metrics (class-wide for teachers, and on the individual level for students). But LingroLearning’s user research discovered that users didn’t find this information very clear or helpful in its original presentation. We changed the chart types, visual hierarchy, and labeling to give users the most essential information at a glance, with drill-down options to provide depth on-demand as needed.