Horizon Learning had a product people relied on but struggled to enjoy using. Four weeks, a full platform redesign, and one clear mandate: make it feel as good as the teaching it supports. I came in as the sole designer, working closely with their product lead to move quickly without cutting corners.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Duration
4 Weeks
Scope
Framer Build
Client
EdTech
Challenge
Horizon Learning had been built incrementally over four years features added when needed, UI patched rather than rethought, design decisions made under pressure and never revisited. By the time I joined, the platform had become a layered accumulation of good intentions that didn't add up to a coherent experience. Educators were spending the first ten minutes of every session just navigating to the right place.
Approach
I started with a two-day UX audit before touching any design work. I mapped every screen, documented every navigation pattern, and flagged every point where the interface asked more of the user than it needed to. From there, I ran three interviews one with a full-time educator who used the platform daily, and two with students at different stages of their courses. The insights were consistent: people knew where they wanted to go, they just couldn't get there without friction. The redesign was built around a single principle content first, everything else second.
Outcome
The redesigned platform feels quieter and more deliberate. Educators described it as feeling like the interface "trusts them" they're not being guided through every micro-decision, just given clear access to what they need. The component system gave the internal team a foundation they could build on consistently for the first time, new features had somewhere coherent to plug into. The redesign didn't just fix existing problems; it gave the product a design language it had never had before.
