To help StrongMind specifically define their requirements for success, we held a one-day strategy workshop focused on users and their goals. In the workshop, we created high-level journey maps for the core user personas - students, teachers, and parents - and through group sketching exercises defined 16 screens from those maps that we could design and prototype to give life to user needs and desires while adhering to StrongMind’s brand standards. Our goal was to curate the user experience based on each individual’s interests and needs.

We wanted to give them the power to personalize their learning experience by selecting their interests, suggesting different resources that align to those interests, and helping them execute based on those needs. Dashboards also allowed users to see an overview of student progress, and manage next steps with updated views of relevant data and to-do items. It was all in the service of helping students prepare for what would come next in their lives.

In addition to building community, StrongMind wanted to drive alignment. Teachers responsible for creating educational paths for students need to make sure the curriculum aligns with state standards. That’s why we focused our efforts on building the concept of a Course Builder module to help educators start with the basics of a subject and state and then get recommendations on the applicable standards that have to be met. This allowed us to build the option for AI to generate recommendations that could then be tweaked and fine-tuned by users so they weren’t starting from scratch. We wanted to give users the power to seamlessly cross-reference and check off the requirements of standards while building their courses.

At the end of the day, StrongMind needed alignment on what the future could look like. They needed the confidence that they knew where to take their online platform next with visual designs around which they could build a clear product strategy. We helped them create that future state vision based on core user needs and goals. As we’ve seen time and again, a clear vision with viable prototypes and designs allow our clients to iterate faster toward real solutions. We provided an outside perspective laser-focused on the user experience that helped the StrongMind team see how the needs of its users could be addressed in real and tangible ways. The user flows we helped them create gave them a plan and roadmap to make sure they took every user's needs into account and didn’t let anything slip through the cracks as they planned and designed solutions for the big picture. StrongMind is intentional about helping students succeed without feeling intimidated. We’re proud of the work we’ve done to help them in that mission by showing students how they’re succeeding and the steps they need to take next to continue doing so.