The EdTech Ecosystem
I led the design to improve the EdTech ecosystem, streamlining interactions between EdTech partners, school administrators, and educators increasing opportunities for LTI & Channel Partners
Client
Instructure
Sector
EdTech
Role
Lead Designer
When
Q3-4, 2024
Duration
6 months
01
Context & Challenges
Context
The acquisition of LearnPlatform fragmented Instructure’s existing LTI product libraries, dispersing them across three separate locations: the Emerging AI Marketplace, the Edu App Center, and LearnPlatform’s Learn Community Library. This created a significant disconnect and a lack of a single source of truth for all LTI tools.
Challenges
An unmanageable manual process across three existing frameworks made it impossible to establish a single source of truth for product libraries.
With three separate, manually-maintained frameworks in place, a significant disconnect existed between how product libraries were managed and where a single source of truth for those products could be found.
02
Problem & Solution
The Problem: A Limited Library
Our three existing libraries made it difficult for administrators, educators, and partners to effectively discover and mange their edtech tools.
The Challenge: A Scalable Ecosystem
Our challenge was to design a compelling and modular EdTech library that would better support these users. We asked, “How might we create a scalable EdTech library that provides intuitive discovery and supports our user ecosystem between Admins and EdTech Partners.”
The Solution: Retire existing libraries and build a single source of truth
Our solution was grounded in three key principles:
- Seamless Integration: We designed a single, intuitive product library that works seamlessly across Instructure’s LearnPlatform, Canvas, and Partner Portal.
- Accessibility & Scalability: By incorporating the Instructure UI as a baseline, we ensured accessibility compliance and created a modular foundation for future growth.
- Mobile-First Design: We took a mobile-first approach to ensure the interface is responsive and accessible on any device.
03
Discovery & Process
Continuous discovery research
is at the core of our process, and it was instrumental in revealing a critical pain point: both Institution Administrators and EdTech Providers lacked a streamlined way to interact within the EdTech ecosystem. Administrators and educators struggled to access clear, factual information about educational tools, while providers lacked an intuitive way to manage their own products.
To address this, we adopted a user-centered process:
Interviews → Personas → User Stories → User Flows
We began by conducting extensive interviews with our users to understand their needs. For Administrators and Educators, we focused on how they currently vet and procure LTI data. For EdTech Partners, we investigated how they prefer to manage interactions with potential purchasers.
To synthesize our findings, we used AI to help consolidate our data and generate user personas. This enabled our team to leverage empathy to guide our design process and minimize errors during validation, ensuring our solutions were grounded in the real-world needs of our users.
04
Ideation & Development
Ideation
With discovery complete, we began translating our research into actionable user flows. This process was a collaborative effort between design and project management, allowing us to align specific page functionality with the intended user outcome.
Development
To stay on a tight delivery schedule, we rapidly created L3 mockups. These screens were crucial for early collaboration with our engineering team, ensuring our design intentions were technically feasible before moving into development.
05
Delivery
Final Development
Our team used this project as an opportunity to rethink and improve our core processes. We began by spending several weeks establishing a foundational, scalable, and organized workflow for the marketplace. Given the complexity of the design system, a key priority was bridging the communication gap between design and engineering. To achieve this, we heavily leveraged the Instructure UI Design System and documented our processes to ensure a seamless hand-off and collaboration.
Future-Forward Design
We designed the EdCo Marketplace with a clear future state in mind. Our work ensures that the platform can grow alongside our business needs and marketing efforts, giving our EdTech partners a strong voice within the Instructure ecosystem and enable communication between admins and partners.
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