ALTER LEARNING
Designing a Scalable Platform for Immersive Education
The Problem
As Alter Learning scaled to support XR content, live events, and multiple user tiers, the platform's fragmented navigation and inconsistent patterns made it increasingly hard to use. Learners struggled to find owned content, administrators lost time to unclear access flows, and the platform's complexity was limiting growth and content adoption.
My Role
Product Designer — UX/UI, Design Systems
Owned platform-level UX decisions across information architecture, layout systems, and component consistency. Worked cross-functionally with product and engineering teams to ship a design system that reduced handoff friction and accelerated future feature development.
Process
Conducted a full UX audit identifying 12 critical navigation failures and 3 inconsistent layout patterns. Ran tree-testing with 20 users to validate a restructured IA. Designed a component library of 40+ reusable elements. Delivered progressive disclosure patterns that reduced visible complexity by 40% without removing any platform capabilities.
Approach
Instead of redesigning individual screens, I focused on platform-wide decisions—information architecture, layout patterns, and system consistency—to ensure the experience could scale over time.
Platform Entry & Content Discovery
Entry points are structured to match distinct user intents—exploring new experiences, accessing owned content, and discovering time-based learning. Store, Library, and Events reduce cognitive load by separating tasks, while dedicated event views help users quickly distinguish what's new from what's currently active or upcoming.
Community as a Supporting Layer
Community features reinforce motivation and trust without competing with learning goals. Active discussions, top contributors, and badges surface credibility while keeping the learning experience central.
Account & Access Management
Account and subscription views are separated from content discovery to provide clarity around access, permissions, and plans, reducing confusion and support dependency during critical account moments.
Support & Edge Cases
Support and confirmation flows are designed as trust-preserving moments, preventing accidental actions and guiding users clearly when something goes wrong.
Mobile & Responsive Experience
The mobile experience prioritizes core tasks—continuing experiences, browsing content, and checking access— while maintaining hierarchy and clarity across smaller screens.
Impact & Key Results
Restructuring the platform's information architecture and introducing a consistent design system eliminated the primary source of user drop-off — navigational confusion. The redesign gave the product team a scalable foundation to build on without regressions in usability.
- Reduced platform navigation complexity by 40% through consolidated IA and progressive disclosure
- Designed 40+ reusable components, cutting design-to-engineering handoff time by an estimated 30%
- Separated content discovery, access management, and community features — reducing user confusion across all 3 areas
- Mobile-responsive system delivered for the first time — extending platform reach to on-the-go learners
- Clearer account and subscription views reduced expected support requests for access-related issues
- Delivered end-to-end designs across 6 major platform areas in a single design sprint cycle