UI/UX • London School Of Economics
Creating an aligned digital ecosystem bringing clarity and connection to the London School of Economics students worldwide.
Feb 3, 2025
CLIENT
London School of Economics
CLIENT
London School of Economics
CLIENT
London School of Economics
Role
Lead UX & UI
Role
Lead UX & UI
Role
Lead UX & UI
Service
Digital Platform Redesign
Service
Digital Platform Redesign
Service
Digital Platform Redesign
Situation:
Situation:
Situation:
Many students studying with the London School of Economics (LSE) were studying remotely from overseas through regional learning centres, each offering a fragmented digital experience. The existing platforms were inconsistent, hard to navigate, and failed to reflect LSE’s global reputation—leaving students with little reason to engage.
Various screens from regional learning centres show a disjointed user experience and a misaligned brand expression:
Many students studying with the London School of Economics (LSE) were studying remotely from overseas through regional learning centres, each offering a fragmented digital experience. The existing platforms were inconsistent, hard to navigate, and failed to reflect LSE’s global reputation—leaving students with little reason to engage.
Various screens from regional learning centres show a disjointed user experience and a misaligned brand expression:
Many students studying with the London School of Economics (LSE) were studying remotely from overseas through regional learning centres, each offering a fragmented digital experience. The existing platforms were inconsistent, hard to navigate, and failed to reflect LSE’s global reputation—leaving students with little reason to engage.
Various screens from regional learning centres show a disjointed user experience and a misaligned brand expression:
Task:
Task:
Task:
As the UX designer, my task was to create LSE’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in Moodle — something had not attempted before.
Specifically, I was tasked with:
Conduct workshops with key academic and technical staff at LSE to understand desired business requirements.
Gather data from the student cohort to rapidly assess the effectiveness of LSE's current VLE and validate LSE business requirements against student needs..
Reinforce LSE brand by creating an accessible, consistent and useful student dashboard experience that could scale across hundreds of courses.
Balancing student needs for clarity and navigation against organisational push for branded content.
Address the “known unknowns” of Moodle’s design limitations.
Ensuring technical feasibility by working with LSE’s chosen external hosting partner CoSector, the internal LSE tech team and Curio’s internal developers.
As the UX designer, my task was to create LSE’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in Moodle — something had not attempted before.
Specifically, I was tasked with:
Conduct workshops with key academic and technical staff at LSE to understand desired business requirements.
Gather data from the student cohort to rapidly assess the effectiveness of LSE's current VLE and validate LSE business requirements against student needs..
Reinforce LSE brand by creating an accessible, consistent and useful student dashboard experience that could scale across hundreds of courses.
Balancing student needs for clarity and navigation against organisational push for branded content.
Address the “known unknowns” of Moodle’s design limitations.
Ensuring technical feasibility by working with LSE’s chosen external hosting partner CoSector, the internal LSE tech team and Curio’s internal developers.
As the UX designer, my task was to create LSE’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in Moodle — something had not attempted before.
Specifically, I was tasked with:
Conduct workshops with key academic and technical staff at LSE to understand desired business requirements.
Gather data from the student cohort to rapidly assess the effectiveness of LSE's current VLE and validate LSE business requirements against student needs..
Reinforce LSE brand by creating an accessible, consistent and useful student dashboard experience that could scale across hundreds of courses.
Balancing student needs for clarity and navigation against organisational push for branded content.
Address the “known unknowns” of Moodle’s design limitations.
Ensuring technical feasibility by working with LSE’s chosen external hosting partner CoSector, the internal LSE tech team and Curio’s internal developers.
Action - Discovery and Research
Action - Discovery and Research
Action - Discovery and Research
Initial workshops with the academic management team at LSE uncovered their assumptions about the current Virtual Learning Environment, informed by feedback from Academic directors in regional teaching centres:
“I think we need a more consistent design approach to our VLE”
“I think we need more engaging experience for our learners”
“I think we should include pathways to employment or further study”
“I need to create an experience for users to feel part of the LSE community”
These insights helped define the business goals for the project to align with.
Validating assumptions with student research
I conducted a survey of 86 students across multiple countries and time zones to validate client priorities. Insights are based on survey responses rated on a 1–5 importance scale (5 = highest priority).
🧭 4.76 / 5 Importance of accessing course materials
Navigation consistency became the top design priority.
📊 4.5 / 5 Visited the VLE several times a week
Students relied heavily on Moodle for all study activity — clarity and structure were critical.
🎓 3.6 / 5 Interest in career or pathway content
Career relevance is valued, but secondary to learning access.
💬 2 / 5 Engagement with social/community tools
Students saw the VLE as a learning tool, not a social space..
Initial workshops with the academic management team at LSE uncovered their assumptions about the current Virtual Learning Environment, informed by feedback from Academic directors in regional teaching centres:
“I think we need a more consistent design approach to our VLE”
“I think we need more engaging experience for our learners”
“I think we should include pathways to employment or further study”
“I need to create an experience for users to feel part of the LSE community”
These insights helped define the business goals for the project to align with.
Validating assumptions with student research
I conducted a survey of 86 students across multiple countries and time zones to validate client priorities. Insights are based on survey responses rated on a 1–5 importance scale (5 = highest priority).
🧭 4.76 / 5 Importance of accessing course materials
Navigation consistency became the top design priority.
📊 4.5 / 5 Visited the VLE several times a week
Students relied heavily on Moodle for all study activity — clarity and structure were critical.
🎓 3.6 / 5 Interest in career or pathway content
Career relevance is valued, but secondary to learning access.
💬 2 / 5 Engagement with social/community tools
Students saw the VLE as a learning tool, not a social space..
Initial workshops with the academic management team at LSE uncovered their assumptions about the current Virtual Learning Environment, informed by feedback from Academic directors in regional teaching centres:
“I think we need a more consistent design approach to our VLE”
“I think we need more engaging experience for our learners”
“I think we should include pathways to employment or further study”
“I need to create an experience for users to feel part of the LSE community”
These insights helped define the business goals for the project to align with.
Validating assumptions with student research
I conducted a survey of 86 students across multiple countries and time zones to validate client priorities. Insights are based on survey responses rated on a 1–5 importance scale (5 = highest priority).
🧭 4.76 / 5 Importance of accessing course materials
Navigation consistency became the top design priority.
📊 4.5 / 5 Visited the VLE several times a week
Students relied heavily on Moodle for all study activity — clarity and structure were critical.
🎓 3.6 / 5 Interest in career or pathway content
Career relevance is valued, but secondary to learning access.
💬 2 / 5 Engagement with social/community tools
Students saw the VLE as a learning tool, not a social space..
Action - Technical collaboration and feasibility
Action - Technical collaboration and feasibility
Action - Technical collaboration and feasibility
Early collaboration aligned design ambition with technical reality — ensuring features were feasible, performant, and scalable within Moodle’s architecture.
Key workstreams:
Progress tracking:
Visualised total course completion via Moodle’s APIs, optimising data aggregation and caching.Recently accessed courses:
Displayed recently accessed courses.Assessment panel:
Surfaced the next three upcoming assessments using calendar and assignment APIs, formatted for multiple time zones.Announcements:
Defined permissions and grouping rules for global and course-level updates to strengthen community links.
Early collaboration aligned design ambition with technical reality — ensuring features were feasible, performant, and scalable within Moodle’s architecture.
Key workstreams:
Progress tracking:
Visualised total course completion via Moodle’s APIs, optimising data aggregation and caching.Recently accessed courses:
Displayed recently accessed courses.Assessment panel:
Surfaced the next three upcoming assessments using calendar and assignment APIs, formatted for multiple time zones.Announcements:
Defined permissions and grouping rules for global and course-level updates to strengthen community links.
Early collaboration aligned design ambition with technical reality — ensuring features were feasible, performant, and scalable within Moodle’s architecture.
Key workstreams:
Progress tracking:
Visualised total course completion via Moodle’s APIs, optimising data aggregation and caching.Recently accessed courses:
Displayed recently accessed courses.Assessment panel:
Surfaced the next three upcoming assessments using calendar and assignment APIs, formatted for multiple time zones.Announcements:
Defined permissions and grouping rules for global and course-level updates to strengthen community links.
Action - Design and prototyping:
Action - Design and prototyping:
Action - Design and prototyping:
With technical feasibility confirmed, I created a modular design system that brought consistency, accessibility, and a stronger sense of belonging to LSE’s digital learning environment.
Survey data showed students valued quick access to course materials (4.76/5) and assessment information (4.54/5) but struggled with navigation and progress visibility.
This infomred the design of the student dashboard.
Stylised calendar and tagging system to prioritise relevant content:
Branded visual design using imagery, typography, and layout choices that reinforced the LSE identity:
Scalable components designed to support future content and course variations:
With technical feasibility confirmed, I created a modular design system that brought consistency, accessibility, and a stronger sense of belonging to LSE’s digital learning environment.
Survey data showed students valued quick access to course materials (4.76/5) and assessment information (4.54/5) but struggled with navigation and progress visibility.
This infomred the design of the student dashboard.
Stylised calendar and tagging system to prioritise relevant content:
Branded visual design using imagery, typography, and layout choices that reinforced the LSE identity:
Scalable components designed to support future content and course variations:
With technical feasibility confirmed, I created a modular design system that brought consistency, accessibility, and a stronger sense of belonging to LSE’s digital learning environment.
Survey data showed students valued quick access to course materials (4.76/5) and assessment information (4.54/5) but struggled with navigation and progress visibility.
This infomred the design of the student dashboard.
Stylised calendar and tagging system to prioritise relevant content:
Branded visual design using imagery, typography, and layout choices that reinforced the LSE identity:
Scalable components designed to support future content and course variations:
Result:
Result:
Result:
“Curio’s approach was collaborative and flexible, always giving us the time and space to elaborate on our needs as the customer. Their way of working helps us to achieve our ambitious goals for the project.”
— Olly Trumble, Head of University of London Programmes, LSE
The new Moodle template was successfully launched and adopted across LSE
postgraduate courses. Outcomes included:
Improved Student Experience:
Student feedback surveys sent out by LSE showed that students — found courses easier to navigate, more consistent, and more aligned to the quality they expected from LSE.
Scalable & Sustainable Design:
The template reduced build time for new courses, empowered faculty with clearer structures, and lowered ongoing support overhead.
Reputation Alignment:
LSE’s digital environment now reflected its standing as a world-class institution, strengthening its appeal to international students.
“Curio’s approach was collaborative and flexible, always giving us the time and space to elaborate on our needs as the customer. Their way of working helps us to achieve our ambitious goals for the project.”
— Olly Trumble, Head of University of London Programmes, LSE
The new Moodle template was successfully launched and adopted across LSE
postgraduate courses. Outcomes included:
Improved Student Experience:
Student feedback surveys sent out by LSE showed that students — found courses easier to navigate, more consistent, and more aligned to the quality they expected from LSE.
Scalable & Sustainable Design:
The template reduced build time for new courses, empowered faculty with clearer structures, and lowered ongoing support overhead.
Reputation Alignment:
LSE’s digital environment now reflected its standing as a world-class institution, strengthening its appeal to international students.
“Curio’s approach was collaborative and flexible, always giving us the time and space to elaborate on our needs as the customer. Their way of working helps us to achieve our ambitious goals for the project.”
— Olly Trumble, Head of University of London Programmes, LSE
The new Moodle template was successfully launched and adopted across LSE
postgraduate courses. Outcomes included:
Improved Student Experience:
Student feedback surveys sent out by LSE showed that students — found courses easier to navigate, more consistent, and more aligned to the quality they expected from LSE.
Scalable & Sustainable Design:
The template reduced build time for new courses, empowered faculty with clearer structures, and lowered ongoing support overhead.
Reputation Alignment:
LSE’s digital environment now reflected its standing as a world-class institution, strengthening its appeal to international students.
