About
In 2014, Blackboard was one of the biggest educational software companies in the world, but held a poor reputation. Their products and services grew through feature bloat and poorly planned M&A activity. The company needed a restart, but massive and complex contracts limited the ability to quickly pivot.
Overview
4 year duration
Education sector
We engaged in contextual inquiry—a form of in-context, immersive interview—in order to understand and empathize with students, teachers, and parents of varying levels and experiences.
Blackboard’s revised mission focus was to continually reimagine education for a new generation of learners and teachers. To support this mission, we double-down on product design: on producing beautiful, easy to use software that helps students succeed in school, and helps educators better do their job.
After research, iterative design, and rigorous testing, the company created a set of tools that were intuitive, efficient, and customizable, enabling educators to deliver engaging, personalized learning experiences to their students. By prioritizing the needs of their users and incorporating feedback throughout the development process, the company was able to achieve a high level of adoption and satisfaction among their target audience, cementing their position as a trusted and innovative provider of educational technology solutions.
The brand change was successful. The biggest KPI was increasing sales and retention, but the most exciting was watching the brand gain traction with learners. The app-store reviews jumped from the low 2.Xs to 4.6. With student adoption comes increased learning and educational efficacy.
Research & Insights
We conducted contextual inquiries and participatory design sessions with 50 participants including students, faculty, and parents.
50
Participants
20
Students
20
Faculty
10
Parents
We also administered an online survey to
students with questions about their academic experience.
Would you characterize yourself as a "traditional" or "non-traditional" student?
Traditional
Non-traditional
Which word best describes how you feel about your overall college experience thus far?
Happy
346
Challenged
305
Excited
204
Anxious
80
Confused
29
Scared
19
Following the research, the research team synthesized the data into a series of themes and visualizations.
Based on our research we pushed for a simple but critical pivot for the company: to build products and services for learners to support their academic journeys versus building features for administrators to better manage learning management systems.
New Brand Approach
Blackboard’s revised mission focus was to continually reimagine education for a new generation of learners and teachers.
To support this mission, we doubled-down on product design: producing beautiful, easy to use software that helps students succeed in school, and helps educators better do their job.
Welcome to New School
To make this approach strategy successful we created a visual design language we called “New School” as an ode to a new breed of design, one intended to showcase our commitment to learners and to world-class product development.
New Products & Features
Through a combination of user research, iterative design, and rigorous testing, the company was able to create a set of tools that were intuitive, efficient, and customizable, enabling educators to deliver engaging, personalized learning experiences to their students.
Go-to Market Success
Before
After
Over four years, Blackboard’s refreshed brand and product strategy began to show material success in the market and with users.
A primary venue for the new rollout was at the annual BbWorld conference. Instead of simply showing roadmapped features, we showed a map of features to research findings, and illustrated how these new capabilities would support learners.
The brand change was successful.
The biggest KPI was increasing sales and retention, but the most exciting was watching the brand gain traction with learners. The app-store reviews jumped from the low 2.Xs to 4.6. With student adoption comes increased learning and educational efficacy.
