UX Design Optimization

Goal: Improve graduation rates, student pace, portfolio quality, and hired rates within constraints of existing resources

Outcomes: Increased graduation and hiring rates, improved student pace, and elevated portfolio quality, as well as improved satisfaction of students and educators

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

Role
Lead Instructional Designer, Project Manager, Product Manager, Editor

Project
UX Design Program Optimization

Program Length
6-9 months

Program Goal
Reskill beginners into job-ready UX Design professionals

Project Duration
6 months (across two phases)

Stakeholders
VP of Education Operations, Director of Program Operations, Head of Instructional Design, Program Manager, Immersion Program Manager, Career Services

Tools & Platforms
Custom LMS (GitHub), Looker, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Office Suite, SharePoint, Atlassian Confluence, Jira

Job Guarantee
Students would receive a tuition reimbursement if they did not get a job within six months of graduating

PROBLEM

The original program was high-touch, but as it scaled 3X+, the support model and curriculum lagged behind. Graduation rates were down, students stalled at the portfolio section, and hiring outcomes were suffering. My research uncovered several key problems:

  • Curriculum was bloated from years of piecemeal edits

  • Poor portfolio quality made it difficult for students to graduate and get hired

    • Students weren’t taught visual design but portfolios required it

    • Students lacked strong coding skills, and were required to code their portfolio

  • Grading standards were inconsistent, leading to:

    • Long grading cycles (often 10+ rounds)

    • Conflicting, subjective feedback

    • A high volume of grading disputes (20+ per month)

  • Educator training did not scale with enrollment growth so support was inconsistent

  • There weren’t enough resources for a full redesign

The result: portfolio bottlenecks, student dropouts, lost revenue, and growing dissatisfaction—all while we operated under a job guarantee that required high standards.

PROCESS

  • Reviewed entire curriculum to focus on high-impact incremental improvements

  • Interviewed internal stakeholders and educators to understand grading and training inconsistencies

  • Drew on experience to advocate for foundational changes to educator operations

  • Used the RICE method to prioritize changes into two implementation phases

  • Managed the project end-to-end, including editing, proofing, and uploading directly to GitHub

SOLUTIONS

Phase 1: Fast Fixes Within Existing Resources

  • Removed outdated topics and bloat from years of edits

  • Cut the requirement for HTML/CSS/JavaScript portfolio coding

  • Secured free student access to a leading portfolio platform

  • Created a 75-item rubric to align student and grader expectations

Phase 2: Structural Curriculum Upgrades

  • Introduced visual design training to address core skills gap

  • Allowed students to begin building their portfolios earlier in the program

  • Gave students the freedom to choose any portfolio platform

  • Added exemplars and trained a dedicated grading team to ensure consistent portfolio evaluation

OUTCOMES

  • Portfolio grading disputes dropped from 20/month to 0

  • Grading rounds reduced from 10+ to just 3

  • Student pace increased by 10% after Phase 1

  • Graduation and hiring rates improved by 20%

  • Portfolio quality and student satisfaction improved significantly

Over time, leadership allocated resources for the full program redesign I had been advocating for.