CASE STUDY / 01
Product design · EdTech
Hats & Ladders
A career-readiness platform that brings students, educators, employers, and state leaders onto one shared path—without forcing them into the same experience.
UX/UI Product Designer · 2 weeks
THE DESIGN BRIEF
One ecosystem. Four mental models.
The challenge
Career-readiness tools often assume that students, teachers, agencies, and businesses share the same goals. The platform needed to feel immediate and useful to each audience, while still communicating one coherent strategy.
The response
A clickable Figma concept that makes every role feel native: clear student next steps, educator insights, workforce context for agencies, and opportunity pathways for employers.
PROJECT CONTEXT
A shared platform, designed around different realities.
ROLE
Product Designer (UX/UI)
COMPANY
Hats & Ladders · EdTech
DELIVERABLE
High-fidelity clickable Figma prototype
TIMELINE
Compressed · 2 weeks
Career-readiness tools often flatten the priorities of students, teachers, agencies, and business partners into one generic experience. Hats & Ladders was conceived as a connected ecosystem: students need motivation and clear next steps; educators need actionable insight; state partners need workforce-aligned data; and businesses need a simple way to connect opportunities with real student skills.
THE CONSTRAINTS
A high-stakes demo, with no room for drift.
01
Communicate complexity clearly
Make a multi-role platform understandable at a glance for stakeholders who needed a coherent story, not a feature tour.
02
Different roles, one product voice
Tailor information architecture and interaction priorities to four audiences while maintaining one approachable and credible visual system.
03
Deliver at presentation speed
Create a high-fidelity prototype fast enough to support a major client presentation, with limited time for iteration and refinement.
THE APPROACH
Design the story before the screens.
Pitch prototype
first.
I designed the concept in Figma as a polished, clickable walkthrough rather than a collection of isolated screens. Each view was built around a defined feature set and a clear story for its intended audience. The visual language used the South Carolina brand as a foundation, then evolved it for modern UI clarity, stronger accessibility, and a presentation-ready level of finish.
EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Designed for four distinct roles.
The prototype translated the same platform vision into four distinct experiences—so each audience could find the information, actions, and confidence they needed without carrying the cognitive load of everyone else’s workflow.
01
Corporate
Data-rich dashboards help HR teams evaluate skills development, spot momentum, and create reports with confidence.
02
School district
Summary dashboards and configurable reporting let administrators see participation patterns across schools at a glance.
03
Student
A mobile-friendly journey turns career exploration into concrete next steps, progress, and real-world opportunities.
04
State
A statewide lens turns distributed education and workforce signals into clear planning-ready intelligence.
OUTCOME
A presentation-ready prototype with room to grow.
The finished concept made a complex ecosystem immediately legible in a live pitch—showing how one platform could support students, educators, businesses, and public agencies without compromising the needs of any one group.
4
roles
one path