Enterprise Software (B2B / SaaS)

Designing a Scalable Enterprise LMS from Scratch

Replacing a legacy, desktop-only LMS with a search-first platform that works across devices — and actually keeps learners coming back.

Role

Research, Wireframes,
Design System,
Dev Handoff

Team

Product Designer,
2 Product Managers,
5 Engineers

Duration

6 Weeks

Background & Problem

The old LMS made people work to find anything. Course discovery ran on manual browsing and a search that returned inconsistent results, so as the catalog grew, finding the right course got harder, not easier. It was also desktop-only — a problem for a workforce that increasingly wanted to learn on tablets and phones, in the gaps of a working day.

To ground the redesign in something real, I ran a user survey and a competitive analysis of other LMS platforms. Three gaps came back clearly, and they set the direction for everything that followed.

38%

Relied on browsing categories instead of search to find courses.

46%

Wanted to learn across more than one device

Demand for multi-device learning access.

42%

Said course content was hard to navigate and find

Design Strategy

Improve Course Discovery

Improve search experience, introduce clearer categorization, and highlight relevant courses.

Enable Seamless Learning

Support seamless multi-device learning with smooth continuation and a consistent experience across devices.

Increase Engagement

Encourage users to complete courses by introducing certificates and badges, rewarding progress with learning points, and providing clear progress tracking.

Design Goals

Improve Course Discovery

Make courses easy to find Rebuild search, clarify how courses are categorized, and surface relevant content instead of making people dig for it.

Enable Seamless Learning

Let learning move with the user Support picking up where you left off across web, tablet, and mobile, with a consistent experience on each.

Increase Engagement

Give people a reason to finish Reward progress with points and certificates, and make progress visible — so completing a course feels worth it.

Information Architecture

I restructured the platform around a few clear sections, so discovery, active learning, and progress each had an obvious home.

The structure was simplified into key sections to reduce complexity and improve navigation.

The goal was to cut the number of places a user had to look before they found what they needed.

Key User Journey

The core flow follows a learner from finding a course to starting it. Courses stay reachable from both the dashboard and the side navigation, so there's always more than one way in.

Solution 1

Making Courses Easy to Find

A search-first approach allows users to quickly explore relevant courses.Structured results and suggestions guide them to the right content effortlessly.

A global search allows users to quickly find relevant courses by entering keywords, reducing the need to browse through multiple categories.

Together, these features make course discovery faster and more intuitive.

Grouping results into categories enables users to directly access the most relevant section.

Results are grouped by type, so a search surfaces the right section directly, and scalable filters narrow things down by learning type, category, and skill level. Together these turn discovery from a hunt into a quick, predictable step.

Solution 2

Learning Across Devices

Learners can move between web, tablet, and mobile without losing their place. Progress follows them, so a course started at a desk can continue on a phone later — which is what makes it realistic to fit learning into an actual workday rather than carving out dedicated desktop time.

Solution 3

Driving Engagement & Recognition

To give people a reason to keep going, I introduced learning points that can be redeemed for rewards, and certificates that let learners show what they've completed. Paired with clear progress tracking, the aim was to make finishing a course feel recognized rather than invisible.

Project Scope & What's Next

This release focused on the employee learning experience — discovering courses and completing them. The manager side was deliberately scoped out to ship the core experience first, and it's the natural next phase:

Let managers create and publish courses

Add assessment creation and evaluation

Introduce assessment creation and evaluation tools

Let managers track their team's progress

Build analytics and reporting dashboards

Deepen recommendations using richer user data

Outcome & Reflections

The decision that shaped everything was making search the front door, not an afterthought. The old platform buried it and forced people to browse — so the catalog got harder to use as it grew. Search-first gave the redesign a spine: discovery, categories, and filters all worked toward getting a learner to the right course faster.

My involvement ended at handoff, as consulting work usually does, so the client owns the post-launch numbers.