One platform, shouting equally loud about everything.
MyCourses is the academic backbone of RIT, yet students hit stress, confusion, and friction when using it to manage assignments, deadlines, and collaboration. The interface gives a parking notice and a final-project deadline the same weight, so the things that matter slip through the cracks.
Rather than redesign the entire system, I focused on the moments that matter most: checking what's due, submitting with confidence, and collaborating without leaving the platform. When I mapped what students ran into, four problems kept surfacing:
Students weren't failing the work. They were failing to trust the system.
I ran a survey of 15 students alongside interviews and affinity mapping. Two findings reframed the whole project:
The pattern underneath both numbers was submission anxiety, a quiet, constant tax on every student. When I asked what frustrated them most about submitting, one answer dominated:
Design around intent, not features.
Instead of adding complexity, I structured the experience around what a student is actually trying to do when they open MyCourses. It's almost always one of three things, so every decision had to serve one of them with minimal friction.
Check what's due
See the real workload at a glance: what's due, what's in progress, what's done.
Submit with confidence
Upload, preview, confirm, and never wonder whether it actually went through.
Coordinate with others
Discuss, share drafts, and give feedback without leaving the platform.
Three moves that turn a repository into a workspace.
What's due, in one calm view.
Rather than scattering assignments across courses and tabs, a single view shows everything at a glance, so students understand their workload without digging through pages.
- What's due, in progress, and already submitted
- Deadlines surfaced by urgency, not buried
- A calendar that makes the week legible
Turning submission into a reassuring moment.
Students were anxious after submitting because they were never fully sure it went through. The redesign makes every step legible and reversible.
- File preview before you commit
- Clear confirmation with a timestamp
- Undo within 5 seconds, and easy file replacement
Coordination, built into the flow.
Group chats, shared files, and feedback designed directly into the assignment flow. Instead of switching to WhatsApp, email, or Google Docs, it all lives where the work does.
- Discuss assignments with classmates
- Share drafts and leave feedback
- Find peers in the same course
See the flow in motion.
A walkthrough of the redesigned experience, from opening the hub to submitting with confidence.
From a passive repository to an active workspace.
The redesigned MyCourses reduces uncertainty around deadlines, eliminates guesswork during submissions, and supports collaboration without fragmentation, all in one calm, legible home.
Reflection
Good design isn't about making systems more powerful. It's about making them feel more understandable, keeping the user in mind and designing so even a complex platform like an LMS can feel calm and supportive.