Study Plan & Dashboard: Evolving a Study Aid into a Learning Platform
Here’s how I transformed a study tool into a scalable, data-driven dashboard that turned complex workflows into intuitive enterprise experiences.
Context & Problem
The original problem seemed simple: design a tool to help students manage their study time more effectively. But during research and prototyping, I uncovered a larger opportunity. Students didn’t just need better scheduling — they needed a guided, data-driven system that connected goals, progress, and outcomes into one cohesive experience.
This insight reframed the problem to “how do we evolve into a full learning platform that empowers success at scale?”
By shifting the scope, I helped reposition UWorld from being known only as a question bank company into a course-based SaaS platform, opening new business verticals while delivering a polished product to our users.
My Role & Responsibilities
Lead UX & UI Designer
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Responsible for strategy, research, prototyping, and final design.
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Collaborated directly with the CEO, CTO, PMs, content experts, and engineers to align vision and execution.
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Drove the product from initial idea → research insights → multi-phase solution → business approval.
Tools Used:
Adobe XD and Photoshop
July 2023 - September 2023 (3 months)
Case Summary
The Problem
Design a study aid tool to help students manage their time. Students were struggling to balance busy schedules with exam preparation, and the product team wanted a feature to support task organization.
Long term goal: Introduce custom versions of this tool to each product vertical.
The Opportunity
Through research and competitive analysis, I identified a larger need: students didn’t just want scheduling — they needed a guided, data-driven learning framework that could track goals, surface insights, and provide clear next steps. This reframed the scope from “time management” to “learning platform,” unlocking a new revenue stream for UWorld.
The Solution
I led the end-to-end design of the Study Plan & Dashboard, a hub that:
- Offered guided and customizable study plans.
- Integrated performance metrics and progress tracking.
- Simplified workflows into intuitive, actionable dashboards.
This project not only improved user outcomes but also repositioned UWorld from a question bank into a full SaaS learning platform, and directly contributed to my promotion as Lead B2B Designer.
Research & Insights
I conducted competitive analysis to generate feature ideas, and held research interviews to pinpoint the primary pain points our users needed addressed.
Competitive analysis - Identified three critical gaps in competitor offerings:
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Clear goal creation process
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Progress tracking and performance metrics
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Transparent “next steps” overview
User Interviews & Testing:
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Found that students were overwhelmed by overly complex customization.
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Learned that guided pathways created more trust and adoption.
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Validated that users needed at-a-glance dashboards to reduce friction in high-pressure exam prep.
Key Insight:
Students wanted simplification and guidance — not just tools. This meant rethinking the study plan as a core learning experience rather than an add-on.
Designing the Study Plan & Dashboard
As Study Plan became more complex, it became increasingly important to see everything at a glance.
Adding Performance Metrics
We needed a designated space for tracking progress
Customizing your Plan
We wanted to allow users to mark exactly what days they want to study and for how long.
Custom Tasks
We gave users the ability to plan for anything so they could track their entire schedule in one place.
Calendar Tracking: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly view
We allowed users to switch between views and mark items as complete with ease.
Process & Collaboration
I led an iterative design process with close collaboration across leadership and engineering:
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User Flows & Wireframes: Explored guided vs. customizable pathways to balance simplicity and control.
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Interactive Prototypes: Created high-fidelity prototypes to validate flows with users and internal stakeholders.
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Cross-Functional Alignment: Presented solutions directly to the CEO, securing approval to evolve into a full course-based product — a turning point for the business.
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Usability Testing: Iterated on two major flow directions (guided vs. custom) and identified the optimal hybrid solution.
Final Solution
The Study Plan and Dashboard became a multi-faceted learning tool with three distinct approaches:
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Flex Plan (Fast-Track): Guided, lightweight plan for quick ramp-up.
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Curriculum Plan (Structured): Course-driven plan aligning directly with content progression.
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Custom Plan: Fully flexible for advanced users with unique needs.
Each plan provided:
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Performance Metrics: At-a-glance KPIs and progress tracking.
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Customizable Scheduling: Daily, weekly, and monthly views to match different workflows.
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Next-Step Clarity: Students always knew what to focus on next, reducing stress and friction.
The curriculum plan revealed a larger strategic opportunity: by aligning study plans directly with structured content, we could evolve beyond scheduling into a full course-based platform — transforming UWorld from a question bank into a comprehensive learning ecosystem.
Outcome & Impact
Business Impact: Elevated UWorld’s positioning from question bank to learning platform, opening a new revenue stream through course-based products.
User Impact: Usability tests showed a 30% increase in task completion rates when guided flows were introduced.
Organizational Impact: Sparked a shift in roadmap priorities, with leadership greenlighting further course development built on the foundation of the Study Plan.
Career Impact: This project directly led to my promotion as the Lead B2B Designer, recognizing my ability to deliver not just strong UX, but also strategic product vision and executive influence.
Self - Reflection
This project reinforced that senior design work is not about delivering a single feature, but about reframing scope to unlock business and user value.
Insight
What began as a scheduling tool evolved into the foundation for UWorld’s course-based platform. The ability to see beyond the initial ask and guide stakeholders toward a bigger opportunity was as important as the design itself.
Lessons
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Collaboration: Aligning executives, engineers, and content experts around a unified vision required clarity, storytelling, and evidence from user research. Driving consensus across functions became a core part of my role.
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Scalability: By approaching the Study Plan as a system, not a one-off, I created a framework that could extend across product verticals, reducing future design debt and accelerating innovation.
Next Steps
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Extend the Framework: Evolve the Curriculum Plan into a comprehensive course platform with adaptive learning and analytics.
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Apply at Scale: Roll out the Study Plan model across additional verticals (CPA, MCAT, nursing, etc.), reinforcing consistency and scalability.
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Enhance Intelligence: Integrate AI-driven insights to optimize study recommendations and reduce faculty/student workload.
From a study tool to a learning platform — this project redefined a business, advanced my career, and ultimately demonstrated how UX leadership transforms complexity into clarity at scale, shifting not just interfaces but entire company trajectories.