Prioritizing Early Learners
Impact
15% Decrease
in Bounce Rate
2x Increase
in User Session Duration
Challenge
The website serves two audiences: children in grades K-5 (ages 4 to 10) and their accompanying parents. The goal was to create a site that could engage young users browsing on their own while still providing detailed information for when their parents are available.
I faced the challenge of building this without engineering support and needed the site to be fully responsive since kids often use smaller devices like phones and tablets. This project also had to be balanced alongside my regular day-to-day responsibilities.
Role
Web/Interactive Designer
Tools
Adobe CC, Sketch, Wix
The original homepage for the Student Connection site
Approach
I began by researching similar sites aimed at children and government content. Most government-related sites were outdated or poorly maintained, so I studied children-adjacent websites like those about animals to find inspiration. I also analyzed the current site to identify strengths and weaknesses.
The key findings included the need for vibrant colors, interactive elements to keep attention, and improved information architecture. The old site suffered from poor navigation where all links were dumped on the homepage without logical grouping.
Starting with wireframes, I focused on fixing navigation and experimented with branding elements like a logotype and favicon. The agency’s branding palette was too restrictive for this project, so I adapted colors from the original site. I then created high-fidelity wireframes to test the website builder and iterated on page structure to balance consolidation and separation of content.
Throughout development, I worked within the builder’s limitations, adapting designs for responsiveness and accessibility. I integrated built-in features to make unique but consistent pages that fit the site’s visual identity.
Result
After internal testing, the new site was published. Feedback from users praised the improved presentation, and data shows interactive quizzes are especially popular. SEO tools in the website builder helped improve discoverability, and the old site now redirects to the new one. The updated platform is better positioned for future improvements based on usage data.
