DRIVE Portal

Award-winning in one day

During the 2016 Pearson Learning Services Technology-wide hackathon, designers, developers, and other professionals came together to build concepts that could benefit Pearson as a whole. Our team's idea: a parent portal application that would give students, parents, and teachers a shared, real-time view of academic progress.

We won for Most Learner-Centric Idea.

From ideation to prototype

The process followed a compressed but complete design loop in a single day:

• Ideation session after framing the design problem
• Sketching to explore structural approaches
• Wireframing to nail down functionality and flow
• Final high-fidelity mockups with a fully functioning Axure prototype

Ideation and information architecture, then sketching

Wireframes to hi-fi in hours

Wireframes establishing the core flow and functionality

Final high-fidelity mockup with functioning Axure prototype

What I learned

• 1A strong problem framing wins hackathons. We didn't just build something cool, we built something that was clearly centered on learners, which resonated with judges immediately.
• 2The compressed design loop reinforced that sketching and wireframing aren't formalities, they're the fastest way to find structural problems before committing to hi-fi.
• 3A functional prototype communicates more than a static mockup ever can. The Axure prototype let us demonstrate the full experience, not just show screens.