01
Audience declared, then inferred.
First login asks for the audience role with a one-tap question. Later visits infer from behavior and reconfirm at the edges. The personalization model is honest about how it knows.
Certiport North Star
·
Pearson VUE · Platform IA
Many audiences, one platform, aligned around a testable three-year North Star.
I co-led Certiport’s three-year North Star sprint and, as sole designer, converted its decisions into a tested multi-persona Figma prototype and phased roadmap for students, educators, professionals, administrators, and proctors. The broader platform program reduced user friction by approximately 65% at a scale of more than 200,000 new students each month.
// BEFORE / AFTER
From journey synthesis to a clearer candidate portal direction.
// RoleSenior Product Designer
// ScopeVision · IA · prototype · roadmap
// SurfaceDesktop + mobile web
// HorizonThree-year North Star
// UsersStudents · educators · admins · proctors
// StatusVision · tested prototype · phased roadmap
65%Less friction across the
broader platform program
broader platform program
200K+New students
each month
each month
TestedMulti-persona
Figma prototype
Figma prototype
01
// Context map
One portal, three audiences, seven connected systems.
The portal is a hub. Behind it sit the marketing site, the candidate profile, transcripts, digital badges, scheduled exams, prep materials, and a help center anchored by a Virtual Assistant. Each audience uses the same seven systems differently. The map below traces what each one needs and where.
FIGURE 01
// Certiport North Star ecosystem
Three audience lanes converging on seven shared systems
Each audience enters with different intent, lands on the dashboard, and threads through a different subset of the shared systems. The redesign personalized the dashboard surface to that intent.
Shared system
Conversational entry (PVA)
Personalized hub
// READ AS
The hub had to do triage. The seven systems were not the problem on their own. The problem was that all seven competed for the same homepage real estate. Personalization moved the right tile to the front for the right audience.
02
// The problem
Several audiences with different jobs, one front door trying to serve all of them.
Most visitors were trying to reach a task, but the dashboard did not recognize why they had arrived. Students needed certification progress and next actions, educators needed learner and course context, administrators needed operational access, and proctors needed a direct route to exam delivery. A generic hierarchy forced every audience to translate the organization’s structure into their own work.
Accessibility errors were already present and documented. The redesign had to address WCAG criteria for color contrast, focus order, keyboard navigation, and screen reader semantics as part of the design, not as a final pass.
03
// Research
Research signals organized around the jobs the shared homepage could not prioritize.
The research combined analytics, navigation feedback, support signals, and stakeholder interviews across content, customer success, marketing, operations, product, and engineering. The synthesis surfaced the tension between shared platform systems and the different goals, language, permissions, and next actions each audience needed.
Students wanted direct access to exam status, preparation, progress, and the next useful action. Research theme · navigation and task clarity
The reframe was straightforward. The homepage was not only a marketing page. It was a task index, and different audiences needed different tasks at the top.
04
// Sprint cadence
Five days, five artifacts, one decision per day.
The redesign ran as a Google Ventures-style five-day design sprint. Each day produced one artifact and ended with one explicit decision. The cadence let me bring in stakeholders at the right friction point and avoid the late-stage rework that often damages IA projects.
FIGURE 02
// Sprint architecture
Five-day sprint with one artifact and one decision per day
The sprint used a protected cadence where each day's output gated the next step.
// READ AS
The five-day shape protected design integrity. Day 1 confirmed the right tasks, and Day 5 validated the direction with users. Days 2 through 4 were where the design happened, with the right stakeholders involved at the right time.
05
// Design response
Six interaction decisions made one portal serve three audiences.
02
Dashboard surfaces task, not section.
The top of the dashboard shows the next thing the audience needs to do, such as schedule an exam, view cohort progress, or renew a badge. It does not make seven section tiles compete for attention.
03
Nav reduced from 5 levels to 3.
The IA tree got flatter, and most journeys became reachable in two clicks. Audience-specific subnavigation appears only when the audience is confirmed.
04
Virtual assistant as conversational entry.
The Pearson Virtual Assistant sits in the help system and also appears on the dashboard as "ask anything." It handles routine questions about when, where, and how, so the main UI does not have to anticipate every variant.
05
Accessibility built into the design, not bolted on.
Color contrast, focus order, keyboard reachability, and screen reader semantics were designed at the wireframe stage and documented per component.
06
Prep materials surface from the badge.
Professionals planning recertification land on their badge, where prep materials appear in context instead of inside a separate prep section.
06
// Architecture deep-cut
Per-audience surface map across all seven systems.
| System | B2C Learner | Educator | Professional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Program landing pages | Educator program overview | (de-emphasized) |
| Profile | Identity + contact | Identity + institution | Identity + credentials |
| Transcripts | Score history | Cohort score visibility | Lifetime record |
| Badges | Path to first badge | Cohort badge dashboard | Manage + recertify |
| Exams | Upcoming + scheduling | Cohort exam calendar | Recert scheduling |
| Prep | Top of dashboard | Classroom materials | Surfaced from badge |
| Help + PVA | Persistent · "ask anything" | Educator-aware FAQ | Recert-aware FAQ |
07
// Validation
The multi-persona prototype turned strategy into something people could evaluate.
// VALIDATION · FINDING → RESPONSE → STATUS
// Finding// Design response// Prototype
Audience selection felt invasive to some professionals.
Added a skip option and sensible defaults that preserved user control.
Refined
The virtual assistant competed with users who wanted to navigate.
Kept primary navigation dominant and the assistant minimized by default.
Refined
Cohort progress needed stronger comparison controls.
Added sorting and saved-view behavior for educators.
Refined
The contextual path from credentials to preparation was easy to miss.
Moved preparation into the credential context and clarified recertification timing.
Refined
Baseline accessibility issues persisted in prototype components.
Refined color tokens, focus treatment, and interaction semantics.
Refined
08
// Outcome
A strategic artifact that remained useful after the sprint.
The North Star aligned the organization around a multi-persona platform direction and converted that direction into a tested prototype and phased roadmap. Across the broader certification-platform program, onboarding, navigation, personalization, and self-service work reduced user friction by approximately 65% at a scale of more than 200,000 new students each month.
// THE LESSON I CARRY FORWARD
When one homepage has to serve multiple audiences, the answer is not more content. The answer is smarter routing. Personalize the surface, not the system.
09
// What this enabled next
Patterns that traveled with me.
// PATTERN
Audience-declared personalization
The product asks first, infers second, and reconfirms at the edges. It stays honest about how it knows.
// PATTERN
Task-first dashboards
The dashboard surfaces the next action, not the section tile. The homepage becomes an index of work.
// PATTERN
5-day GV sprint cadence
The sprint produced one artifact and one decision per day. Stakeholder cadence was built into the schedule.
// PATTERN
Conversational entry alongside nav
The Pearson Virtual Assistant absorbs routine variation that the main UI does not have to anticipate.