A unified look and feel to modernise the Firefly platform and make it more attractive to new customers, and engaging for our existing users.
A fragmented look and feel
Our user interface was looking fragmented as a result of Firefly acquiring a number of companies. Each product in the portfolio has a different look and feel, applied school’s customisations differently, and there were inconsistent standards for accessibility.
Customers noticed the disconnect, and they were beginning to show reluctance to fully embed our tools across their organisation.
As a Design team, we needed to develop a unified visual system that looked modern and attractive, that is consistent across products, and is scalable as we grow our portfolio.
Guide our explorations
I worked closely with our Senior Product Designer, Aegir, in developing our visual system. I led our efforts by developing guiding principles, spotting opportunities to test our concepts, emphasising key insights to act on, and offering feedback, whilst our designer crafted the foundations of the visual system.
Document our design system
As our visual system developed and we gained confidence in our solution, I initiated building a design system in Figma and ensuring we had a robust handover procedure with the developers.
Balance strategy and delivery
Throughout the project I made sure the team maintained a balance of doing production work for immediate development and strategic exploratory work that we could test. This ensured we were making iterative improvements, as well as curating a vision that we were continually moving towards.
Positive impact
Our customers have been overjoyed with the modernisation and unification of our portfolio. We have seen an increase in retention and sales leads that can be directly attributed to the new design, and we’re seeing an increase in customer satisfaction through qualitative feedback and engagement surveys.
“It’s modern and attractive”
Dulwich College, Singapore
“I really like how it is presented for parents… good stuff”
Howells School
“The colours are spot on… Our other staff members are impressed too”
Hymers College
Related articles
Published on the Firefly website to coincide with the launch
I hosted a webinar on the accessibility improvements we made as part of the redesign, and why they are of strategic importance to schools.