Redesigning the mobile experience to connect schools and families
Digistorm School App is a white-label mobile platform built to help schools communicate with families and keep parents informed about their child's school life.
Digistorm app helps families to stay connected, access daily news, upcoming events, important notifications, and other essential updates from the school community. Nearly a decade after its first release, the team decided to completely rebuild the core modules and third-party integrations.
As the Product Designer, I worked closely with Product and Engineering teams to lead a complete redesign of the app interface and module system.
Problem
The original app presented challenges for users and the business. It had become visually outdated and hard to scale. Adding new modules and integrating third-party school management systems was complex and time-consuming.
How might we redesign the interface to enhance the experience for parents and families while supporting the addition of new modules and seamless integration with third-party systems?
Challenges
The redesign had to work across diverse contexts without compromising the core product:
- Standardised navigation and module structure across a platform serving 950+ schools, reducing cognitive load for parents navigating daily school updates
- A flexible white-label design system enabled consistent school branding across diverse school identities without compromising usability or visual coherence
- Built the first shared component framework for the app, establishing a scalable foundation that supported future third-party school management system integrations
Process
I began with a full audit of the existing app, reviewing how parents and schools interacted with each module and identifying key friction points. I analysed user behaviour, module usage patterns, and feedback from schools to determine where improvements would have the highest impact.
From there, I focused on improving information hierarchy, creating a consistent navigation experience, and defining a scalable framework for future modules, collaborating closely with engineers throughout to ensure the new design system would adapt to white-label requirements and technical constraints.
Key insights
The audit and school feedback surfaced a set of issues that shaped the direction of the redesign.
- School colour often conflicted with the interface, indicating a need for more flexible theming
- Inconsistent patterns increased design and development effort for new modules and integrations
- The lack of a shared component framework made consistency difficult to maintain at scale
Solution
The redesigned app delivers a streamlined, modern mobile experience built on consistency and flexibility. Navigation and module structures were standardised across the entire app, reducing cognitive load and giving parents an intuitive interface across the platform. A flexible white-label design system was built to apply school branding without compromising usability and visual coherence.
The integration framework was redesigned to support third-party school management systems seamlessly. Accessibility was treated as a baseline requirement, increased colour contrast and simplified interactions ensure the app works for a wide range of users and devices.
Impact
- Standardised navigation and module structure across a platform serving 950+ schools, reducing cognitive load for parents navigating daily school updates
- A flexible white-label design system enabled consistent school branding across diverse school identities without compromising usability or visual coherence
- Built the first shared component framework for the app, establishing a scalable foundation that supported 6 third-party school management system integrations post-launch
