The Challenge

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought schools and universities across Europe to a standstill. Students were suddenly confined to their homes, struggling to continue their education without access to classrooms or teachers.

bettermarks, which typically served German state education systems (Bundesländer) with a comprehensive adaptive learning platform, saw an opportunity to make a difference. The vision: offer a free, simplified version of our platform to help families navigate remote learning during this unprecedented crisis.

This represented a fundamental shift—from B2G institutional software to a B2C product serving individual students and parents directly.

The Constraints

Technical Timeline

We had weeks, not months, to launch. Co-founder Christophe Speroni rapidly built a WordPress-based frontend pulling data from our existing API—a pragmatic solution that leveraged familiar tools for speed.

Product Complexity

The core challenge: distilling an extremely complex, feature-rich institutional platform into an intuitive, streamlined experience for home users. bettermarks Family needed to be immediately accessible to families with no training or onboarding support.

New Audience

Unlike our institutional clients who received extensive training, we were now serving:

• Students learning independently at home
• Parents unfamiliar with educational technology
• Users with varying levels of digital literacy
• Families under stress during a global crisis

My Role

I was tasked with designing the complete user experience for this new product:

Visual Design & Branding

• Created a distinct visual identity that felt approachable and family-friendly while maintaining connection to the bettermarks brand
• Designed the bettermarks Family logo to differentiate it from the institutional product
• Developed a simplified design system optimized for clarity and ease of use

User Experience

• Mapped user flows for student registration, parent oversight, and learning progression
• Designed intuitive navigation that required no explanation
• Streamlined the exercise experience to focus on core learning without overwhelming features

Implementation

• Provided CSS styling directly in Oxygen (WordPress page builder) to support rapid development
• Collaborated closely with Christophe to ensure design feasibility within our compressed timeline

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Design Approach

Simplification Without Sacrifice

The key was identifying which features were essential for independent home learning versus institutional requirements. I stripped away complex classroom management tools, advanced analytics, and teacher-specific features, focusing entirely on the student learning experience.

Instant Clarity

Every screen needed to answer: “What do I do next?” Registration, topic selection, and exercise completion all followed clear, linear paths with minimal decisions required.

Family-Centered Language

I revised copy and navigation labels to speak directly to students and parents rather than educators, making the platform feel welcoming rather than institutional.

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Outcome & Impact

bettermarks Family launched in may 2020 and remained free for over a year during the pandemic, providing critical support to families during remote learning.

Key outcomes:

• Received consistent positive feedback from students and parents navigating the challenges of home learning
• Successfully demonstrated bettermarks’ ability to serve a consumer audience, proving the platform’s versatility beyond institutional contexts
• Opened strategic conversations about new market opportunities that influenced the company’s post-pandemic direction

Product Lifecycle

Following the free period, bettermarks Family transitioned to an affordable paid model designed to remain accessible to families. As schools reopened and pandemic restrictions lifted, usage naturally declined—ultimately leading to the product’s sunset. While this marked the end of bettermarks Family, the decline validated the project’s core mission: families no longer needed emergency remote learning solutions because normal education had resumed.

The project’s impact extended beyond its operational lifespan, demonstrating that our institutional platform could be successfully adapted for direct consumer use and contributing meaningfully to bettermarks’ growth during a critical period.

Key Takeaways

• Speed and constraints breed creativity. Working within WordPress and a compressed timeline forced pragmatic design decisions that ultimately made the product more accessible.
• Simplification is harder than addition. Deciding what to remove from a complex product required deep understanding of both the platform and the new user needs.
• Purpose-driven design creates impact. Knowing we were helping families during a crisis brought additional meaning to the work and motivated exceptional collaboration across the team.