CTLS
A refresh for Cobb Teaching & Learning System, focusing on improving functionality and ease of use.
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Context
CTLS (Cobb Teaching and Learning System) is an education platform used by students and teachers for managing classes, grades, and assignments.
While CTLS serves an important purpose, its interface often felt overwhelming, outdated, and inefficient — especially for students navigating multiple classes each day.
This redesign focuses on making CTLS student-centered, intuitive, and visually modern, using insights from user feedback.
Research
I personally used CTLS for many semesters, and while this platform serves an important purpose, its interface often felt overwhelming and inefficient.
To better understand user pain points and needs, I conducted a small-scale user research study that included:
Interviews
8 interviews with current high school students and a teacher.
Survey
A short online survey shared among peers (12 responses).
Observation
Usability sessions where participants completed common tasks in the current CTLS interface.
A few key questions
- How do you currently use CTLS?
- What frustrates you most about the interface?
- Which tasks are most important or frequent?
- How engaging is CTLS to you?
Insights
Insight
Too many steps to find assignments.
Decision
Simplify navigation and group related features together.
Insight
Resources are hard to find.
Decision
Organize various resources.
Insight
Hard to distinguish between classes.
Decision
Keep teachers and classes visible persistently on the left.
Insight
Visually outdated.
Decision
Modernize the interface.
The Problem
Students and teachers both rely on CTLS daily, yet the interface made common tasks harder than necessary.
Through firsthand experience and peer feedback, I identified major usability issues:
1. Cluttered layout
Too many icons and nested menus.
2. Navigation overload
Finding grades or assignments required multiple clicks.
3. Lack of clarity
Teacher names and class info were buried or inconsistent.
4. Low engagement
Outdated visuals made the system feel less inviting.
As a student user, I wanted to design a system that felt clear, motivating, and human-centered.
Structure
Existing design
Information architecture
I decided to restructure CTLS around an efficient user flow.
Classes and teachers live in a persistent left sidebar, always visible and easy to access.
The main navigation moves to a horizontal top bar, separating global and contextual actions.
Redundant menus are removed, and icons are standardized.
User flow
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Featured wireframes
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Visual Design
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Testing
After building a high-fidelity prototype, I wanted to validate whether the redesigned navigation made CTLS easier to use and more intuitive for students.
I conducted usability sessions with current high school students using my interactive Figma prototype. Each participant completed key tasks such as finding assignments, checking grades, and switching between classes. I recorded their task completion times, observed navigation behaviors, and recorded their feedback.
Performance
60% faster
Average navigation from selecting a specific class to opening a specific resource.
100% completion
Task completion for finding assignments improved from 80% before to 100% after.