My role: UX/UI Designer
Timeline: 3 months
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This project reimagines Nazarbayev University's outdated Moodle portal as a streamlined mobile-first application that addresses key student pain points. Based on user research with students across academic levels, the redesign focuses on simplifying course registration, improving schedule visibility, and organizing learning materials in an intuitive interface. The new design eliminates navigation confusion, clearly displays deadlines, and reduces the anxiety students experienced with the previous system. Initial user testing confirms significant improvements in usability and student satisfaction.
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Picture Almat, a 23-year-old master’s student at Nazarbayev University, who missed his preferred course due to a clunky registration portal. He’s not alone. Many NU students struggled with outdated navigation, unreadable schedules, and mobile limitations.
This project reimagines the student portal into a streamlined mobile-first app — making course registration, schedules, and materials easily accessible.
First, to better understand the everyday struggles students face, I audited NU’s current Moodle portal. Here’s what I found:
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🔴 Mobile-unfriendly
The mobile experience is clunky. Text is dense, buttons are small, and nothing feels optimized for students on the go.
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🔴 No visual hierarchy
Everything looks the same. There’s no clear structure, making it hard to spot what matters: announcements, tasks, or deadlines.
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🔴 Overwhelming navigation
Important actions like checking deadlines or submitting assignments are buried under too many layers. Switching between courses feels disjointed.
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🔴 Broken calendar logic
Events aren’t clickable, and deadlines are easy to miss. The dashboard doesn’t surface what’s urgent.
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