UX Week: Building Better Learning Experiences

At Cengage, delivering impactful learning experiences starts with a deep understanding of the educators and learners we serve, along with a commitment to continuously improving how we design for them.

Over the past year, we have been evolving our approach to user experience (UX) across design, research and content, raising the standard for how we define problems, collaborate across teams and bring solutions to life. UX Week, a recent professional development opportunity for employees, provided a moment to step back, align on this approach and challenge teams to go further.

Led by SVP of Research and User Experience & Design Kim Russell, teams came together to focus on what it takes to deliver high-quality, user-centered experiences at scale. This included strengthening craft, improving clarity and staying closely connected to user needs throughout the process.

As Kim Russell shared, “UX Week was about more than sharpening our skills, it was about raising our collective ambition. At Cengage, our mission is to unlock the power and joy of learning, and that requires us to deeply understand our users, challenge ourselves to think boldly and hold a higher standard for every experience we create.”

To explore how this is showing up in practice, we spoke with Maria Stiller, User Experience Researcher; Novin Shakiba, Technical Writer; Hayford Kesse, User Experience Designer; and Orion Johnson, Director of User Experience Design, about what is changing and how it is influencing the way they design, research and deliver for our customers.

 

Advancing User Experience at Cengage:

 

Evolving Our Approach

How has your approach to UX changed over the past year—and what’s driving that shift?

Maria: “In UX research, there’s always a natural tension between rigor and speed. There’s a lot to learn about our users, but the business needs to keep moving. In the past, that often meant being scrappy or doing “just enough research” to inform the next decision.

What’s changed...is that I’ve stopped accepting that tradeoff. It may be counter expectation, but using AI tools, I’m able to maintain depth while moving at the pace the team needs. I can build stronger synthesis frameworks, connect more layers of insight and still deliver quickly.”

What does “high-quality” or “high craft” mean in your role, and how are you raising that bar?

Maria: “High-quality work in my role means not forsaking depth since it’s in the getting the TRUE WHY behind user behavior that I move a complex problem space from ambiguous to insightful.

In a recent study with the ed2go team, we analyzed product detail pages across competitors, focusing on Allied Health and Trades learners. With multiple variables in play, including different user needs and device types, I would struggle to stay grounded and lose sight of the story. But I leveraged AI to create a custom synthesis sheet that helped organize qualitative insights and maintain a clear throughline throughout the study.

Going forward, I’m looking at ways to share insights earlier in the process, so stakeholders can act on them in real time.

For me, high craft means not forsaking depth but meeting stakeholders where they are too.”

 

Defining the Problem

How do you ensure that you are focused on the right problem before moving into solutions?

Novin: “I start by grounding the work in a clear understanding of user pain points, supported by data, feedback and observed behavior. During discovery, it’s common for several issues to surface, so I work closely with stakeholders to step back, identify patterns and get to the root cause rather than addressing symptoms. I also make sure the problem statement is clearly defined in a way that balances user needs with business objectives. Once there’s alignment on the core issue, it becomes much easier to evaluate solutions with focus and confidence.”

Can you share a time when clearly defining a user need—or communicating it effectively—changed the direction of a project?

Novin: “During a recent project, we initially set out to improve the help site through updated design and visual enhancements. As we dug deeper, we realized the bigger barrier to a better user experience was internal. Complex publishing and site management processes made it difficult to update content and resulted in rigid navigation.

Clearly articulating this shifted the conversation from ‘what should the site look like?’ to ‘how do we enable teams to keep content current and easy to find?’ That shift led to a solution that supports a more modern, intuitive experience for users and better positions the organization to improve efficiency and outcomes over time.”

 

Customer Impact

How does this evolving approach to UX translate into a better experience for students or educators?

Hayford: “When we invest in design quality, the product becomes easier to use and less distracting. With the AI tools we’re building, the difference between a clunky interaction and a seamless one can determine whether a student stays engaged or drops off. Higher design quality means the experience feels less like a tool and more like an interactive experience.”

What’s one way a user would notice the difference in how we’re designing today versus before?

Hayford: “Today, the experience is more context-aware. Instead of relying on one-size-fits-all patterns, we’re designing interactions, especially through AI, that respond to where a student is in their journey. That could mean adapting content, guidance or next steps based on their progress or needs. The product feels less like a static platform and more like something that’s actively supporting them.”

 

The Future of UX

Where do you see the biggest opportunity to further improve the experience for our users?

Orion: “The biggest opportunity is to move beyond improving individual features and instead focus on the end-to-end experience our users have with Cengage. Today, many of our experiences are strong in isolation, but users don’t experience them that way. They experience a journey. The opportunity is to make that journey seamless, intuitive and truly supportive of their goals, whether they are teaching, learning or administering.”

What does “great” look like for Cengage when it comes to user experience?

Orion: “Great for Cengage means our products feel connected, consistent and effortless to use. It means reducing friction at every step, anticipating user needs and creating experiences that adapt to individuals in meaningful ways, grounded in a deep understanding of the contexts our customers operate in. Ultimately, great UX is when our tools don’t get in the way. They empower educators and learners to stay focused on teaching and learning, not figuring out how things work.”