Improving the user experience in education: Why human-first design is critical to better outcomes

Education providers aren’t short of technology. Over time, most have built up a portfolio of systems that each serve a specific purpose – from learner management and finance to compliance, HR and reporting – shaping how people experience education technology in practice.

Individually, these systems often work well. Collectively, they can create something far more challenging.

Information tends to move between systems in stages, often being entered, reviewed and adjusted as it goes. As processes pass from one platform to another, there can be points where progress pauses, picks up again elsewhere, or depends on manual handover. Over time, this introduces additional steps that stretch out routine activity and create opportunities for duplication or inconsistency.

This isn’t unique to education. Across sectors, the scale of tool usage has grown significantly. According to global research by Qualtrics, organisations now deploy an average of 93 applications, rising to over 200 in larger enterprises. Meanwhile, wider industry studies suggest that most employees regularly use between three and ten platforms each day.

The impact is significant. Research into digital workplaces shows employees switching between applications dozens of times a day, while more than half say the number of tools they use negatively affects their ability to work effectively.

This is what’s often described as application fatigue – and in education, it has become part of the day-to-day reality.

Where user experience issues show up day to day

Working across multiple systems tends to introduce a set of practical challenges into everyday activity:

• A single task can end up spanning several platforms, with a higher risk of data being entered incorrectly or inconsistently
• Fatigue typically builds from switching between systems throughout the day
• Each additional system adds to the cost of maintaining the environment, while increasing the number of access points that need to be secured
• Where information sits across multiple platforms, keeping it consistent can take extra effort, with time spent checking or reconciling differences
• Teams often find their own ways to bridge the gaps between systems, creating workarounds that help keep things moving
• Individuals may turn to “shadow AI” tools to speed up tasks, introducing additional risks around operational and learner data

Taken together, these issues affect how work moves across the organisation, often slowing progress, increasing reliance on manual effort and making consistency harder to maintain. At the same time, they expand the points at which data can be exposed – whether through fragmented systems, informal workarounds or the use of unauthorised tools.

Moving towards a more connected approach

Across the sector, there is increasing attention on how systems operate together in practice. Integration has improved in many cases, especially as more platforms have moved to the cloud, though the day-to-day experience of using them can still feel uneven.

Staff may find themselves moving between systems to complete what feels like a single task, picking up information in one place and carrying it into another. Even where connections exist, they are not always visible in how work is carried out, so the process can still feel segmented.

When tasks move more smoothly from one stage to the next, with information carried forward along the way, the process feels easier to manage.

Bringing it together with IQ for Education

IQ for Education has been designed with the user in mind, bringing together systems, processes and interaction within a connected model. It is structured across four core elements: Intelligent Experience, Intelligent Services, Intelligent Workflows and Intelligent Platform.

Within this structure, the Intelligent Experience layer focuses on how individuals engage with the system in their day-to-day roles, shaping the overall user experience in a practical, operational context. The intention is to present work in a way that reflects how it is typically carried out, allowing tasks to be completed without needing to step outside into multiple systems.

Activities are arranged in a sequence that follows the flow of work, with relevant information available as each stage is reached. As work progresses, information moves with it, rather than needing to be located or re-entered elsewhere.

This means that everyday tasks such as updating learner progress or preparing for reviews can be carried out as part of the same process, without needing to move away into separate systems.

Reducing friction within existing ways of working

Bringing systems, workflows and data into a more connected way of working builds on processes that are already in place. The systems supporting areas such as learner management, finance and compliance continue to operate as expected, while the way they are accessed and used begins to shift.

Tasks that previously involved moving between systems can instead be handled within a single environment. Information is available within the context of the task itself, rather than needing to be gathered from multiple sources.

Automation and UK-sovereign AI form part of this environment, working within workflows to carry out defined actions such as validations or updates. These sit quietly within the process, supporting progression without requiring additional input or separate activity.

This all changes how work unfolds. Fewer interruptions, fewer repeated actions, and a steadier sense of progression through each stage.

A more workable way forward

For education providers working within tight constraints, these kinds of changes can alter how effort is distributed across day-to-day activity. Time that might previously have been spent navigating between systems can be directed elsewhere.

The broader technology estate remains in place, continuing to support delivery across different areas of the organisation. What changes is how those systems come together in practice, and how they are experienced by the people using them.

From a user perspective, this shift brings a single, familiar experience across different areas of work. Tasks can be carried out within the same environment, with a clearer sense of continuity from one stage to the next and less need to navigate between systems.

Through this connected experience, staff and senior leaders can gain greater confidence in how work is carried out, knowing it sits within clear guardrails, that data remains consistent across systems and processes, and that more time can be directed towards learner outcomes.

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Don’t miss…

IQ for Education is transforming the way the educators carry out their day-to-day work. Find out more in our whitepaper: Connected by design: How embedded intelligence is shaping education – free to access, with no form-fill required.

We’re also hosting an in-depth webinar, IQ for Education: Introducing the Intelligent System of Work, where we’ll explore what IQ for Education means in practice – from intelligent workflows and connected systems to the role of data, automation and insight in supporting more efficient, confident and collaborative ways of working.