The Problem
Woolworths' Make The Difference nonprofit programme had been running in schools for years but its resources were scattered, hard to access, and never designed for digital-first teaching. When the pandemic hit and classrooms moved online overnight, teachers needed a centralised platform that could hold curriculum materials, environmental campaigns, and events in one place.
My Contribution
Conducted user interviews with teachers to surface pain points with the existing programme and understand how their teaching environment had shifted during COVID
Facilitated stakeholder workshops to create a sitemap, define user personas, and align on priorities before any design work began
Designed for adaptability: the platform supports both virtual and in-person learning modes without requiring separate workflows
The Outcome
Delivered a fully designed, WCAG-compliant platform consolidating all programme resources into a single accessible hub for teachers
Platform positioned for rollout to schools across the programme's existing network
My Takeaways
This project taught me that the best discovery work happens before you open Figma. The workshops we ran early on saved weeks of rework later because by the time we started designing, everyone already agreed on what we were building and why. It also reminded me that context matters enormously in UX: a platform built for teachers during normal times would have looked very different to one built during a pandemic. Meeting users where they actually are, not where you assume they are, is everything.
