Designing Lessonly

Making Learning Management Manageable

In 2012, Studio Science partnered with Gravity Ventures to create Lessonly: a learning management system that makes it easy for corporate trainers to build elegant and robust lessons without technical know-how. With Lessonly if you can type, you can teach.

I led product design and created the visual brand. I partnering closely with then product manager, now CEO, Max Yoder to launch the product. Once we shipped the MVP to our first set of customers, we followed an iterative, client-driven product development process that allowed us to hone in on the greatest user needs and features that differentiated the platform.

The Goal

The learning management space was already crowded with products that were built for HR compliance but were clunky and disliked by employees who used it. We saw an opportunity to create a more simple, enjoyable platform.

The Solution

Simple isn't easy. We worked hard to create just the right features and remove as much clutter as possible. The lessonly platform lets companies use a mix of text, photos, quizzes, and video to create courses that make subject matter more approachable and test workers' knowledge. Lessonly is all about employees doing better work.

The Lessonly Brand

We needed the visual brand to be as fun and unique as the company. The logo was designed to be as fun and unique as the company we were building. The script font was based on the idea of a teacher's clean writing on a chalkboard — A throwback to a simpler time in life.

The Result

Lessonly has come a long way since those early days. I like to think I played a small role in creating a spark, but I can’t take credit for all the hard work of an extremely talented and honest product team that has lead the product’s success.

Today, over a million people at more than 500 companies around the world use Lessonly for team learning in their workplace. And the company is growing. Customers include a range of Fortune 100 companies and forward-thinking teams such as NBC News, Trunk Club, Ibotta, Birchbox, Thumbtack and more.