SIMnet Assignment Manager
Empowering instructors to manage their assignments independently
Overview
SIMnet is a digital learning platform for teaching Microsoft products to college students. Instructors spend most of their time managing their assignments but rarely do it alone. Beyond basic setup, they heavily rely on Customer Success specialists, unaware that the features they need already exist, just scattered across disconnected workspaces.
In fall 2025, I led design on a cross-functional team to consolidate the assignment management experience so that instructors could manage their assignments independently. The redesign improved assignment management NPS by 6 points and increased task completion rates from 20% to 90% in usability testing, enabling instructors to complete complex tasks like organizing and bulk-updating assignments without support.
Role
Product Design, UX Research
Duration
3 months
Empathize
Since the SIMnet team started tracking NPS using Pendo in 2024, assignment management ranked as the lowest performing feature in SIMnet.
23
Assignment NPS
26
Edit Assignments
20
Organize Assignments
22
Assign Assignments
33
Gradebook NPS
42
Overall NPS
Sourced from Pendo and UserTesting.com
Talking with customer success specialists, each shared the same type of story when asked about what instructor requests look like.
Instructors would reach out saying,
I can't figure out how to update all my due dates at once.
I want to change my assignment order, but forget how.
It would be really cool if we schedule pop quizzes.
And the customer success specialists would always respond…
That feature exists, but it's located somewhere else.
To get the full picture, we held interviews, usability tests, and reviewed a whole bunch of feedback we've captured over the last year.
7
Instructors interviewed
2 newer instructors (< 2 years)
2 experienced instructors (2-10)
3 legacy instructors
10
Unmoderated usability tests
50+
Multi-survey responses
Q3 2024 – Q3 2025
Speaking directly with instructors and observing where they struggled (and succeeded) shone light on the specific areas we could improve upon.
Define
The research revealed a fundamental mismatch between how SIMnet separated assignment features and how instructors discovered and used the platform.
After navigating to one of the workspaces (organize for example), instructors learned and forgot the others existed. For an instructor who chose the organize workspace, they were completely unaware of essential features like bulk-editing assignment details.
On the rare occasions instructors discovered the other workspaces, they couldn't recognize that the drastically different layouts displayed the same assignment data. The context switch was so jarring that most instructors gave up and turned to a specialist for help.
Comparative analysis of learning management systems (Canvas, ALEKS) and organizational tools (Jira, Google Drive) revealed that successful platforms maintain consistent visual structures across different workspaces, reducing cognitive load during context switches.
The pattern was clear across our research. Fragmented workspaces were blocking instructors from doing their jobs independently, and we needed to consolidate these disconnected workflows into a unified experience. This meant empowering instructors to complete bulk workflows on their own, fewer support tickets, and improved assignment NPS.
Iteration
Learning from other platforms, we started with a unified workspace: a single redesigned tree grid where instructors could view, edit, and organize all assignments in one place.
View, edit, and organize assignments in one workspace
However, most LMS platforms don't offer this level of control, and enterprise tools like Jira are designed for daily power users rather than instructors who need to manage assignments between teaching classes.
With rapid prototyping using our design system, and real tests with instructors quickly revealed 3 things:
Navigation solved
100% of instructors successfully found where to manage assignments
Reduced cognitive load
Instructors agreed the unified layout was easier to understand and use
However,
New and legacy instructors still struggled with bulk editing and organizing tasks.
Instructors primarily organize at the beginning of the semester, so we pivoted to a dedicated organize mode that kept the main workspace cleaner while still providing intuitive access to this critical but infrequently-used feature. An identical layout with drag handles instead of checkboxes made the transition discoverable and seamless.
The issue wasn't separate modes, but impossible discoverability and different layouts
Two modes kept workflows separate while still consolidating three workspaces.
Separate yet closely connected and related
Results & Impact
The redesign transformed how instructors managed their courses, with measurable improvements across all success metrics.
Discoverability improved, support dependency reduced
Task completion rates jumped from 20% to 90% in usability testing. The majority of Instructors could complete complex workflows like bulk-scheduling and folder organization without support.
Satisfaction improved significantly
Assignment management NPS increased 6 points from 23 to 29, and in final testing, all 10 instructors preferred the redesigned experience.
Reflection
I was convinced that for assignment organizing, instructors would want everything in one workspace, like modern productivity tools. However, my stakeholders suspected it would be overwhelming for instructors, and rapid validation prototype testing validated their concerns. Although not the "ideal" solution, it was the right one for our product and the people who use it.