Case Study
Redesigning Aquent Gymnasium: Seamless, Scalable, and Accessible Learning
160,000 learners supported. 70% faster load times. Zero-issue relaunch. Scalable design system for future growth. Seamless, accessible user experience.
I led the redesign of a global learning platform to enhance performance, accessibility, and user experience, navigating an unexpected LMS shutdown to ensure continuous service — work internationally recognized and co-presented at the 2025 Open edX Conference in Paris in the talk Seemingly Seamless.
- Role: Design Lead — UX Design, Visual Design, Frontend Development, UX Writing, Accessibility, and Content Strategy
- Year: 2024–2025
- Impact: Ensured uninterrupted learning for over 160,000 learners with a faster, more accessible platform. Achieved over 70% faster load times and delivered a scalable design system to drive future growth.
- Outcome: Preserved Gymnasium’s mission during the LMS shutdown by advocating for learners: notifying them of changes, safeguarding certificates, and making all course content accessible.
- Project: thegymnasium.com
- Topics: UX Design, UX Writing, Accessibility, Performance, Eleventy (static site generator), Open edX (open-source online learning platform), Design Systems
Impact at a Glance
- Content-driven UX and marketing writing across key pages → Strengthened brand voice, improved clarity, and guided learners through critical touchpoints
- Visual and UX design overhaul with accessibility focus → Elevated the user interface for a seamless, inclusive experience that reflects the brand’s values and drives engagement
- Over 70% faster page loads via Eleventy migration and optimized architecture → Enhanced performance for 160,000+ learners worldwide
- Zero-issue platform relaunch in 2025 → Ensured uninterrupted learning for 160,000 learners and preserved platform credibility
- Crisis-tested problem-solving during LMS migration and content transition → Minimized disruption and maintained trust with learners and stakeholders
Crafting the User Experience
With the strategic direction set, I focused on reducing friction and improving the learner journey through iterative design, user research, and intentional UX decisions.
Iterative Design Process
Prototyping and moderated testing helped shape key features through direct feedback from learners. I built quick, in-browser prototypes, tested them with real users, and turned what I learned into much-needed, user-requested enhancements.
- Rapid in-browser prototyping with HTML/CSS
- Iterative testing with learners using the prototypes I built
- Seamlessly incorporated research into live features
Putting Learners First
To reduce friction for learners, I redesigned the course catalog — moving from a prototype with sorting and filtering to a live, accessible, and easier-to-navigate experience. I also made course benefits more visible, helping learners quickly see what they’ll gain and why it’s worth their time.
Guiding Through Gaps
Even when we couldn’t offer a full course in a topic, I applied the same content-first thinking to guide learners toward alternatives. Whether recommending a Gym Short when a Full Course isn’t available, or vice versa, the “Suggested Course” message acknowledges the gap while offering a helpful next step: “While we don’t have a Full Course, we recommend this Gym Short instead.”
The message and course card work together to set expectations, maintain transparency, and help learners make informed decisions, rather than leaving them with a generic message or forcing them to search another topic.
Improved Learner Journey
While previous work focused on redesigning the marketing site, this section highlights user experience improvements made during the migration to the latest version of Open edX (at the time).
The migration refined core LMS interactions to create a more intuitive learner journey centered on course enrollment and progress tracking. Previously, learners could begin courses without enrolling, which caused issues with dashboard visibility and disrupted ongoing progress.
This confusing and easy-to-miss issue prevented courses from appearing in learners’ dashboards, affecting their ability to track progress.
Language and Design in Harmony
What began as a homepage rewrite quickly evolved into a broader content-first redesign. I led the effort to rework Gymnasium’s messaging, structure, and interface — starting with purposeful UX writing and continuing through a complete refresh of the design system. The migration to Eleventy enabled streamlined markup and a style refactor, supporting modular components, responsive layouts, and continuous refinement of the visual language.
Anticipating the upcoming European Accessibility Act, I enhanced color contrast and visual clarity across the site to improve accessibility and ensure an inclusive experience for all users.
- Thoughtful UX writing that guides learners clearly and supports their journey
- Modular, responsive grid and accessible UI components
- Strong typography hierarchy for readability
Writing With Purpose
The original “How Gymnasium Works” section shared basic info but didn’t guide learners toward action. I restructured it with an added introduction and refreshed four key sections — Free Online Courses, New Skills, Career Opportunities, and Lifelong Learning — using benefit-focused, actionable language throughout.
Observations: The rewrite leads with learner benefits rather than platform features. An introductory paragraph immediately establishes value — ”free online courses and tutorials on design, development, UX, prototyping, accessibility, and career skills ”— before diving into four key sections: Free Online Courses, New Skills, Career Opportunities, and Lifelong Learning. The language is benefit-focused (“dive deep,” “pick up a new skill”) and action-oriented (“explore our free courses now”), making it clear what learners gain, not just what Gymnasium offers.
More Than a Job Board
As part of a broader redesign, I refreshed the language and layout of the Jobs module to better support learners exploring career opportunities. The original module lacked meaningful copy or a clear call to action. The update introduces a strong value proposition: “Explore job listings, salary guides, and career advice tutorials and articles,” paired with direct, actionable language and a clear CTA, “Start Your Search.”
The result is clearer messaging, stronger brand alignment, and a more usable experience for learners.
Moments of Connection
Beyond the main Jobs module, I applied the same content-first thinking to message states (loading, empty results, and error states) — the moments when things go right, go wrong, or are still loading. Rather than generic system messages, each state uses conversational language that acknowledges the user’s situation and provides clear next steps. “Hold On: Please wait while we find you some jobs…” feels human and reassuring during loading. “It’s Not You, It’s Us” takes responsibility for errors while maintaining brand voice. These microcopy examples show how thoughtful writing transforms frustrating moments into moments of connection.
In hindsight: These messages could be shorter. Trimming unnecessary words would improve scannability while maintaining conversational tone. Revised state messaging:
| State | Before | After | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading | Hold On: Please wait while we find you some jobs… | Hold On: Finding work opportunities… | 13 chars (27%) |
| Empty | It’s Not You, It’s Us: We’re unable to find jobs in this location. Please try another location or check back later for new jobs. | It’s Not You, It’s Us: No jobs found in this location. Try another or check back soon. | 42 chars (33%) |
| Error | We’re On It: Something broke on our end and we’re working to fix it. Continue exploring jobs at Aquent. | We’re On It: Something broke and we’re fixing it. Continue exploring jobs at Aquent. | 19 chars (18%) |
Observations: Notice the subtle shifts: “soon” over “later” (immediacy), “finding” over “please wait” (active voice), and “broke and we’re fixing it” (ownership). These small choices compound to feel more human and supportive.
A Better Bookend
A subtle yet meaningful update, the refreshed footer improves visual cohesion across the platform. It brings together the previous press section, showcases industry recognition, and highlights our frontend migration to Eleventy (11ty). A fitting bookend to the learner’s journey.
Building a Fast, Scalable Platform
To support over 160,000 learners worldwide, I co-led the migration to Eleventy and optimized for performance at scale. The result was over 70% improvement in load times and a foundation for accessible, inclusive learning.
- Migrated from Jekyll → Eleventy for faster builds and scalable, reusable components
- Optimized assets → 70%+ faster page loads, giving learners instant access to content
- Mobile-first layouts and modular components → maintainable and adaptable design system
Accessibility at the Core
Accessibility and performance were priorities from day one. I built with inclusive design principles so content works for all learners, whether they’re using assistive technologies, dealing with limited bandwidth, or on older devices.
- Semantic HTML and screen reader friendly markup
- Contrast-verified color palette and text sizing for readability
- Laid groundwork for accessibility compliance (WCAG & EAA)
| Metric | Pre-Eleventy | Post-Eleventy | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | 5.2 s | 1.2 s | 77% faster |
| First Contentful Paint (FCP) | 5.0 s | 1.2 s | 76% faster |
| Time to First Byte (TTFB) | 2.7 s | 0.8 s | 70% faster |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | 0.04 | 0 | 100% improvement |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | 285 ms | 58 ms | 80% faster |
Seamless Launch
After launch, the platform demonstrated exceptional stability with zero visual regressions, no bugs, and no performance or functionality issues, highlighting the thoroughness of the migration and development process.
- Achieved minimal downtime during the 2025 relaunch
- No support tickets post-release
- Maintained a seamless design-to-development workflow, enabling ongoing iteration and improvements
These efforts ensured learners worldwide could engage with Gymnasium’s content seamlessly, reflecting UX-first thinking at every step.
Impact in Numbers
Gymnasium’s learner base doubled, from 80,000 in 2019 to over 160,000 by 2025, driven by a platform redesign focused on performance, accessibility, and scalability.
| Year | Learners Worldwide | Notable Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 80,000 | Steady growth; demand accelerated by the pandemic |
| 2024 | 160,000 | Eleventy migration, accessibility-first redesign, faster, and more inclusive platform |
| 2025 | 160,000+ | Continued steady growth (over 1,000 new learners/month); platform ready for future expansion |
| Mid-2025 | Platform Closed | Preserved mission through open-access content and community-driven resources |
Impact on Stakeholders
The zero-issue relaunch with no support tickets exemplified a successful rollout that delivered clear benefits for learners, the business, and the team alike.
- For Learners: Faster, consistent, and accessible experience with clearer, more readable course content
- For the Business: Reinforced brand and platform scalability while reducing maintenance overhead via modular architecture
- For the Team: Improved design-to-development workflows with reusable design system and components for future expansion
Awards & Recognition
Aquent Gymnasium’s commitment to innovative, accessible workforce development has been recognized repeatedly through the American Staffing Association’s Elevate Awards, honoring outstanding work-based learning programs in the staffing and recruiting industry.
| Year | Recognition |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Honored as one of the first recipients of the ASA Elevate Awards, recognizing its innovative, effective work-based learning program in staffing and recruiting. |
| 2020 | Recognized again for delivering free, industry-informed courses and credentials that bridge the gap between education and opportunity. |
| 2024 | Awarded for offering a free, scalable platform providing UX, accessibility, development, and career training, strengthening talent pipelines and talent placement. |
Designing for Crisis
Beyond the relaunch, Gymnasium itself came to an end in mid-2025 due to company layoffs, which also affected our team. With the LMS scheduled to go dark in just a few weeks and the team scattered, we faced an impossible timeline. Yet we took on the responsibility of shutting it down with care, including notifying learners, ensuring they could access their earned certificates and badges, and making all course content publicly available.
Thanks to the advocacy and inspiring leadership of Program Manager Andrew Miller and the collaboration of the Director of Technology and me as Design Lead, we preserved Gymnasium’s mission — keeping free online learning accessible to more than 160,000 learners worldwide, even after the platform closed.
We audited course assets, secured essential account access, and launched a migration project on GitHub. Together, we moved core content to YouTube, adapting workflows to maintain usability and engagement through the shutdown.
Working through this transition reinforced the importance of steady leadership, keeping perspective, and focusing on what matters when everything feels uncertain. Above all, it reminded me that UX is about the people, not the pixels.
Bot-ched But Better
Before losing repo access, I also tackled instructor bio inconsistencies with Cursor AI, debugging complex content patterns and generating stable fixes in real time.
These rapid-response fixes ensured learners continued experiencing a polished platform through the transition, resolving an issue previously scheduled for later and leaving the website in a seamless state as the platform came to a close.
UX After Dark
During the migration, I identified a persistent inconsistency in YouTube’s subtitle upload flow. After documenting the issue with screenshots, I mocked up a fix that added filename visibility to improve context awareness, helping users always know what content they’re working on, even after interruptions.
But as much as this work was about closing one chapter, it was also about recognizing that good UX doesn’t stop once a project ends. There’s no time card to punch. Even after the work is “done,” the work isn’t finished.
The issue I encountered with YouTube Studio, an area of bad UX, wasn’t my product or responsibility, but we’ve all been there — “That’s not my job.” In moments like this, I reminded myself that UX isn’t limited by a title or scope. It’s everyone’s responsibility.
I documented the oversight, and while it may later become the subject of a short article, it’s all part of my process. Good UX is about observation, continuous improvement, and taking ownership, even after the primary work wraps up. It never stops, and the best experiences should feel like the default, not the exception.
Telling the Gymnasium Story
Even after being laid off, I remained committed to sharing our team’s work. In July 2025, I co-presented the Gymnasium platform redesign at the Open edX Conference in Paris with Roman Edirisinghe. Together, we prepared our talk after the layoff, part catharsis, part grievance process, determined to highlight the impact and intentionality behind the redesign.
Presenting at the conference gave us a chance to reconnect with the Open edX community and reflect on the journey, from platform launch to platform loss, while advocating for accessibility and learner-first design.
After the talk, Roman and I topped off the experience at Arkose Massy, a local bouldering gym with an outdoor bar. Over burgers and stories, we celebrated a chapter well closed, not just for Gymnasium, but for the team that built it. Even after leaving, I remained dedicated to sharing our work and advancing accessibility in online learning. UX design isn’t just a job; it’s about empowering people, even amidst uncertainty.
Thank you, děkuji, merci beaucoup.