2026
IWS Academy
Turning industrial marketing knowledge into a free, structured learning experience.
IWS Academy is a free learning platform created for manufacturers, distributors, industrial suppliers, and the teams responsible for growing their businesses.
The opportunity was to turn a broad library of marketing knowledge into an experience that felt approachable, practical, and easy to navigate while creating a resource that could continue growing alongside the larger IWS ecosystem.
I led the UX/UI design across the learning experience, from information architecture and course discovery through lesson design, interaction patterns, developer handoff, and QA, while collaborating closely with stakeholders, marketing, videography, and development to bring the platform to life.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Industrial businesses needed practical education, not another content library.
Manufacturers and suppliers are expected to navigate increasingly complex topics across websites, branding, analytics, lead generation, digital marketing, and emerging technology.
The challenge wasn’t simply creating more educational content. It was making that information useful to people with different levels of marketing knowledge and giving them a clear path through topics that could otherwise feel fragmented or overwhelming.
I approached the Academy as a learning product rather than a collection of articles.
THE PRODUCT MODEL
Organize around the problems people are trying to solve.
Rather than structuring the experience around internal content categories, I focused on creating clear topic areas that could help users understand where to begin and what to explore next.
Courses were grouped into broader learning themes spanning areas such as marketing foundations, brand and web presence, lead generation, analytics and strategy, and topics specific to industrial businesses.
The structure needed to work for someone entering with a specific question while also supporting users who wanted to build their knowledge progressively.
DISCOVERY
Make a growing library feel approachable.
As more courses were added, discovery became an important part of the experience.
I designed the Academy so users could scan topics, understand what a course would help them accomplish, and move into the learning experience without having to understand the entire curriculum first.
Clear hierarchy, benefit-led descriptions, and consistent course patterns helped turn a large amount of information into smaller, more understandable entry points.
COURSE DESIGN
Set expectations before asking users to commit.
Course pages needed to answer a few important questions quickly:
What will I learn?
How much time will this take?
What does the course include?
I created a consistent course structure that surfaces learning objectives, lesson count, duration, and the content users can expect before they begin.
The goal was to reduce uncertainty and help users decide whether a course was relevant before investing their time.
THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Keep the interface out of the way of the lesson.
Once users entered a course, the priority shifted from discovery to focus.
I designed the lesson experience around the content itself, with clear orientation, lesson progression, and access to supporting information without overwhelming the primary learning area.
Patterns such as breadcrumbs, lesson navigation, transcripts, overviews, and next-lesson actions help users understand where they are and continue moving forward without unnecessary friction.
USER VALUE + BUSINESS VALUE
A useful product could also create long-term value for the business.
The Academy was intentionally offered without a paywall.
For users, that means practical educational content without requiring a purchase or commitment.
For the business, the same content creates another way for industrial professionals to discover IWS, build familiarity with the brand, return for useful information, and engage with topics related to their broader digital presence.
I saw those goals as complementary rather than competing. The Academy would only create meaningful business value if the educational experience was genuinely valuable on its own.
COLLABORATION
The experience only worked because the teams around it stayed connected.
IWS Academy relied on close collaboration across stakeholders, marketing, videography, and development.
My role wasn't just to design the interface. I helped connect the different parts of the project so the experience could come together cohesively, from how courses were structured, to how video content was presented, to how marketing positioned the platform, to how the final designs were implemented.
Working across disciplines meant balancing creative ideas with content needs, business goals, production constraints, and technical feasibility throughout the project.
BUILDING FOR GROWTH
The system needed to support content we hadn't created yet.
The Academy wasn’t designed as a fixed set of courses.
I created reusable patterns across topic pages, course cards, course overviews, lessons, navigation, and supporting content so new material could be introduced without redesigning the experience each time.
That system has allowed the platform to continue expanding into new subject areas while maintaining a consistent learning experience.
EVOLVING THE CURRICULUM
New technology created new learning needs.
As AI became increasingly relevant to industrial businesses, the Academy expanded to include education around how it can be applied to real business workflows.
The AI-focused curriculum extended the same product principles I used throughout the Academy: practical guidance, clear learning paths, and an emphasis on helping users understand how emerging tools can support real work rather than presenting technology for its own sake.
VISUAL SYSTEM
Educational didn't have to mean generic.
I wanted the Academy to feel connected to IWS while still having enough visual personality to stand on its own.
The design system combines a structured product interface with stronger visual moments across course imagery, promotional graphics, topic treatments, and supporting content.
That balance allowed the functional parts of the experience to remain consistent while giving different subjects their own visual identity.
REFLECTION
The hardest part wasn't designing the lessons. It was designing the structure around them.
IWS Academy reinforced how much a learning experience depends on what happens before and after the content itself.
Users need to understand where to start, whether something is relevant, how pieces relate to one another, and where to go next.
Designing that surrounding system turned a growing collection of educational material into a product that could support both self-guided learning and continued expansion over time.
