Doris School - UX/UI design, branding

Doris School

Education Technology

UX Design

UI Design

Brand Identity

Illustration

Prototyping

Doris School is a platform that helps families find and compare international schools. I was hired as the sole freelance UX/UI designer to create the product experience - from brand identity to interface design. My work included designing the logo, the illustration of doris, and a visual language system, as well as crafting the UX and UI for the school profiles, parent and school dashboards, the AI chat interface, and a clickable Figma prototype. The goal was to turn an emotionally overwhelming process into one that felt clear, supportive, and empowering for parents.

I was brought on by Doris School - a startup dedicated to supporting globally mobile families in their search for the right international school - to lead the design of their product experience from the ground up.

This included:

Developing the visual brand identity, including logo, colour palette, typography, and an illustration of doris, based on a photograph of the founder's grandmother

Designing key user interfaces such as the homepage, school profiles, parent and school dashboards, and the AI chat feature

Creating a consistent design system to support development

Delivering a clickable prototype in Figma for demos and stakeholder engagement

The work was split into two focused design iterations, followed by an interactive prototype.

The problem was both emotional and structural. For many families, choosing a school, especially in a new country, is one of the most high-pressure decisions they’ll face. Parents often feel overwhelmed, under-informed, and unsupported. Doris School’s challenge was to reframe this stressful task into something that felt empowering, friendly, and manageable.

From a design perspective, the challenges included:

Information overload School profiles are inherently content-heavy and must include required information for compliance and transparency

Tone and accessibility The experience needed to balance professionalism with warmth, appealing to both school administrators and parents

User segmentation Designing for two very different user groups, parents and schools, required clear, intuitive flows and interfaces for each

Comparability Making it easy for parents to scan, compare and interpret complex data without it feeling clinical or transactional

Brand flexibility The identity needed to work across multiple touchpoints - website, email, social media, and the product UI

I began the project by asking clarifying questions about the product vision and constraints, ensuring a clear understanding of the required scope. Early collaboration focused on mapping out priorities, speed over polish in the short term, but a solid, scalable UX foundation for future growth.

Key elements of my approach included:

User-Centred Design Thinking Everything was guided by the insight that parents were under emotional stress, so kindness and clarity became core design principles

Strategic Structure I proposed using chip-based navigation to manage dense information and create more scannable layouts

Visual Language Development I created custom icons and worked on layout patterns (e.g. dual columns, section dividers) to improve information architecture

Branding that Communicates Emotion I designed the mascot "Doris" to inject warmth and personality, and created a brand palette that felt fresh yet trustworthy

Scalability and Consistency I ensured every component followed a consistent visual and interaction logic, making handoff to development smoother

Collaborative Iteration Throughout, I worked directly with the two co-founders - one leading dev, the other managing copy and strategy. We also incorporated feedback from parents and school administrators on the company’s advisory board

I started by crafting the Doris identity - a brand refresh that included:

A new logo

An illustration of Doris the mascot

A colour palette and typographic system that struck a balance between playful and professional

With the brand in place, I moved on to improving core platform UI:

Redesigned the homepage and blog pages for clarity and cohesion

Rebuilt the chat interface to feel more intuitive and reassuring

Created school “snapshot” cards that highlighted key facts in a visually digestible way

The second design phase addressed core product mechanics, including:

Full School Profiles I restructured the layout to reduce cognitive load, broke information into visual sections, and added iconography and callouts to aid scanning. I also introduced design elements to support schools with multiple campuses, such as dropdowns and in-page navigation tools

Parent Dashboard I created a clear, friendly dashboard to help parents manage preferences like budget and school stage, and to track and compare shortlisted schools

School Dashboard Designed to help schools track engagement, update their listings, and review parent interactions

Onboarding and Tips I suggested a Doris Tip or onboarding feature to help new users feel guided rather than overwhelmed

By the end of the project, I had delivered a fully functional clickable Figma prototype encompassing all major user flows. This included:

A fully responsive landing page experience

School profiles that offered rich information without feeling heavy

User-friendly dashboards for both schools and parents

A cohesive brand system (logo, colours, typography, illustration)

A conversational, inviting AI chat feature interface

My designs helped Doris School demonstrate their product to investors and early partners, giving them a strong visual and UX foundation to build on. The founders expressed appreciation for how the design helped clarify their vision, saying it made the product feel "real" and emotionally aligned with their mission.

This project exemplified the kind of UX/UI work I love most: tackling emotionally complex user needs with thoughtful, human-centred design. It required balancing clarity with warmth, detail with simplicity, and professional standards with genuine empathy.