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Empowering UK Education: $8+ million revenue & award-winning UX

Project Overview

I partnered with Aptem, a leading UK EdTech platform in vocational and employability training, to lead the transformation of their ageing .NET system into a modern, responsive Progressive Web App used daily by over 130,000 learners.

Taking the lead across both product strategy and UX design, I applied a fast-paced, iterative approach to deliver a scalable platform that set new industry standards for accessibility, improved usability, and aligned with business growth goals. The redesign contributed directly to Aptem’s $8 million revenue growth, expanded its reach to be adopted by 60% of UK universities, and helped secure multiple industry awards.

Insights & key results

🏆

trusted apprenticeship management system for vocational training in the UK

🎓

60%

of universities across the UK trust Aptem

💸

$3M

funding raised in 2022 from initial MVP.

💰

$8M+

revenue hit in 2023

📈

45%

ARR growth in 2 years
From $5.5M (2021) to $8M+ (2023)

🏅

10+

Awards won: Digital Education Awards 2023, UK Business Tech awards 2022 and more...

👩‍🎓

130k+

learners use Aptem every day across the UK

The Challenge

As Aptem gained traction in the UK’s vocational and employability training sector, their legacy system struggled to meet growing user and regulatory demands.

While functional, the existing platform lacked responsiveness, usability, and scalability, slowing down learners and admin users and increasing support overhead. Additionally, new UK accessibility regulations required full WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance, adding further urgency and complexity.

To continue growing and serving a more professional, diverse user base, Aptem needed a full redesign that would modernise the experience, support a broader ecosystem, and unlock long-term scalability.

Designing for Growth

To lead this transformation, I focused on five strategic pillars to elevate Aptem’s platform:

🌈

Modernise the visual language
Redesigned the interface to build credibility with a more professional audience while staying true to Aptem’s brand identity and educational values.

⚡

Streamline core workflows

Used insight from user journey mapping and pain point analysis to optimise learner and admin flows, reducing friction and supporting complex, high-frequency tasks.

📱

Deliver responsive, intuitive UX

Redesigned a seamless PWA experience designed for clarity, performance, and ease of use across devices, improving engagement for all user types and devices.

🧩

Design system that scales

Created a flexible, modular design system to support future growth, rapid feature development, and integration with Aptem’s wider product ecosystem.

♿

Build in accessibility from the start

Embedded accessibility best practices into the design & development process to meet WCAG 2.1 level AA standards, ensuring compliance and inclusive access for all users.

Ross is an exceptionally talented UX designer. His desire in understanding the customer and industry paired with his passion for interaction and user experience design has led to transformative results that in turn has driven significant business success.

Michael Sims

🇬🇧

Chief Product Officer at Aptem

Feature spotlight: Aptem Assess

To enhance learner support and streamline onboarding, we introduced Aptem Assess, a cognitive assessment tool designed to identify learners who may benefit from additional support early in their educational journey.

Partnering closely with the Head of Research & Psychology, we ensured that Aptem Assess was grounded in robust psychological principles and aligned with best practices in cognitive assessment. This collaboration was pivotal in creating an assessment that is both scientifically sound and user-friendly.

Impact and Outcomes:

Engaging interface: Designed eight interactive 'games' that assess key cognitive domains, ensuring a positive and engaging experience for learners.
Efficiency: 80% of learners complete the assessment within 15 minutes during onboarding, allowing tutors to proactively identify learning difficulties and support needs from day one, streamlining interventions and improving learner outcomes.
Actionable insights: Provides educators with detailed reports, highlighting areas where learners may require additional assistance, enabling tailored support strategies.
Responsive design: Optimised for mobile, tablet, and desktop, allowing learners to complete assessments conveniently on any device.
Scalability: Successfully deployed across multiple institutions, including universities and training providers, demonstrating its adaptability and effectiveness.

Impact and Outcomes:

Engaging interface: Designed eight interactive 'games' that assess key cognitive domains, ensuring a positive and engaging experience for learners.
Efficiency: 80% of learners complete the assessment within 15 minutes during onboarding, allowing tutors to proactively identify learning difficulties and support needs from day one, streamlining interventions and improving learner outcomes.
Actionable insights: Provides educators with detailed reports, highlighting areas where learners may require additional assistance, enabling tailored support strategies.
Responsive design: Optimised for mobile, tablet, and desktop, allowing learners to complete assessments conveniently on any device.
Scalability: Successfully deployed across multiple institutions, including universities and training providers, demonstrating its adaptability and effectiveness.

Impact and Outcomes:

Engaging interface: Designed eight interactive 'games' that assess key cognitive domains, ensuring a positive and engaging experience for learners.
Efficiency: 80% of learners complete the assessment within 15 minutes during onboarding, allowing tutors to proactively identify learning difficulties and support needs from day one, streamlining interventions and improving learner outcomes.
Actionable insights: Provides educators with detailed reports, highlighting areas where learners may require additional assistance, enabling tailored support strategies.
Responsive design: Optimised for mobile, tablet, and desktop, allowing learners to complete assessments conveniently on any device.
Scalability: Successfully deployed across multiple institutions, including universities and training providers, demonstrating its adaptability and effectiveness.

Impact and Outcomes:

Engaging interface: Designed eight interactive 'games' that assess key cognitive domains, ensuring a positive and engaging experience for learners.
Efficiency: 80% of learners complete the assessment within 15 minutes during onboarding, allowing tutors to proactively identify learning difficulties and support needs from day one, streamlining interventions and improving learner outcomes.
Actionable insights: Provides educators with detailed reports, highlighting areas where learners may require additional assistance, enabling tailored support strategies.
Responsive design: Optimised for mobile, tablet, and desktop, allowing learners to complete assessments conveniently on any device.
Scalability: Successfully deployed across multiple institutions, including universities and training providers, demonstrating its adaptability and effectiveness.

Marketing website

After redesigning the product MVP, I turned my attention to Aptem’s outdated marketing website, which no longer reflected the modern product or the company’s evolved positioning. I led a full redesign and build of the site to better align with the updated brand and to support lead generation for the sales team.

Collaborating closely with the marketing team:

Designed and developed a high-converting landing page using a proven SaaS conversion framework.
Improved SEO and site structure, boosting organic traffic and google page ranking.
Introduced gated content (e.g. whitepapers and case studies) to generate qualified leads and support content marketing efforts.
Integrated analytics tools such as Hotjar and Pardot to track visitor behaviour, capture lead data, and inform ongoing optimisation resulting in reduced bounce rates and improved funnel performance.
Improved page load speed and performance, leading to a better user experience across devices and increased conversions.
Helped drive a consistent pipeline of qualified leads each month, supporting revenue growth targets.

Collaborating closely with the marketing team:

Designed and developed a high-converting landing page using a proven SaaS conversion framework.
Improved SEO and site structure, boosting organic traffic and google page ranking.
Introduced gated content (e.g. whitepapers and case studies) to generate qualified leads and support content marketing efforts.
Integrated analytics tools such as Hotjar and Pardot to track visitor behaviour, capture lead data, and inform ongoing optimisation resulting in reduced bounce rates and improved funnel performance.
Improved page load speed and performance, leading to a better user experience across devices and increased conversions.
Helped drive a consistent pipeline of qualified leads each month, supporting revenue growth targets.

Collaborating closely with the marketing team:

Designed and developed a high-converting landing page using a proven SaaS conversion framework.
Improved SEO and site structure, boosting organic traffic and google page ranking.
Introduced gated content (e.g. whitepapers and case studies) to generate qualified leads and support content marketing efforts.
Integrated analytics tools such as Hotjar and Pardot to track visitor behaviour, capture lead data, and inform ongoing optimisation resulting in reduced bounce rates and improved funnel performance.
Improved page load speed and performance, leading to a better user experience across devices and increased conversions.
Helped drive a consistent pipeline of qualified leads each month, supporting revenue growth targets.

Collaborating closely with the marketing team:

Designed and developed a high-converting landing page using a proven SaaS conversion framework.
Improved SEO and site structure, boosting organic traffic and google page ranking.
Introduced gated content (e.g. whitepapers and case studies) to generate qualified leads and support content marketing efforts.
Integrated analytics tools such as Hotjar and Pardot to track visitor behaviour, capture lead data, and inform ongoing optimisation resulting in reduced bounce rates and improved funnel performance.
Improved page load speed and performance, leading to a better user experience across devices and increased conversions.
Helped drive a consistent pipeline of qualified leads each month, supporting revenue growth targets.

I worked with Ross a few years ago while working at Aptem. Ross possesses a rare mix of technical aptitude, design ability, intelligence and communication skills which makes him an outstanding UX/UI lead. He surpassed our expectations in creating an aesthetically beautiful website which achieved our goals and more. What set him apart was his ability to understand the bigger picture and to advise what would work best. An absolute pleasure to work with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him.

Talia Geberovich

🇬🇧

Marketing Director at Aptem

His dedication to ensuring that UX and UI improvements to our platform are implemented in a logical, intuitive and structured way has had a huge material impact on our users and customer base. I could not recommend him more highly.

Shaun Elliot

🇬🇧

Product Director at Aptem

Key outcomes

I led the end-to-end design transformation of Aptem’s flagship platform, aligning strategic business objectives with real user needs, all while fostering a growth mindset. By continuously iterating on design solutions and staying adaptable to evolving user and business demands, I helped drive both immediate improvements and long-term growth.

Working closely with the CTO, CEO, and cross-functional teams, I drove the MVP phase and laid the foundation for future growth. After launch, I helped scale the product team, managing and mentoring an additional designer and collaborating with the Head of Product and user research team to refine and expand the platform.

By fostering a culture of collaboration, driving user-centric design, and aligning the product vision with business growth, I helped Aptem position itself as a market leader, scaling quickly while meeting the evolving needs of users and stakeholders alike.

Through this collaborative, growth-focused approach, I enabled Aptem to:

🏆

Award winning UX recognised for setting new standards in accessibility and user engagement in the skills training sector.

🚀

$8+ million ARR, contributing directly to Aptem’s expanding footprint in the vocational and employability training sector.

🤩

Enhanced user engagement with a more modern, intuitive and streamlined experience, improving both learner and Trainer satisfaction.

♿

WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance, ensuring accessibility for all users, helping Aptem meet UK government regulations and make their platform more inclusive.

💸

Introduced multiple product lines to boost revenue, attract diverse customers, expand the target market, and empower sales teams with compelling demos.

🪴

Fostered team growth by mentoring another designer and the dev team, especially on accessibility best practices and Angular web app principles, ensuring high-quality, accessible implementations.

⚒️

Improved scalability with design and development processes set up to support future growth, reducing friction as Aptem’s user base continued to expand.

📣

Marketing website: Designed and developed to generate leads, aligning with Aptem’s brand and product offerings, driving conversions, and supporting sales efforts.

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