Balancing strict compliance with student usability
Company
TAMM
Publicis Sapient
Product
Government education portal
Year
2019
Role
Product Designer
Over five months as Product Designer at Publicis Sapient, I designed the online education journey for young Emirati students discovering and applying to vocational programs. Working within a client-agency structure where final design decisions sat with the government client's design system team, I focused on building rationale and validation to help the client confidently approve and ship a solution that balanced strict compliance with student usability.
The constraint wasn't just regulatory—it was structural. The client's internal design system team held final decision authority, requiring every design proposal to be thoroughly rationalized and validated before review. With limited client validation cycles and low student awareness of vocational programs, I needed to present work that was both compliant and clearly justified through research.
The challenge: create a compelling, evidence-based case for design decisions within a multi-layered approval structure.
Approach
What are the key challenges to be solved?
1.
Building a stakeholder alignment through a design sprint
I participated in a week-long design sprint that brought together client stakeholders, government representatives, and our agency team. My role was to synthesize research inputs, support rapid prototyping, and help translate insights into actionable design criteria the client team could rally behind. The sprint revealed that students approached vocational search fundamentally differently than traditional education—requiring guided discovery, not just navigation. This insight became the foundation of our design rationale. Delivering a solution within established structure
Delivering a solution within established structure
2.
Validate Concepts to enable client decisions
Outcome & Impact
Unified Search & Guidance
I proposed and validated a dual-path approach (direct search + guided recommendations) that accommodated both goal-directed and exploratory behaviors. User testing data helped convince the client team this approach was necessary despite adding complexity.
Clearer Wording & Visual Guidance
Working closely with a copywriter, I developed wording for both English and Arabic versions that balanced educational terminology with accessible language for 18-24 year old students. This bilingual approach ensured consistency across both languages while respecting cultural context, helping students understand complex program requirements without feeling overwhelmed by institutional jargon.
