User Research — Personas & Journey Mapping

As Alef Education's platform grew from its first release into a comprehensive system supporting classroom-based and individual learning, we needed to deeply understand the people using it. I led a user research initiative combining in-depth interviews with classroom observations across schools in Abu Dhabi — building personas and journey maps that became the foundation for product design decisions.

• The platform serves three fundamentally different user groups — teachers, students, and guardians — each with distinct goals, contexts, and pain points
• Design decisions were being made with assumptions rather than evidence from real classroom environments
• The transition from classroom-based learning to blended learning introduced new behaviours and workflows that weren't yet understood
• Stakeholders needed a shared, research-grounded understanding of users to align product priorities

I conducted over 30 in-depth interviews with teachers and school administrators across Abu Dhabi. Sessions were video-recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis. The interviews explored daily workflows, pain points with existing tools, attitudes toward technology in the classroom, and expectations for a blended learning platform.

Alongside interviews, I led on-site classroom observations to see how teachers and students actually interact with the platform in real learning environments. Watching real classroom dynamics revealed behaviours and pain points that interviews alone couldn't surface — from how teachers manage screen time to how students navigate between activities.

Synthesising all research data, I created a comprehensive Teacher Customer Experience Map. The map traces the complete teacher journey — from first hearing about Alef, through onboarding and daily use, to becoming an advanced user. Each stage captures user actions, thinking, emotions, and key touchpoints, revealing where the experience breaks down and where design intervention has the highest impact.

• Shared user understanding — personas and journey maps became reference artefacts used across product, design, and engineering teams
• Evidence-based priorities — research findings directly informed the product roadmap, shifting focus to high-impact pain points identified in the field
• Improved onboarding — journey mapping revealed critical drop-off points in the teacher onboarding flow, leading to a redesigned first-use experience
• Cross-team alignment — stakeholders could reference concrete research data rather than assumptions when debating product direction