My EF

• An outdated ecosystem

  The brief was to re-brand and re-structure the portal from the ground up, while the product was still in active development.

• Consistency across screens

  Styles had to travel across every screen in the organisation without manual redlining.

• Paperwork with deadlines

  Students juggle visa forms, waivers and transfer details in several languages, and each has a due date.

• Social and practical in one place

  The same home page had to feel like a lively student lounge and a dependable trip dashboard.

1. What does a student want to know 20 days before departure?
2. How do we show a rejected document without causing panic?
3. Which styles belong in the shared library, and which stay local to one screen?
4. How do school, city and housing information fit into one consistent page pattern?

The first job was cleaning up product branding and the design guidelines. Brand.ai holds the logo variants, colour swatches, type scale and icon set, and its Sketch plugin pushed the same styles to every screen across the organisation. Proxima Nova carries headings and body text; Sabon LT Pro is kept for moments that need a break in rhythm.

The Brand.ai guide kept logo variants, colours, type and icons in one synced library.

Login sits over a photo of a city skyline, with social sign-in or email. Once in, a panoramic splash greets the student by name with the trip that matters: "Your upcoming trip to San Diego in 20 days". It adds today's weather and a single Explore button.

Sign-in sits on a single card over a sunset skyline, with social or email login.

The home page puts a trip checklist above the social feed. Each card shows a document's state in colour: green for accepted, red for rejected, blue for pending. A flight line from CHZ to SAN counts the days. Below it, the local My EF community shares posts pulled in from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, alongside suggested friends and timely prompts.

The lounge scrolls from the trip hero and checklist into the community feed.

School pages follow one pattern. A welcome, key contacts and a support request come first. Then come the city's sights and activities, the campus, and host families and residences with amenities, facility photos and a map.

Each school page opens with a 360-degree view of the campus and the ways to get in touch.

Everything a student must upload sits in one row with due dates and status. Everything EF sends back, from the flight e-ticket to accommodation details, can be downloaded or emailed. Uploading is a drag-and-drop page with a short how-to video and the other documents still required.

Rejected documents turn coral, and each one opens a drag-and-drop upload page.

• Fix the foundation first. It made every later screen faster to design and easier to review.
• Lead with the trip. A countdown and a checklist told students more than any welcome message could.
• Give each colour one meaning. Status colours only work when green, red and blue never swap roles.