ESMA
Lead Product Designer (End-to-End)
4–5 months
6–8 cross-discipline
Web (Admin + Multi-User)
In development
Executive Summary
ESMA is a role-structured institutional management infrastructure built to digitize academic operations, financial coordination, and administrative governance within K–12 educational environments.
The platform replaced fragmented spreadsheets and manual workflows with a unified data layer that aligns administrators, teachers, parents, students, and back-office staff within a controlled governance architecture.
Role-Based System Architecture
The platform was architected around five distinct user groups: administrators, teachers, students, parents, and back-office staff. Each role required unique permissions, workflows, and decision surfaces while operating on a shared institutional data layer.
Administrative Governance
Full system visibility including admissions, finance, academic sessions, transport logistics, and institutional reporting.
Academic Operations
Teachers access attendance, grading, and performance tracking without exposure to financial or governance modules.
Parent & Student Views
Structured dashboards focused on academic performance, announcements, and fee visibility while protecting institutional data.
Back-Office Oversight
Central configuration layer for permissions, session management, fee structures, and system-level audit visibility.
Designing for Multi-Role Complexity & Decision Clarity
Information Hierarchy. Operational metrics were structured by urgency and frequency of action. High-impact indicators such as attendance, financial status, and system alerts were surfaced first to support daily administrative decisions.
Data Visualization Strategy. Visualization types were selected based on cognitive efficiency. Progress indicators were used for time-based tracking, pie charts for categorical distribution, and line charts strictly for trend analysis to reduce cognitive load.
System Scalability. A modular, card-based framework allows new modules and institutional metrics to be introduced without restructuring the dashboard architecture.
Institutional Administration Layer
Designed for school owners and administrators to oversee financial health, enrollment metrics, attendance analytics and staff performance from a unified decision surface.
Academic Operations Layer
Streamlined classroom workflows including attendance, grading, assignment tracking and performance monitoring while reducing repetitive administrative coordination.
Student Experience Layer
Academic visibility, structured communication, and progress tracking designed to improve autonomy while maintaining clarity.
Parent Oversight Layer
Real-time access to student performance, fee tracking and institutional communication while maintaining structured access controls.
System Governance Layer
Central configuration hub for permissions, academic sessions, fee structures and institutional controls ensuring scalability across varying school sizes.
Design Decisions & Trade-offs
Balancing information density with usability across five distinct roles required prioritizing decision clarity over visual complexity.
Chart usage was intentionally restricted to distribution and trend analysis to reduce cognitive load for non-technical users.
Permission modeling favored structured institutional roles over highly granular configurations to reduce setup overhead for administrators.
A modular card-based layout ensured long-term scalability without requiring dashboard re-architecture as institutions expand.
Institutional Scalability Strategy
The architecture supports expansion across varying school sizes, enabling additional campuses, academic sessions, and reporting modules without structural redesign.
Modular dashboards and role templates allow institutions to scale administrative oversight while preserving operational clarity for end users.
Impact & Outcomes
Following deployment across pilot institutions, ESMA improved cross-role coordination, institutional transparency, and reporting efficiency.
35%
Reduced Administrative Coordination Overhead
Centralized workflows minimized repetitive communication between teachers and school administrators.
24%
Increased Parent Engagement
Real-time access to academic data improved parent visibility and response rates.
29%
Fewer Data Entry Errors
Structured validation and permission controls reduced inconsistencies across institutional records.
32%
Faster Reporting Turnaround
Centralized dashboards replaced manual spreadsheet compilation for finance and academic reporting.
