Redesigning Canvas:
A Dashboard That Works
With Students
Most students don't fail because they're not trying. They fail because the tools they rely on make it harder to succeed.
This is a redesign of the Canvas LMS dashboard — built from research, tested with real users, grounded in the belief that a learning platform should actually support learning.
Role
Solo UX Researcher & Designer
Timeline
7 weeks · Fall 2025
Methods
Heuristic eval · Task analysis · Usability testing
Target
College & graduate students, desktop
01 The Problem
Canvas is everywhere. But so is the frustration.
Over 30 million students use Canvas every day. Yet on any given night before a deadline, you'll find students frantically Slacking classmates asking where the Zoom link is, opening five browser tabs to find what's actually due, or staring at an assignment they don't know how to start. This wasn't a student discipline problem. It was a design problem.
Through secondary research — including NNG's F-pattern eye-tracking studies and academic research on student cognitive load — and direct observation, three systemic failures emerged in the current Canvas dashboard.