G-MOOC is an open online course platform built around gamification—turning traditional course material into interactive quests that learners progress through at their own pace, collaborating and competing along the way.

The platform had already earned recognition before I joined, including a gold medal at IUCEL 2018 and the Best eLearning Management System Award at IUCEL 2019, validating the concept it was built on.

I was brought in on a contract basis as the UI Designer and Frontend Developer to raise the visual and experiential quality of the platform to match that recognition. Working from the client’s creative direction rather than formal design specs, I translated their vision directly into code — handling the UI pattern design, UX improvements, and frontend implementation across the platform.

The work involved taking an academically proven but visually rough product and giving it an interface that felt as engaging as the gamification concept behind it: clear progress cues, intuitive quest flows, and a visual language that made the learning experience feel rewarding rather than merely functional.

G-MOOC had already proven its concept by the time I joined — the focus was on execution quality:

• To redesign and elevate the platform’s visual language so it matched the credibility of its award-winning concept.
• To improve the overall UX, making quest flows, course navigation, and progress feedback feel intuitive and rewarding.
• To implement frontend changes that brought a stronger, more cohesive UI to a product built primarily by an academic development team.
• To work efficiently from loose creative direction rather than formal specs, using initiative and design judgment to fill the gaps.

No formal design handoff

There were no wireframes or design files to work from — just a creative direction and a running product. Every UI decision required translating an abstract vision into something concrete, demanding both design intuition and the confidence to make calls independently.

Inheriting an existing codebase

• Joining a project mid-flight meant working within a frontend structure built by others.
• Improvements had to be made without breaking what already worked, requiring careful judgment about what to refactor versus what to leave alone.

Short timeline

The contract ran for six months. Within that window, the UI, UX, and frontend all needed meaningful improvement — which meant ruthless prioritisation of the changes that would have the highest visible impact.