Helping students discover their reading identities

ReMo partnered with Scout to create a web app that makes literacy education more personalized and engaging.

CONTEXT

"I'm not a reader"… or, the stigmatization of reading

The conventional model of literacy instruction doesn’t make room for different pathways to become a reader – if a student doesn’t fit the narrow definition of “reader”, they are pushed to the bottom of the bell curve. Many existing reading tools follow an achievement-based learning model that only further discourages students. This is the exact problem ReMo aims to solve with their web app.

— Michelle Deblois, ReMo CEO

There’s nothing better than the joy of watching a student become a reader. But couldn’t it be easier?

However, ReMo’s original app was hard to navigate, with misleading labels, limited data display options, and multiple clicks were required to find important pages. They needed a modernized, optimized website that teachers and students could both navigate with ease.


Through Scout Studio’s pro-bono program, our team embarked on a full redesign project for their web app. During our four-month schedule, we upgraded the application with new and improved branding, information architecture, and overall user experience on both the teacher-facing and student-facing aspects of the web app.

DESIGN DECISIONS

(1) New and improved way-finding and filtering

ReMo’s original way of filtering and sorting a school’s collection of books was clunky. Redesigning the filtering system and adding a way-finding system was central to helping users navigate the book list efficiently.


We considered two approaches: a card-based grid with filters at the top and a more traditional list view with a filter sidebar.

ReMo’s original design

Overwhelming, unscalable, and lacks hierarchy

Filters are lost when a user scrolls

Largely ignored

Our final iteration

More intuitive sorting options

Ability to search

Filter bar fixed when scrolling

Ability to perform quick tasks

Scalable, intuitive