Building an EdTech ecosystem for 500,000 students

Over six years at UNOWHY I led the design of a suite of 7 web applications that replaced a legacy Android launcher, for 500,000 students and teachers in 465 schools in Île-de-France. It grew out of a prototype that never shipped, Connect, and out of one choice: focused apps instead of a single platform.

Role: Product Lead and Design Manager
Scope: EdTech ecosystem and design system
Company: UNOWHY / SQOOL

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“Victor played a key role in our design transformation. He built the team, established our design system, and brought the rigor we needed to scale from one product to an entire ecosystem. His ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on execution was essential to SQOOL’s evolution.”

Charlotte RiffletCPO, UNOWHY

Summary

Context: The Île-de-France region equipped 465 high schools with 500,000 personal tablets and PCs. The SQOOL suite, built for shared tablets on carts, no longer fit, so it had to be rebuilt for personal devices used at school and at home.
My role: I joined UNOWHY in 2018 as Senior Product Designer, then led design and finally product, with a seat on the executive committee. I recruited and managed a team of 5 designers, co-led product strategy with the CPO and built the design system for the whole suite.
Design leadershipHead of Design, then Product Lead
Design team5 designers
Product strategyCo-led with the CPO
Brand and design systemFigma and ZeroHeight
Deliverables: SQOOL Classe
Real-time classroom supervision: teachers see every student screen, lock devices and push content.
SQOOL Partage
File sharing in one gesture, as simple as AirDrop for a class.
SQOOL MDM and Applications
Device fleet management for IT admins, and an app catalog for teachers.
SQOOL Protect
Parental controls with QR code pairing, shipped in 3 months.
SQOOL Extend
Virtual Windows desktops with professional tools on light devices.
Brand and design system
One visual system and Figma libraries, extended from 5 to 7 apps and documented on ZeroHeight.

500,000+
Students and teachers: 465
Schools equipped across Île-de-France: 7
Web applications shipped

A launcher built for another world

When the region decided to equip every student and teacher in 465 high schools, the SQOOL suite still belonged to a world that was ending: shared tablets on carts, heavy C++ desktop apps for teachers, a launcher that locked students into one Android environment, servers hosted in the schools. None of it worked on a personal device used in class and at home.

Back-to-school distribution · The Île-de-France region hands out devices to students

Legacy student launcher · Android environment that locked students into SQOOL apps

Legacy teacher space · In class, cloud, editor, corrections and filtering, in a single site

Legacy MDM · On-premise device management system

The suite had to run on standard Android and Windows devices, from any browser, against the ENT (digital workspaces) that schools already used. I set three objectives, tied to the design work ahead.

Three objectives for the new suite

One tool per problemEach audience (teachers, students, IT admins, parents) finds an app that does one thing clearly.
One familyThe apps share an identity and components, so a teacher relearns nothing when moving between tools.
A system that scalesLibraries and rules that several development teams apply the same way.

Testing the web, then splitting the product

Select a phase to see what it contained

Hi-SQOOL: testing the web with high schoolers

In 2019, Hi-SQOOL was a unified dashboard for high schoolers: sessions, cloud storage, an app catalog and authentication. The students we interviewed wanted a tool that did not look like the institutional ones. The MVP shipped in six weeks with a PO and two developers, then was presented to the regional council. It validated the web approach and produced the authentication and cloud storage that later apps reused.

Hi-SQOOL · Student platform and new identity

Hi-SQOOL: chat · Messages, documents and comments in one view

Hi-SQOOL: components · First component library

Hi-SQOOL: tokens · Type scale and color palette

Connect: the prototype that changed direction

In 2020, Connect took the idea to the scale of the whole suite: one dashboard, with a floating menu, La Bulle. The React prototype worked, and it showed that a dense dashboard would compete directly with the ENT. That evidence let us stop and change direction.

Connect · Dashboard prototype, in React

Read the Connect case study

The pivot: one app, one problem

With product leadership I wrote a manifesto for the company: apps that are simple to understand, fluid to use and magical in the moments that matter. Each app would solve a single problem: files with Partage, supervision with Classe, fleet management with MDM for the IT team. Teachers knew at once what each tool was for, and the development teams got clear ownership.

The SQOOL suite · Classe, Partage, Applications, MDM, Protect and Extend

A brand and a design system to hold it together

A suite of apps needs one identity. I designed the visual system, one color per app within a single family, refined with the agency Fllow and extended from 5 to 7 apps. I structured the Figma libraries and the ZeroHeight documentation, and defined the shared base: app shell, navigation and a file picker common to Classe and Partage. Weekly design syncs and QA reviews kept the teams aligned.

Logo variations · App logos on dark, light and gradient backgrounds

Color by app · Signature colors for Classe, Applications, MDM and Partage

Primary colors · Blue Dodger, Text Primary and Marine, the core palette

Tablet launcher · Full grid of the ecosystem apps on a tablet

Apps hub · Landing page with a card for each SQOOL app

App switcher · Quick navigation menu between apps

One app per audience and per problem

Each application starts from a field finding, and the design decision follows from it.

SQOOL ClasseTeachers feared losing control once students had devices. A grid of every screen, with color-coded status, gave them confidence.Read the SQOOL Classe case study
SQOOL PartageGetting a PDF to 27 students was the daily friction. Partage makes it one gesture, with no USB key and no email attachment.
SQOOL Applications and MDMTeachers did not want to manage installs, they wanted to find good tools: the catalog is a discovery front end. IT admins deploy and manage 500,000 devices through the MDM, kept apart from teacher tools.
SQOOL ProtectParents wanted simplicity rather than features: QR code pairing, a 3-minute setup, shipped in 3 months.
SQOOL ExtendTeachers did not ask for virtual machines, they asked why Photoshop was slow. Extend opens virtual Windows desktops on light devices, with loading sequences that shorten the perceived wait.

SQOOL Classe · Real-time classroom supervision

SQOOL Partage · One-gesture file sharing

SQOOL Applications · Educational app discovery

SQOOL Protect · Parental controls with QR pairing

SQOOL Extend · Cloud desktops for heavy software

What the suite changed

In six years UNOWHY went from a hardware maker to a software publisher. The suite counts 7 web applications and serves 500,000 students and teachers in 465 schools in Île-de-France.

Three lessons I kept

A prototype can be worth more than a productConnect never shipped, yet it was our most important project. It proved the technology worked and showed why our strategy was wrong.
Splitting the product was the biggest UX winBuilding focused apps instead of one platform reduced complexity more than any interface redesign could have.
A design system rests on governanceGetting 30+ developers across 5 teams to use a component library consistently takes far more work than building the button library.

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Victor Soussan

Lead Product Designer

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Building an EdTech ecosystem for 500,000 students

Summary