Laiboyan:
Lab@Cloud UX Redesign

Introduction: When the Lab Isn’t Working, Neither Are the Students

At Laiboyan, I was tasked with redesigning Lab@Cloud—a virtual lab used in engineering programs across Latin America. But there was a problem: 4 out of 10 students said they wouldn’t use it again.

I didn’t start with screens. I started with the pain.

Why were students quitting a tool that should’ve made their learning easier? Through survey data, behavioral mapping, and user personas, I found three core blockers:

• Disempowerment: Booking time required a sales rep.
• Stress: Sessions ended abruptly without warning.
• Fatigue: The UI felt heavy, outdated, and not made for how students actually studied.

Designing Autonomy into the System

Empathy became strategy. I mapped student workflows, filtered qualitative data, and reframed the experience as a service ecosystem—booking, using, extending, and troubleshooting—all had to feel cohesive.

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From that, we designed for self-sufficiency:

• A live session dashboard with timer, alerts, and top-up options
• A frictionless booking flow integrated in-app
• A mobile-friendly UI with calm colors and adaptive layout for tablets

I built and tested interactive prototypes that made users feel more in control—even in a timed lab setting.

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Iteration that Mattered

In testing, something unexpected happened: students didn’t just want features—they wanted assurance.

They needed to feel that the platform “had their back.” So we reframed the challenge:

How do we turn urgency into clarity?

I added countdown prompts, persistent visual feedback, and clear confirmation dialogs. Every design choice became about reducing anxiety in high-focus moments.

What This Project Proved

• Good UX is invisible, until it’s missing. Lab@Cloud wasn’t broken—it was silently exhausting users.
• Design is negotiation. Balancing educational needs, tech constraints, and user expectations pushed me to prototype fast and defend what mattered.
• Autonomy is a product feature. Letting users manage their sessions without friction turned a reactive service into a self-led experience.
• Clarity builds trust. In time-sensitive tools, interfaces need to speak before support teams do.

This wasn’t just a UI revamp. It was about restoring confidence in a tool meant to support learning—not interrupt it.

The Result: More Control, Less Friction