UAE Government Project

Mahara Vocational Program Portal for (Higher Colleges of Technology)

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Overview

The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the UAE’s largest applied higher education institution, launched the Mahara program to bridge the gap between high school and higher education through vocational pathways across healthcare, logistics, sports, real estate, and technology. With over 23,000 students across 16 campuses, HCT required a scalable digital platform that could streamline registration, simplify program discovery, and support independent onboarding at scale. I was engaged to design and deliver the Mahara vocational portal — a modern, accessible, and student-centric platform that would reduce friction, improve adoption, and align with HCT’s mission of applied education.

My Role & Responsibilities

  • Led UX strategy and end-to-end product design
  • Conducted workflow analysis and friction audits
  • Redesigned the registration and onboarding experience
  • Implemented accessibility-first design (WCAG standards)
  • Designed responsive UI for cross-device compatibility
  • Collaborated with stakeholders across multiple campuses

Problem

HCT’s vocational registration system was manual, fragmented, and difficult to navigate. Students faced lengthy forms, inconsistent navigation, and accessibility barriers — leading to high drop-off rates and heavy reliance on on-campus assistance. The system also lacked scalability, making it difficult to support a growing student base across 16 campuses. The core challenge was not just improving usability — but reducing institutional inefficiencies affecting thousands of students annually.

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Approach

I reimagined the experience from the ground up, focusing on reducing friction, improving accessibility, and creating a scalable digital infrastructure.

Key strategic decisions included:

  • Converting long, complex forms into guided multi-step flows
  • Structuring vocational programs by industry for easier discovery
  • Designing WCAG-compliant interfaces for inclusive access
  • Optimizing performance and usability for mobile-first access
  • Building a modular design system to support long-term scalability

Every design decision aimed to reduce cognitive overload and increase independent task completion.

Solution

The redesigned Mahara portal delivered:

  • A simplified, guided onboarding journey
  • Clear industry-based program categorization
  • Improved navigation and validation feedback
  • Fully responsive, cross-device performance
  • Accessibility-compliant UI system
  • Reduced dependency on administrative support

The platform transformed a manual-heavy process into a streamlined digital experience aligned with HCT’s applied education mission.

Impact

The redesigned portal delivered measurable institutional transformation:

  • 55% reduction in registration completion time
  • 75% improvement in task success rates
  • 70% increase in overall usability scores
  • 80% improvement in mobile performance
  • 60% reduction in support requests across campuses
  • 18,000+ students independently completed onboarding in the first cycle

By simplifying onboarding and improving accessibility, the Mahara platform significantly increased student autonomy while reducing operational strain across all 16 campuses.

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