Overview

When I joined Follett, the UX organization was still in its infancy. The team existed primarily to support the development of Follett Shelf, an emerging eBook and audiobook platform for K–12 schools.

UX designers worked closely with developers, providing interface guidance, user-centered thinking, and front-end design support. While user experience was respected, it had not yet become a deeply embedded part of the product development process.

Over time, I had the opportunity to witness and contribute to the transformation of UX from a supporting function into a more strategic partner within the organization.

Building Relationships Across Teams

The most successful projects at Follett were rarely the result of individual effort. They emerged from strong collaboration between UX, development, product management, leadership, and customers.

Throughout my tenure, I focused on delivering thoughtful, complete, and actionable design solutions that development teams could confidently implement. I made a habit of anticipating edge cases, documenting interactions thoroughly, and providing assets ahead of schedule whenever possible.

My goal was never simply to hand off designs. My goal was to help teams succeed.

From Screens to Systems

As Follett’s product portfolio expanded, the need for consistency became impossible to ignore. Different teams were solving similar problems in different ways. Components varied from product to product. Patterns emerged organically but lacked formal documentation.

Recognizing this need, the UX team began laying the groundwork for what would eventually become the Follett Design System.

The system provided reusable assets, design standards, interaction patterns, HTML structures, CSS references, and implementation guidance that development teams could use across products. It established a shared language between design and engineering while helping improve consistency and efficiency throughout the organization.

Learning Through Research

Another significant turning point came when Follett invested more heavily in user research. The addition of a dedicated UX Researcher fundamentally changed how the team operated.

Greater access to customers, direct feedback, usability testing, interviews, and behavioral insights helped us better understand how educators, librarians, administrators, and technology professionals interacted with our products.

More importantly, research helped challenge assumptions. We learned that some features customers requested were not actually their biggest pain points. We learned that workflows often differed from how internal teams imagined they worked. We learned that successful products are built by listening first and designing second.

Advocating for Accessibility

Accessibility evolved significantly during my time at Follett. Early efforts focused primarily on color contrast, typography, image alternatives, and general usability improvements.

Like many organizations at the time, accessibility was often treated as a future enhancement rather than a foundational requirement. Over time, that mindset changed.

Screen reader support, ARIA labeling, keyboard navigation, semantic structures, and compliance requirements became essential considerations rather than afterthoughts.

One lesson that remains with me involved a major interface redesign. During usability testing, users preferred a lighter color palette. Following release, however, customer feedback revealed an unexpected issue: educators projecting the interface in classrooms struggled to see critical information clearly.

The solution was straightforward: a darker palette with stronger contrast. But the lesson was invaluable. Accessibility is not simply about compliance. It is about understanding the environments in which people actually use products.

Thoughtful Adoption Over Trend Following

One of the most memorable challenges our team faced involved evaluating Google’s Material Design system. Like many organizations, there was enthusiasm around adopting the framework wholesale.

My colleagues and I believed a more thoughtful approach was necessary. We recognized the strengths of Material Design, but we also understood the unique needs of our audience.

For educational products serving students, readability and clarity mattered enormously. We questioned the heavy use of uppercase headings and some of the flatter visual treatments that reduced distinction between interactive and non-interactive elements.

Rather than adopting every recommendation, we advocated for selectively incorporating patterns that improved usability while preserving what worked best for our users.

Growth Through Acquisition and Expansion

As Follett grew through acquisitions, the UX team’s role continued to expand. The acquisition of Accessit brought new perspectives and talent into the organization, strengthening design capabilities and helping drive the transition to Figma.

Later acquisitions introduced entirely new product categories, including facilities management and help desk solutions. These opportunities challenged the team to rethink workflows, unify experiences, and create scalable systems that could support increasingly diverse customer needs.

They also elevated the visibility of UX within the company. Design was no longer viewed solely as interface creation. It became a strategic discipline capable of influencing product direction, customer satisfaction, and business outcomes.

Earning a Seat at the Table

One of the proudest moments of my career came when executive leadership formally recognized the value UX brought to the organization.

For years, our team had worked to build credibility through research, collaboration, consistency, and results. Eventually, that effort was acknowledged. UX had earned a seat at the table.

That recognition was not the result of a single project. It was the result of years of partnership, trust-building, customer advocacy, and thoughtful execution.

Reflection

When I look back on my time at Follett, I do not immediately think about specific interfaces or features.

I think about people. I think about developers and designers working together to solve difficult problems. I think about customers who trusted us enough to share their frustrations and ideas. I think about teammates, researchers, product managers, and leaders who helped shape the organization and the products we created together.

The story of UX at Follett is ultimately a story about trust: trust between teams, trust between departments, trust between products and customers, and trust that thoughtful design can help people learn, communicate, discover, and succeed.