Universities Admission Centre
CredNet: Designing credential sharing across web, iOS and Android
Role
Collaborated with
Duration
June 2022 – February 2024
What's CredNet?
CredNet is a credential platform used by institutions and learners. Institutions manage their own credentials, templates and users in a self-service admin portal (CredLink). Learners use CredFolio on web, iOS and Android.
At a glance
CredFolio listing on the iOS app store
CredLink platform overview
CredFolio desktop landing page
The problem
The Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment wanted a secure place where learners could store and share verified AQF credentials with employers and education providers.
Universities Admission Centre (UAC) was one of the service providers that proposed a solution to address the following problems:
Learners' records were scattered across different formats and places.
Checking a qualification meant chasing issuer stamps and posting physical documents.
Institutions and employers spent too long on manual checks, which slowed down admissions and hiring.
Who I designed for
CredNet has 3 groups of users: learners who receive and share credentials; admin staff who issue credentials at institutions; and UAC's own team who control access across organisations and keep the ecosystem safe.
They all look at the same records, but they need different things from them.
The tricky bits 🧠
This work involved designing for multiple organisations on one platform, with roles, permissions and version control. These are the ones I remember most.
*The following images have been recreated to show the original product experience. They may not look exactly like the live interface, as some details have been changed to protect confidentiality.
Revoking a credential.
When an issuer revokes a credential, it affects what the learner has already shared. The learner sees it as revoked, and the shared link stops working.
Home screen notifications for revoked messages
iOS app
Android app
Desktop
Disabling an organisation.
UAC can disable an organisation that no longer wants to be part of CredNet. Learners still need their records, so they keep access to what was issued to them.
Email confirmation to the credential issuer
Two-factor-authentication (2FA): safety vs. extra steps.
Mandatory 2FA protected institutions from password breaches, but it meant more setup for busy admin staff. I designed two login flows: one for people who hadn't set up 2FA yet, and one for people who started after it became mandatory.
Existing users without 2FA
Step 1/3 - log in
Step 2/3 - set up 2FA
Step 3/3 - input verification code
New users
Step 1/3 - login
Step 2/3 - set up password
Step 3/3 - set up 2FA
Starting simple vs. full control.
Institutions worried about cost, so they needed something simple to start with. They also needed full control over their templates
Credential listing overview
Testing and what changed
In November 2022, we ran usability testing with 25 learners from different educational backgrounds across Australia.
Some sessions were online and some were in person. People were confused by terms like "verifiable credentials" and didn't know how to share.
I suggested a quick-start tour and info tooltips for the terms people don't see every day. Time and resources were tight, but these were changes I could push for in my role.
Launch reach & engagement
CredNet launched in 2022. By December 2022:
54,300+ ATARs were issued on CredFolio to Year 12 students in NSW and ACT.
9,300+ students registered and logged in to claim their credentials.
CredFolio ranked 27th in the Education category on the App Store, just behind Google Classroom.
The site received over 12,000 visitors from 12 December, peaking at 7,769 on ATAR day.
Around 65% of visitors used mobile, and students accessed CredFolio from 68 countries.
Key learnings
As a product designer, I kept asking "what if?"
When something changes on one side, what happens on the other? For example, when an admin changes a template, what does the learner see?
What's the worst case?
What's the simplest way to show what people need and hide the rest?
It didn't come naturally at first. The more I worked on the system, the easier it got to picture the scenarios and map out the flows. I also learned to check with stakeholders before making a call.
Design systems
Google Material Design didn't have a full set of components back then, so I built my own for the Android UI kit. That got me reading up on better ways to structure a design system.
Read more about my design system work
Figma
I started out clumsy with auto layout.🙃 By the end, I was building with as few frames as possible and maintaining component libraries across web, iOS and Android.