CASE STUDY · WORKPLACE LEARNING
ALMA
What if workplace learning adapted to the person — not the other way around?
Digital tools were moving fast.
People weren’t.
The starting point was to understand readiness for digital adoption: what workers need, fear and value when organisations introduce new technology.
The industry brief asked us to use Design Thinking and user-centred research to explore the behaviour behind slow adoption — then turn those findings into a credible solution.
Was training helping adoption — or slowing it down?
We narrowed the brief into one question: whether the way employee training was delivered could itself be slowing readiness for digital adoption.
Access wasn’t the whole problem.
Benchmarking approaches such as Amazon Career Choice and Googler-to-Googler revealed three recurring gaps worth designing around.
Human interaction
Computer-led training can remove the social support that helps people learn from one another.
Right-time learning
Fast, high-pressure training suggested support should appear at more appropriate moments.
Always available
Self-driven learning created an opportunity for support when the employee actually needs it.
We didn’t only map what people did.
We mapped how learning felt.
Behaviour before interface.
The journey work followed uncertainty, curiosity, confidence and accomplishment across the training experience. That made the problem less about “using an LMS” and more about how people experience change.
ALMA
Adaptive Learning Management Assistant
An AI-assisted learning concept designed around adaptive support, peer-to-peer knowledge and accessible training — moving the experience from “complete this training” toward “get the right help when you need it.”
The research was translated into a mobile experience, giving ALMA a tangible interaction layer rather than stopping at strategy.
The strategy became a product.
The prototype translated the research into a mobile learning experience: personalised learning paths, peer-to-peer mentoring, an AI assistant and learning-style support.
From a classroom brief to recognised work.
The concept first received recognition through the university challenge. Its later independent development was submitted to international design competitions, taking ALMA beyond its original academic context.