Eskolta Funding Initiative
UX and information design for a high-stakes education funding initiative — translating policy, financial structures, and eligibility criteria into clear public-facing systems for district leaders and school administrators.
Policy that matters — but only if people can understand it.
The Eskolta Funding Initiative was a large-scale effort to help California school districts navigate new education funding structures. The initiative involved substantial policy complexity: eligibility criteria, funding formulas, timelines, and next-step requirements that varied by district type.
The information existed. The problem was that it lived across policy documents, spreadsheets, and internal briefings — none of which were designed for the district leaders and school administrators who needed to act on it. These were non-technical audiences under institutional pressure, trying to answer one core question: does this apply to us, and what do we do next?
This was a clarity problem, not a content problem. The work was to redesign the information architecture so that the right people could find the right answer in the time available to them.
My role
UX Designer & Front-End Consultant — information architecture, content hierarchy, and front-end build for the public-facing system.
Primary audiences
- District administrators evaluating eligibility
- School leaders interpreting funding structures
- Policy staff communicating requirements
Core constraint
High financial and political sensitivity — accuracy and clarity had to carry equal weight. Simplification that introduced error was not acceptable.
When funding information is fragmented, districts don't just get confused — they miss out.
The stakes were institutional. A district administrator who couldn't interpret eligibility criteria might not apply for funding they qualified for. A school leader who couldn't understand the timeline might miss an action deadline. The cost of poor information design here was measured in missed resources, not just user frustration.
Policy language is precise for legal reasons, but precision without structure creates a different kind of failure: technically accurate information that no one can act on.
- High financial and political sensitivity — Errors in interpretation could have real consequences for districts. Simplification had a hard floor.
- Non-technical audiences — District administrators are policy experts, not digital natives. Navigation had to be obvious.
- Accuracy required parity with clarity — Content couldn't be reduced to the point where it was misleading, even to aid comprehension.
- Accessibility and public-sector compliance — Standards applied; not optional.
- Multiple stakeholder types — Different audiences needed different entry points to the same information.
Structure first — then clarity, then compliance.
IA Audit
Mapped how policy information was currently distributed. Identified where users were likely to get stuck, give up, or misinterpret — and what structure would fix each failure point.
Decision-first framing
Restructured content around the questions users were actually trying to answer: Am I eligible? What do I need to do? By when? Each section entry point was a question, not a category.
Plain-language summaries
Reduced policy language into scannable, plain-language summaries while maintaining traceability back to source documentation. Users could act on the summary or verify via the source.
Accessibility compliance
Built to public-sector accessibility standards throughout — not as a remediation pass at the end, but as a design constraint from the start.
Walkthroughs — how district leaders interpret eligibility and next steps
Two recorded walkthroughs demonstrating how district leaders use the system to understand eligibility structures and identify their required actions.
What the work produced
Clearer pathways through complex policy — and a reusable framework for how Eskolta communicates funding at scale.
Funding pathways made navigable for district leaders — administrators could identify eligibility and required actions without intermediary interpretation support.
Reduced interpretation friction around eligibility and timelines — restructuring from category-based to decision-based navigation eliminated the most common points of confusion.
Accuracy preserved throughout simplification — plain-language summaries maintained traceability to source documentation, satisfying both accessibility and compliance requirements.
Reusable framework established — the IA pattern and content approach created a template for future Eskolta funding communications, reducing time-to-clarity for subsequent initiatives.