AULA was set to replace the IT system used by every public school, daycare and after-school club in Denmark. Together with Systematic, we designed the user interface for families, teachers and pedagogues on four kinds of screens.
Hanne Hansen
Forælder (Korsbæk Skole)
Mandag d. 28.09.2026
Birgitte Krumborg
Mor til Adam Jensen
Adam bliver hentet af farmor i dag
Hej Karen, bare så I ved det. God dag!
Kurt Overgaard
Skoleleder
Invitation til møde om trivsel i 2.A
Deltager
Mødetidspunkt
16. oktober kl. 15.30 – 16.30
Martin Madsen▸Klasseværelset 2.A
Lærer 2.A
Matematikværksted i 2.A
Det glæder os, at vi endelig har fået sat vores matematikværksted i gang …
Ditte Buus
Pædagog
Sprogarbejde i pædagogisk praksis
Kalender
9.35Dansk2.A
10.40MatematikVærkstedet
11.30Natur/teknologiLokale 114
12.00FrokostpauseKantinen
12.45IdrætHallen
14.00ForældresamtalerLokale 114B
8.45Morgensamling2.A
Mandag d. 28.09.2026
Birgitte Krumborg
Mor til Adam Jensen
Adam bliver hentet af farmor i dag
Hej Karen, bare så I ved det. God dag!
Kurt Overgaard
Skoleleder
Invitation til møde om trivsel i 2.A
Deltager
Mødetidspunkt
16. oktober kl. 15.30 – 16.30
Martin Madsen▸Klasseværelset 2.A
Lærer 2.A
Matematikværksted i 2.A
Det glæder os, at vi endelig har fået sat vores matematikværksted i gang …
Ditte Buus
Pædagog
Sprogarbejde i pædagogisk praksis
Mandag d. 28.09 · 2.A
Martin Madsen ▸ 2.A Forældre
Lærer i 2.A
Tur til Moesgaard
I dag kl. 14.22
Karen Amdisen ▸ 3.B Forældre
Lærer i 3.B
Hyttetur
Kære forældre, det er snart tid til vores årlige hyttetur i spejderhytten …
I dag kl. 11.122
Everything on this page is live. Click around.
2.5M+
expected users
250M+
DKK estimated budget
4
platforms, one design language
1
place for school and daycare
The brief
A public system that has to feel like a good app.
AULA was one of the largest public IT procurements in Denmark. The client set a high bar for the user experience, and usability had to be documented with analyses of how real users behave. Our job was the user interface: from personas and scenarios to screens you can click through.
Everyone is a user
Parents, grandparents, teachers, pedagogues and school leaders. Many of them are not interested in technology, and they should not need to be.
Documented usability
Every design choice had to be supported by user scenarios and behavioural analysis, not by taste.
Four very different screens
A phone in a busy hand, a tablet in the classroom, a desktop in the office and a large touch display by the door.
What we did
Four main areas.
User interface design
The full interface for web and app, from navigation and feed to messages, calendar and the check-in flow.
Personas and mapping
Who uses AULA, on which device, in which situation, and what they need to get done in thirty seconds.
Scenario-based mockups
User scenarios set up on top of the realised mockups, presented as real-life screenshots of the system.
UX research improvements
Interface changes driven by what the research showed, and documented so the client could see why.
One system, four screens
The same AULA, wherever you meet it.
One design language, adapted to how each screen is actually used. Pick a device and try it.
For the full overview
On the desktop, the feed and the calendar sit side by side. A rail on the far left switches between children and groups.
- A timeline with a badge for each type
- Invitations you answer right in the feed
- Messages with bulk actions and folders
Hanne Hansen
Forælder (Korsbæk Skole)
Mandag d. 28.09.2026
Birgitte Krumborg
Mor til Adam Jensen
Adam bliver hentet af farmor i dag
Hej Karen, bare så I ved det. God dag!
Kurt Overgaard
Skoleleder
Invitation til møde om trivsel i 2.A
Deltager
Mødetidspunkt
16. oktober kl. 15.30 – 16.30
Martin Madsen▸Klasseværelset 2.A
Lærer 2.A
Matematikværksted i 2.A
Det glæder os, at vi endelig har fået sat vores matematikværksted i gang …
Ditte Buus
Pædagog
Sprogarbejde i pædagogisk praksis
Kalender
9.35Dansk2.A
10.40MatematikVærkstedet
11.30Natur/teknologiLokale 114
12.00FrokostpauseKantinen
12.45IdrætHallen
14.00ForældresamtalerLokale 114B
8.45Morgensamling2.A
The touch display
Where is every child, right now?
In daycare the hardest moments are the transitions: arrival, the move to the playground, pick-up. The touch display turns those moments into two taps. Tap a child and move them, or send them home and choose who picks them up.
08:15
Man · 28. sep · U40
Status at a glance
A coloured dot shows whether a child is here, expected or sick. The clock shows how long they have been in the same place.
One question per step
First "Where are you going?", then "Who is picking up?". No forms, no keyboard.
Built for full hands
Big targets that work with one hand, while the other holds a child, a lunchbox or a jacket.
Personas
Four people, four very different days.
We built personas from the target groups and mapped each of them to the devices and situations where they meet AULA.
Hanne Hansen
Parent of two · 38
“I just want to know that everything is fine, without opening five apps.”
Needs
- Both children in one place
- Quick messages to the teacher
Frustrations
- Too many systems
- Notifications that do not matter
Karen Amdisen
Teacher, 2.A · 44
“If it takes more than a minute, I will do it tonight instead.”
Needs
- Reach all parents at once
- Share photos from lessons safely
Frustrations
- Double work
- Too little time between lessons
Ditte Buus
Pedagogue, daycare · 29
“My hands are always full. The screen has to keep up with me.”
Needs
- Know where every child is
- Know who is picking up
Frustrations
- Busy transitions
- Paper lists that go out of date
Kurt Overgaard
School leader · 56
“I need to trust that the right people can see the right things.”
Needs
- Control over permissions
- Clear communication to staff
Frustrations
- Complex administration
- No overview of access
Persona mapping
How much each persona relies on each device.
User scenarios
A Monday, told through the screens.
We set up the user scenarios on top of the realised mockups, so the client could follow one real day, screen by screen.
Hanne · Phone
A message on the way out the door
Hanne writes to the daycare that grandma is picking Adam up today.
Hanne Hansen
Til Rød stue · Adam Jensen
Farmor henter Adam i dag
Ditte · Touch display
Check-in by the door
Ditte taps Adam and sends him to the Red room. The note from Hanne is right there on his card.
Adam Jensen
Rød stue
Farmor henter i dag
Karen · Tablet
Photos from the classroom
Karen posts pictures from the maths workshop to the parents of 2.A.
Matematikværksted i 2.A
Kurt · Web
An invitation in the feed
Kurt invites parents to a meeting. Hanne accepts straight from the feed.
Invitation til møde om trivsel
16. oktober kl. 15.30
Du deltagerDitte · Touch display
Picked up by grandma
Ditte taps "Home", chooses grandma, and the parents know Adam is on his way.
Hentes af
Farmor Inge
From research to interface
What the users showed us, and what we changed.
The UX research gave us findings. Each one became a concrete change in the interface.
Finding
Staff at the door have one free hand at most.
Change
Large photo cards and pill buttons of at least 52 px on the touch display.
Finding
Parents with more than one child lost track of who a message was about.
Change
A child rail on the far left, so you always see and switch between your children.
Finding
Users had to hunt across modules to see what was new.
Change
One timeline feed, where messages, meetings, posts and documents each have their own badge.
Finding
Answering an invitation took several screens.
Change
Accept and Decline right on the card in the feed.
Finding
Teachers cleaned up their inbox one message at a time.
Change
Bulk selection with a clear action bar for favourite, bin and move.
Finding
Staff could not tell which children had been in the same place for too long.
Change
Elapsed time on every card, in red when it passes the limit.
Administration
Permissions that you can actually read.
Who may message whom is a legal question in a school. We turned the permission rules into a matrix per channel, so an administrator can see and change access at a glance. Try switching a permission.
Grupper
Hjemmeside
Infotavle
Ressourcer
Kanaler
Samtykker
Tilladelser
Filer
Brugere
Simon Sinek
Administrator
Kanaler
| Roller | Værge | Elev | Dagtilbudsbarn | Pæd. personale | Vejleder | Fagkonsulent | PPR-medarbejder | Leder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dagtilbudsbarn | ||||||||
| Elev | ||||||||
| Fagkonsulent | ||||||||
| Leder | ||||||||
| PPR-medarbejder | ||||||||
| Pæd. personale | ||||||||
| Vejleder | ||||||||
| Værge |
Design system
One system, from the phone to the wall.
We built AULA on a shared design system: tokens for colour, type, spacing and elevation, and a component library that scales from a phone to a wall-mounted touch display. A warm gradient gives AULA its personality, teal marks what is chosen, and red is kept for the actions that matter. Everything below is live, so try it.
6
core colours
2
typefaces
40+
components
4
platforms
Foundations
Tints and shades
AULA Pink · Brand, navigation
Signature gradient
linear-gradient(135deg, …)
Type scale
Display
Quicksand 700 · 44/52
Beskeder
Title
Quicksand 700 · 28/36
Sommerudflugt 2016
Heading
Roboto 500 · 20/28
Hvor vil du gerne hen?
Body
Roboto 400 · 15/24
Husk madpakke og regntøj til turen i morgen.
Caption
Roboto 400 · 12/16
Lærer · Korsbæk Skole
Quicksand for page titles, for a friendly and rounded voice. Roboto for everything you read and tap.
Iconography
stroke 1.6 · 20 px · 24 px grid
Spacing, on a 4 px grid
Radius
Elevation
Karen Amdisen▸2.A
Lærer · Korsbæk Skole
3Tak for en skøn tur i skoven i dag. Her er et par billeder fra dagen.
Anatomy of a post
Every card in the feed is built from the same parts, so a parent learns the pattern once and can read any post at a glance.
Component library
button / variants
button / states
button / async
button / with icon
button / kiosk
Prototype
Clickable before it was built.
We helped build an interactive prototype for desktop and smartphone in Axure, so the client could test the flows with real users before development started.
01Log in
02Feed
03Message
04Calendar
05Check-in
What the client says
Working with Ceptiv was a real pleasure. Their designer quickly understood a very complex domain and turned our requirements into an interface that was clear, warm and easy to use for everyone, from parents to pedagogues. The personas and user scenarios gave us a strong, well-documented foundation in the tender, and the collaboration was professional, flexible and on time all the way through. I can recommend Ceptiv without hesitation.
What we delivered
Everything the interface needed.
Building something many people will use?
We design interfaces that work for everyone, from the first persona to the last pixel. Tell us about your project.