Isano School Platform
Case StudyProject Overview
Isano School is a school management platform for Rwandan schools: attendance, fees, student records, timetables, events, and gradebook, with parent communication over WhatsApp and SMS.
What began as a response to how school staff actually work became my own product business. I designed the brand identity, the web app for administrators, and the mobile app for teachers.
The platform is trilingual in English, French, and Kinyarwanda, and runs as a progressive web app for schools with modest hardware and patchy connectivity.
My Contributions
Product Strategy: Built around daily school workflows: attendance, fees, and parent communication.
Brand Identity: Named it Isano for connection and belonging. The knot mark brings school and family together. The visual system draws on Imigongo geometry to keep the brand Rwandan without clichés.
Web App Design: Admin shell end to end: dashboard, students, attendance, fees, messaging, timetable, gradebook, events, and settings.
Mobile App Design: Teacher app for attendance and parent messaging from the classroom.
Design System: Token-based colour, typography, and component rules across every surface.
Outcome: Live in beta at isano.school, with schools onboarding and daily use.
Design Notes
The design language is calm and operational. These are working tools, not marketing pages. Every screen helps staff see state, decide, and move on.
The knot mark shows school and family coming together. The Imigongo motif repeats across backgrounds, dividers, and onboarding so the product feels rooted in Rwanda, not like generic ed-tech.
Colour is named by job: Rwanda Ochre for brand and CTAs, Unity Blue for navigation, Imigongo White for backgrounds. Green, terracotta, and orange are for status only.
Type splits three ways: Raleway for the wordmark, Poppins for headers, Open Sans for body and UI. Kinyarwanda gets extra line-height for tonal marks.
Parent messaging is WhatsApp-first with SMS fallback. Templates are localized so alerts land in the language each family speaks.
Research
Most Rwandan schools still run on paper attendance, ledger fees, and parent updates by phone or word of mouth. I spent time with staff to understand those routines before designing anything.
Early Ideation
Exploring connection, learning, and shared movement before the interlocking knot mark became the final Isano identity.
Early sketchbook directions: books, bridges, connected forms, and Imigongo-inspired geometry led toward the final knot mark.
Identity Board
Raleway
Brand identity
Wordmark and brand lockups only. Never body text.
Poppins
Headers & titles
Page titles, section headers, and announcements.
Open Sans
Body, navigation & UI
Body, navigation, buttons, and forms. Extra line-height for Kinyarwanda.
Rwanda Ochre
#CC8B2C
Unity Blue
#4A90E2
Imigongo White
#FAF7F2
Growth Green
#6DB33F
Terracotta Red
#B85450
Charcoal Black
#1C1C1C
Soft Grey
#8E8E8E
Alert Orange
#F57C00
Responsive by Design
