Brax: My Legacy to the Design Industry
Brax is a Brazilian educational company for UX and Product Designers founded by myself in 2019, during the pandemic. With a complete independent operation, Brax have certified over 200+ students in Brazil, forging a new generation of problem solvers and smart thinkers.
About Brax
Brax was inspired by the creative diversity of Brazil: in our colours, in our people, in our fauna and flora. Brazil's main challenge is social inequality - which means that our technology industry is very much not accessible due to income gaps. Bootcamps and other design courses are highly expensive with a very general knowledge benefiting just a fraction of our population. Brax's mission then is to make education accessible with more affordable courses and in-depth content. Brax was 100% bootstrapped with no intention to become a magical unicorn - was created with the spirit of empowering my community and give back to generate opportunities. Brax's maintained with the sole investment of my spare time and a support network.
Behind the Scenes
Creating Brax from scratch
Managing the Project
To make sure I could accomplish my objectives, I had to learn how to manage a project. Some of the things I learned during this journey was how to properly estimate a scope, create a roadmap and define action plans. I've also learned how to use the best of Project Management Tools (such as ClickUp) to automate part of my work. During Brax's website development, I personally managed the Webflow work. The project was not only successful, but very smooth with no surprises.
MVP Design Execution
To bring Brax to life I applied most of the methodologies I knew (and taught) to my students. Brax's brand was a product of a Design Sprint with a third party design company. I used the brand elements to create Brax's Design System - Mar Grande, a homage to my favourite Brazilian beach. With the DS in place, was easy to create multiple mockups and perform prototype testing with my audience. Research methods were also put in place during all the MVP conception.
Course Conception
I'm a Brax's Facilitator, teaching (mainly) Interaction Skills courses. Every Brax course is the product of a 4-6 month research in the Design community (which becomes a report available to enrolled students). With that, I can support the course content with data, going the extra mile to create a unique learning experience. I have a 66% completion rate in all my classes with a 87% satisfaction rate - many of my students now work in world-known companies such as Air Canada, Globo and TD.
Sitemap
Understanding the MVP
During Brax's conception, I also created sitemaps to help inform the development team what we were creating and the structure I was aiming for the website. With a relatively simple sitemap, I could always have a reference for the pages I was designing.
The Result
And Future Plans
I'm proud to say that the website was 100% designed by me (with its errors and successes) and it's AA WCAG compliance, trying to get better everyday. Below you can see a couple of screenshots of the new website refresh, launched in 2022. My goal is to impact over a million designers in the next 10 years and create a legacy for the Brazilian design community, making our country not only a international UX and Product Design reference, but also more equal through education opportunity equality.
What I've learned?
I've learn a lot creating and maintaining Brax during the years. I have focused in developing my leadership, project management and facilitation skills. They were crucial to make this project successful to this date and an important part of my life that co-exist with my full time job. Time management and prioritization were also key to this success.
