Coursera
Global Skills Report
Coursera's global skills data covered 100 countries and 124 million learners. The problem was that it lived in an 81-page PDF that nobody actually read. I turned it into an interactive experience that leaders could explore on their own terms.
ROLE
UX / UI Designer (sole designer)
TEAM
Creative Director, Developers
TIMELINE
2023 · 3 months
TOOLS
Figma
AGENCY
Launch Interactive
THE CHALLENGE
Valuable Data,
Buried in a PDF
Coursera's Global Skills Report contained powerful benchmarking data across 100 countries — but 81 pages of static content meant most readers never got past the global overview. Executives needed quick orientation. Analysts needed regional comparisons. HR leaders needed country-level specifics. Everyone got the same linear file.
KEY INTERACTION
Designed to Reward Curiosity
Every interaction state was mapped before a single component was built — default, hover, zoom, select. Each state reveals only what the user needs in that moment. Nothing more. The map isn't just a visual.
It's the navigation.
THE SYSTEM
Every State Considered. Every Component Reusable.
Before a single component was built, every map interaction state was defined — default, hover, zoomed, selected. Each state reveals only what the user needs in that moment, nothing more.
The same logic carried through to the full regional ranking system. One set of components powered every region, every country ranking, and every skill category view — no bespoke patterns per section.
EVERY SCREEN
The Same Data, Any Device
The interactive experience was built to work as well on a phone as on a desktop — same regional exploration, same country comparisons, same data depth. The map adapts; the interaction model doesn't.
KEY INTERACTION
Pick a region. Then a country.
Every top-five country pulses on the map. Hover to preview its skill scores; click to zoom into its region. The list and the map stay in sync, so readers can explore by location or by rank.
Interaction prototype · placeholder data
OUTCOMES
From Static to Explorable
81-page PDF turned into one interactive experience
81→1
100
Countries explorable in a single interface
124M
Learners' skills data, made scannable
Launched as the 2023 Global Skills Report experience.
Well received by Coursera's leadership.
One component set covered every region and country on desktop and mobile.
DESIGN TRADEOFF
CHOSE
Exploration
over
TRADED AWAY
Prescription
A linear narrative would have been easier to control — but it would have served no single user well. Making the data navigable traded authorial control for user agency, letting executives, analysts, and HR leaders each find the value most relevant to them.
