Cattlelog: One home for grade data instead of three
- Role
- Product Designer
- Team
- 2 Product Designers, 1 Marketer, 1 Product Manager, 3 SWEs
- Timeline
- Mar to May 2026
- Contribution
- Research, Vision and Strategy, Product Design
Cattlelog is a course-planning tool with up to 7,774 monthly users, and 70% of them interact with grade data. That data was split across three features, but 95% of grade traffic went to just one. I redesigned the course page to put grade data where students already look, and all 8 students in testing found it without help.
Goal: Give grade data one clear home, so students reach it with fewer clicks and stop bouncing from grade pages.
Use grade data
70%
Problem
Three features, one dataset
Two years of feature creep left Cattlelog with three features showing the same grade data, each with a different flow and filters. Students had to guess which one to use, and most never found two of them.
Research
Students look for grades from the course they’re on
I reviewed PostHog data and ran user interviews and usability tests.
of grade traffic went to course grade pages.
found the hub or Compare when asked to view grades.
bounce rate on the hub vs. course grade pages.
Users compared classes in separate tabs instead of using Compare.
Design
Grade data on the course page
Instead of adding another grade feature, I built on the path students already used. Grade distributions now appear directly on the course page, with “View more” for the full breakdown by professor and quarter. I also redesigned the course and professor catalogs to match.
Tradeoffs
Removing features instead of adding them
My co-designer and I proposed deprecating the separate course grades page, since its content now lives on the course page. The tradeoff: putting grades on the course page could pull even more traffic away from the Grade Hub and Compare, features we had already built.
Results
Validated in testing, in development
In prototype testing, all 8 students found grade data on the course page without help. The redesign is now in development. After launch, I’ll measure clicks to reach grade data and bounce rate on course pages.
Reflection
What I learned
We were willing to accept that tradeoff because more features don’t always make a product better. Students had already chosen their path to grades through the course page. Streamlining that path, instead of spreading the same data across more features, kept the focus on what makes Cattlelog useful.