The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) is a globally recognized assessment tool used by over 4,000 organizations worldwide to build and measure intercultural competence. With over a million users and a global reach, the IDI platform is essential for organizations invested in inclusive growth and cross-cultural effectiveness.
IDI approached us with a clear mission: to rebuild their assessment platform (central to their core business) using a modern technology stack, create a scalable architecture, and deliver a seamless, intuitive experience that would better serve users, administrators, and the IDI team.
IDI’s legacy platform, where Certified Qualified Administrators purchase and manage assessments and generate in-depth reports on behalf of organizations, was showing signs of strain under the growing demands of its user base and IDI’s strategic goals. Several critical limitations that impacted both the user experience and operational efficiency are as follows:
Single-time logins made the system vulnerable to security risks and user identity issues.
Users couldn’t track their progress because each assessment was treated as a separate, disconnected event.
The platform was split across tools, creating confusion and extra work for Respondents and Qualified Administrators.
Migrating legacy data required preserving relationships and mapping accounts between two different platform frameworks.
We applied a cross-disciplinary approach spanning UX research, design, development, and data migration. Our process included stakeholder interviews and affinity mapping to identify pain points, iterative prototyping with user validation, and building a secure cloud architecture using modern frameworks.
We executed careful data migration with custom mapping and staged rollouts, ensuring quality through automated testing and UX verification.
Previously, users accessed their assessments using a one-time login code without the option to create a personal account. There was no way to access past results and track progress over time.
Now users can create their own verified account. This enables anytime access to multiple assessments and ensures personal data privacy and ownership.
Administrators can bulk upload multiple email addresses at the time of assessment creation. Users then receive a secure verification link to complete their registration and begin the assessment process. This has resulted in significant time-savings for administrators and a simplified onboarding process for new users.
Administrators purchase assessments before collecting user emails, often due to limited information and time constraints.
To address this, we designed a secure access code system where accounts are only activated after administrators verify the user’s identity, reducing the risk of unauthorized entry.
We integrated the Stripe API directly into the platform, which allows users to complete transactions quickly and securely—whether paying by credit card or through IDI-approved invoice methods. The integration supports real-time payment confirmation, automatic receipt generation, and flexible billing options tailored to different organizations’ needs.
Through this integration, we eliminated the need to redirect users to third-party portals, reducing context-switching and the risk of drop-off. This also ensured greater consistency across the platform. Furthermore, it gives engineering teams greater control over error handling, reporting, and future extensibility as payment needs evolve.
Previously, assessments and training were delivered through separate platforms, leading to a fragmented experience. We consolidated these into a single, unified portal.
Users can now seamlessly complete their IDI assessments and access personalized reports, while administrators can order, manage, and track assessments; generate reports; and register for workshops—all in one place. Both user groups benefit from tailored training modules curated by IDI staff.
We successfully migrated approximately 1.4M assessment records and over 500K users to the new platform. A major achievement was preserving the complex relationships between users, assessments, and organizations to maintain full data integrity.
The new platform integrates seamlessly with the legacy data, allowing users to access past assessment results, generate reports, and continue using unused orders from the previous system without disruption. A guided onboarding process ensured legacy users could transition smoothly and quickly to the enhanced platform.
The redesigned IDI platform transformed a fragmented legacy system into a secure, unified experience that meets the evolving needs of both users and administrators. This modernization not only improved day-to-day usability but also positioned IDI for sustained global growth and innovation.
Users got access to a modernized platform while retaining access to historical data.
Administrators gained more control and flexibility, reducing complexities in managing assessments.
The new platform enabled IDI to expand into new markets with a scalable, intuitive and professional-grade experience.
