App + Website
Commando Joe’s
Commando Joe’s delivers character education programmes to schools across the UK, from early years through to secondary. Their missions and workshops have a strong reputation, but the way teachers access and deliver the content has not kept pace with how schools actually work. Commando Joe’s content lived in PDFs. Teachers had to find the right file, download it, and print it before they could deliver a session. The website made that process harder than it needed to be. Once a mission was done, there was no easy way to assess students or track what had been used. The system created friction at every step and gave teachers nothing useful on the other side of it. Created using React, Strapi and AWS.
Impacts and outcomes
- Launched the Commando Joe’s app in September 2026, replacing the legacy portal with an iPad-based platform for 378 schools, featuring digital missions, pupil reflection videos, staff training, Ofsted-aligned reporting and a character education podcast. Bundled into multi-million-pound MAT partnerships, the app supports contract renewals, reduced mission access time from over four minutes to under 45 seconds, drove Character Compass adoption as a daily classroom tool, improved content clarity and achieved 70% assessment dashboard adoption among pilot schools within the first month.
4min→45s
Time to locate a mission
378
Schools with app access
70%
Pilot schools used dashboard
4mo
Design to launch
Problem
Commando Joe's delivers character education programmes to schools across the UK, from early years through to secondary. Their missions and workshops have a strong reputation, but the way teachers access and deliver the content has not kept pace with how schools actually work. Edwin was brought in to change that. As Lead Product Designer, I led the design, working with a team of ten over four months to replace an outdated web portal with a mobile-first app built for real classroom and outdoor use.
Investigation
Commando Joe's content lived in PDFs. Teachers had to find the right file, download it, and print it before they could deliver a session. The website made that process harder than it needed to be. Once a mission was done, there was no easy way to assess students or track what had been used. The system created friction at every step and gave teachers nothing useful on the other side of it.
Insight
We started by talking to teachers who already used Commando Joe's materials. What we heard was consistent. Finding the right content was slow. The design of the PDFs was hard to follow. There was no feedback loop and no way to know whether a mission had landed. Teachers were working around the system rather than with it. That research shaped the product priorities: fix access first, then build the tools that make delivery and assessment easier.
Over four months, I designed the native app and the companion website together. The mission library was redesigned from the ground up, with search, filters, and bookmarking built in from the start. We introduced the Character Compass as a lightweight daily tool, giving teachers a way to embed RESPECT-based activities into normal classroom time without needing to run a full session. Reflection videos were added at the end of each mission so that students and teachers could process what they had just done. Every feature was tested against the question of whether it would actually work in a classroom.
Solution
The Commando Joe's app replaces the old web portal with a cross-platform product for iOS, Android, and desktop. Teachers can find, bookmark, and download missions in seconds. The Character Compass gives them a tool for daily character education that requires no preparation. Assessment happens within the app, using visual dashboards that generate the evidence schools need for reporting. A training library supports staff who want to build their own knowledge. The app was designed to reduce the work between a teacher and a session and give schools something useful after the session.
