Designing a platform for continuous learning.
Key problems to solve
Project hypothesis
An education platform with a lower barrier to entry pricing model, both free and paid premium content across learning modalities can attract and retain customers while driving revenue growth.
Narrowing in on the right solution
I completed an audit of our existing tools in collaboration with UX research, to analyze our competitors and capture any unmet user needs. Unanimous survey data supported the desire for better educational resources and tools from both parents and students.
Business impact
To provide increased value in order to retain existing customers receiving tutoring and to attract first time customers as part of creating engagement and acquisition on a new platform. A switch to membership pricing within households meant increased usage in multi-student families.
An "always-on" learning experience
Students often don’t have alternate ways to creatively engage with academic and enrichment content between tutoring sessions and school hours. The unified experience platform (UXP) provides readily available subject matter any time, any where.
Narrowing in on the right solution
I partnered with UX research to interview students who shared their points of frustration, where they look for academic information outside of school hours, and what additional online tools they use to aid their subject understanding and motivations for learning.
Business impact
Helps students feel more supported. Creates brand affinity for Varsity Tutors in non-tutoring formats. Increases individual user engagement. Extends value beyond 1-on-1 tutoring to membership holders.
Increasing individual user activity
A key insight was understanding that a large percentage of membership holders only engaged with a single subject (reinforced by a similar insight based on 1-on-1 tutoring data). So understanding how to maximize a single subject was paramount.
Determining the right approach for engagement
1. Supporting student learners moving from one grade to the next by surfacing academic content that extends a students learning path.
2. Mixing academic content with enrichment content by creating subject detail pages that included summer learning content like social media, video games, etc.
3. Designing a new experience around our ubiquitous AI-powered tutor, an always-on chatbot to help answer students questions.
Narrowing in on the right solution
I partnered with UX research to conduct and distill findings from student and parent surveys and feedback to better understand their motivations for continuing to use the platform. Most users felt inclined to stay on the platform providing they were able to enrol in or add subject content if it meant:
1. Helping a student increase their understanding or improve an existing grade
2. Give them a break from academic content (key to summer usage)
3. Prepare them with knowledge for new subjects in a higher grade
Business impact
Helps ensure users stay engaged on the platform while extending the lifetime value of customers. This would also help provide user data and behaviour patterns, preferences, and pain points.
Research and survey findings
We gauged the appetite for supplemental learning based on grade levels.
We captured and prioritized student goals to help define motivation for learning.
Planning the app experience
Primary navigation - Easily surfacing subjects was previously a pain point that had undergone several iterations as part of navigation restructuring. This was something I worked on to help simplify by parsing subjects from tutoring and identifying self-guided content.
User flows - As part of the preliminary design planning, I identified a user journey flow for the MVP version of the application that would help map out the overall experience.
My Learning (Home) - An initial exploration in creating a layout providing multiple ingress points based on a students subjects. This was iterated on numerous times to strike a balance between sessions and subject modalities.
My Progress - Early research and testing indicated that seeing time spent learning and displayed progress was key to building repeat usage habits.
Learning modalities
Ubiquitous AI instant tutor
Customizable flashcards
Online quizzes
Live Learning Platform (LLP)
Interstitial choice — A concept I created for encouraging students to continue with their academic and enrichment learning. The "next cool thing" would display at the end of a learning session allowing users to choose how they extended their online sessions.
Progress and rewards — In early user testing interviews, we established that students seeing their progress captured and rewarded was a key contributor to creating reoccurring learning habits.
