InnerDrive (EdTech, B2B)
Cognitive Science Learning platform for teachers around the world.
Role
Product Designer
Industry
EdTech, B2B
Duration
6 months
Context
The Teacher CPD Academy platform is a Cognitive Science-based online learning tool for teachers, being one of the products and services offered by InnerDrive. Over time, the platform faced challenges with usability, accessibility, and an unclear structure, leading to customer dissatisfaction and reduced subscription renewals. My role was to redesign the platform to address these issues and ensure its long-term value for schools.
The project had two main goals:
Understand the factors behind businesses not renewing their annual subscriptions.
Redesign the platform to accommodate future content growth while maintaining usability and encouraging renewals.
Impact
Renewal Rate: Subscriptions increased by 18% within the academic year.
Usability: Time to complete tasks reduced by 37%.
User Satisfaction: User feedback rates improved from 3.5/5 to 4.5/5 with the redesigned pages
Phases of the project:
Discovery Phase
1. UX Heuristic Evaluation
I conducted a heuristic evaluation based on Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability principles, identifying several critical issues:
Accessibility:
Low contrast between text and background.
Non-descriptive alt text for images.
Missing focus states for interactive elements.
Usability:
Excessive clicks to access core features.
Hidden or unintuitive navigation.
Poor content hierarchy causing confusion.
2. User Research
To understand user pain points and needs, I employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods:
User Interviews: Conducted online and on-site interviews with teachers to understand how they used the platform and their frustrations.
Usability Testing: Observed teachers performing tasks on the platform to pinpoint usability barriers.
Card Sorting: Used this technique to restructure the navigation and improve content organisation.
Competitor Analysis: Analysed competitors’ platforms to identify best practices in usability and content presentation.
Define Phase
Key Insights
Teachers found the platform cluttered and struggled to locate resources quickly.
The interface felt outdated and lacked intuitive navigation.
Schools wanted a clearer way to access professional development content, prioritised by relevance.
Renewals were influenced by the perceived value of the platform in enhancing teacher development.
Collaboration with Teams
Working with customer service, marketing, and sales teams, we identified KPIs to track the redesign’s success:
Design Phase
1. Ideation and Workshops
I facilitated UX workshops with stakeholders to prioritise features and align on the redesign goals.
2. Wireframing and Prototyping
Using Figma, I created low-fidelity wireframes to outline the new structure and navigation. After stakeholder feedback, I developed high-fidelity prototypes, ensuring a user-friendly layout that balanced usability and content scalability.
3. Accessibility Improvements
Improved colour contrast ratios.
Added descriptive alt text and ARIA labels.
Ensured compatibility with screen readers and keyboard navigation.
4. Usability Enhancements
Simplified navigation by reducing the number of clicks needed to reach key pages.
Designed a homepage that prioritised frequently used features.
Introduced clear content categorisation for scalability.
Test and Iterate Phase
1. Usability Testing
I conducted multiple rounds of usability testing with teachers, iterating on designs based on their feedback.
2. A/B Testing
Collaborated with the marketing team to test new features, such as the redesigned dashboard, against the old version. Results showed:
35% faster task completion times.
20% higher satisfaction ratings.
3. Validation and Iteration
Post-launch, I analysed user feedback and performance metrics to validate the redesign’s impact. Continuous iterations were made to address minor issues.
Context
The Teacher CPD Academy platform is a Cognitive Science-based online learning tool for teachers, being one of the products and services offered by InnerDrive. Over time, the platform faced challenges with usability, accessibility, and an unclear structure, leading to customer dissatisfaction and reduced subscription renewals. My role was to redesign the platform to address these issues and ensure its long-term value for schools.
The project had two main goals:
Understand the factors behind businesses not renewing their annual subscriptions.
Redesign the platform to accommodate future content growth while maintaining usability and encouraging renewals.
Impact
Renewal Rate: Subscriptions increased by 18% within the academic year.
Usability: Time to complete tasks reduced by 37%.
User Satisfaction: User feedback rates improved from 3.5/5 to 4.5/5 with the redesigned pages
Phases of the project:
Discovery Phase
1. UX Heuristic Evaluation
I conducted a heuristic evaluation based on Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability principles, identifying several critical issues:
Accessibility:
Low contrast between text and background.
Non-descriptive alt text for images.
Missing focus states for interactive elements.
Usability:
Excessive clicks to access core features.
Hidden or unintuitive navigation.
Poor content hierarchy causing confusion.
2. User Research
To understand user pain points and needs, I employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods:
User Interviews: Conducted online and on-site interviews with teachers to understand how they used the platform and their frustrations.
Usability Testing: Observed teachers performing tasks on the platform to pinpoint usability barriers.
Card Sorting: Used this technique to restructure the navigation and improve content organisation.
Competitor Analysis: Analysed competitors’ platforms to identify best practices in usability and content presentation.
Define Phase
Key Insights
Teachers found the platform cluttered and struggled to locate resources quickly.
The interface felt outdated and lacked intuitive navigation.
Schools wanted a clearer way to access professional development content, prioritised by relevance.
Renewals were influenced by the perceived value of the platform in enhancing teacher development.
Collaboration with Teams
Working with customer service, marketing, and sales teams, we identified KPIs to track the redesign’s success:
Design Phase
1. Ideation and Workshops
I facilitated UX workshops with stakeholders to prioritise features and align on the redesign goals.
2. Wireframing and Prototyping
Using Figma, I created low-fidelity wireframes to outline the new structure and navigation. After stakeholder feedback, I developed high-fidelity prototypes, ensuring a user-friendly layout that balanced usability and content scalability.
3. Accessibility Improvements
Improved colour contrast ratios.
Added descriptive alt text and ARIA labels.
Ensured compatibility with screen readers and keyboard navigation.
4. Usability Enhancements
Simplified navigation by reducing the number of clicks needed to reach key pages.
Designed a homepage that prioritised frequently used features.
Introduced clear content categorisation for scalability.
Test and Iterate Phase
1. Usability Testing
I conducted multiple rounds of usability testing with teachers, iterating on designs based on their feedback.
2. A/B Testing
Collaborated with the marketing team to test new features, such as the redesigned dashboard, against the old version. Results showed:
35% faster task completion times.
20% higher satisfaction ratings.
3. Validation and Iteration
Post-launch, I analysed user feedback and performance metrics to validate the redesign’s impact. Continuous iterations were made to address minor issues.
