Before and after
Challenge
Background
After acquisition by 2U and rapid integration of the companies, edX b2c funnel metrics started rapidly declining. Product Design team hypothesized that we had lost touch with the learners and suggested a complete overhaul of the e-commerce experience.
Project timeline and background
Problem
The existing learner profile suffered from usability issues and didn't align with users' mental models identified by the User Research and ORCA workshop.
- Public profile, ability to view others' profiles (sign of platform's credibility)
- Get insights from other users
- Share their accomplishments on their profile
- The existing profile was a private page
- Contained only learners' course and program records
- Users weren't able to edit their information or add a photo
Profile before re-design
Product Canvas workshop
I ran a Product canvas workshop that helped build consensus around the page's value and define three distinct directions:
- Networking tool
- Career guide
- Inspiration resource
I then created an Opportunity-solution tree that outlined how we can test the product directions above.
Profile page product direction workshopping outcomes + testing strategy for the identified options
Profile highlighting progress
I integrated the outlined experiments and takeaways:
- Introduced painted door experiments for sharing profiles and viewing other learners' profiles.
- Enabled users to edit personal information and add a photo on their profile.
- Improved usability by standardizing the presentation of program records with course certificates and streamlining the user path to program details.
Re-designed Profile page
Learnings
User-centered design
This project highlighted the value of user-centered design in complex, business-driven environments.
Structured methods
Structured methods like ORCA and Design Thinking fostered effective cross-functional collaboration.
What I'd do differently
More frequent user testing and stronger use of data could have further improved decisions and sped up iterations.