The UX Challenge

WhiteHat Jr. is a platform for Live 1:1 online coding classes targeted at 6-14 year old children.

They were experiencing UX issues such as a complex registration process, low engagement on the student dashboard, high drop-off rates and low class renewal percentage. For instance, only 13% of the users were completing the trial class registration process and only 2% of those were converting to paid students. We embarked on a journey of redesigning all aspects of the customer acquisition, Live class and retention journeys. The design objectives were…

• Simplify the trial class registration, scheduling, and tech setup process to reduce drop-off and increase paid student conversion rate
• Gamify the entire learning experience to improve student engagement with the classes and projects, increase stickiness and maximize renewals
• Provide a comprehensive student performance tracking dashboard for parents to keep them informed about their child’s accomplishments and progress

Based on stakeholder interviews, analytics data, best practice review and user research insights, we were able to identify the core problem areas in the design…

• Missing value proposition: It was not clear what users get from attending the trial class. The trial class registration process did not mention the trial class certificate, the topic that will be covered etc.
• Poor form design: Length of input fields did not match the input required length making the form unnecessarily long and cumbersome
• Lack of persuasion: The customer acquisition process did not leverage persuasion design principles to drive registration urgency. There are limited, fast-filling trial class spots every week, but the page failed to highlight that.
• Inadequate progress summary: The student dashboard failed to answer parent’s questions such as: How is my child progressing? Is s/he doing well in the assignments? How is s/he doing compared to other children? How many more classes does my child need to take to become proficient in coding?