The princeton review
My Role:
I was a UX/UI Designer for The Princeton Review. They sell testing prep courses ranging from SAT, LSAT to MCAT.
I oversaw designing low to high fidelity wireframes, finding out our user’s pain points, conducted usability testing sessions, managed multiple projects at once and communicated my designs with the development team.
Recently viewed courses
Problem:
Users were having a hard time navigating through our website. Once users land on a product page and then look at another page, they have a hard time finding their way back to the original product page.
Solution:
My solution was to create a feature where the user can access a recently viewed course with ease. I researched other leading e commerce websites and a couple of international websites, and I found out some of them use some sort of recently viewed products, but in a separate page. My thought it could be a widget on the UI, so the user does not have to leave the page to access their recently viewed courses.
Results:
After a couple of minutes after the new Recently Viewed Courses widget went live, using CEID tracking codes, we already started to see users clicking on their recently viewed courses. Using our SQL server, we see that our new Recently Viewed Courses widget generates more than $4,000 in revenue every day.
(I explain more in detail how I use CEID tracking codes later down the page.)
test-success course
Problem:
The Product team wanted to create a new course, specifically aiming at helping students decrease their anxiety while taking exams.
Solution:
Our solution was to create a new product page, that shows the user that we understand their pain points, and how this course will help them with their test anxiety.
Design iteration:
I oversee creating the wireframe from scratch. I start from the lowest fidelity wireframe possible. After communicating with the Vice President of product and our CEO, we iterate through multiple options to agree on specific copy and design. Below shows the design iteration from the very start, to the final product that is live.
Results:
The page went live on March 5th, 2019. After the first day, the new course was live, we already had 2 enrollments. Through SQL New Enrollments reports, we see that the total bookings since March 5th is $702. The course is broken down into 3 separate sections. Section 1. Learning Strategies for Test-Success which generated $216 so far. Section 2. Overcoming Test Anxiety which generated $378. And 3. Time and Stress Management for Test-Success which generated $108. We can see that more users are taking Section 2 the most. We will use this information to move forward in our decisions making regarding to add a new section, or to see if a section is not performing well than others.
Observing Users Behavior
Problem:
When implementing a new design, it is crucial to understand the user’s behavior. When we understand the user’s behavior, we can find out what they want and what they don’t want.
Solution:
One way to track our user’s behavior is through CEID tracking codes.
How it works:
I add a tracking code to a specific button that leads the user to another page. Let’s take the College Prep section as an example. Once the user clicks on the button “SAT”, the new page will load and at the end of the page URL, there is the CEID tracking code. After a week or so, I go into Google Analytics, and enter the specific CEID tracking codes of each button. From there I can see how many times users click on which button.
Breakdown of how we create our CEID codes:
The tracking code for the SAT page is “ceid=newhp-nav”. The “newhp” means that this button is located on our new home page. The “nav” means it’s part of the new page’s navigation.
Example of observing user’s behavior using CEID tracking codes:
We implemented a new home page design. And we wanted to see how where exactly the users are clicking the most. On our new home page, I added a CEID tracking code to any new press able button.
Results:
After doing the research using Google Analytics, we found out that the users click on the test prepping options below the search bar the most. The next highest click rate we found was on the search options when they type in a specific test prep option in the search bar. The users clicked on the cards section the least.
Users click on the test prepping options the most.
The next highest click rate we found was on the search options where they type in a specific test prep option in the search bar.
In third place, users clicked on the 4 different options below the practice exams.
Lastly, users clicked on the cards and practice test sections the least.
After examining all button analytics, the conclusion is that the users find it easier to click on the actual prep courses than to search up their course in the search bar. And that they use the cards section the least. We will use this information to iterate on design to see which design works the best with our users.