Coursera Redesign
The current Coursera lacks a lot in terms of course discovery, consistency, and prioritisation of user needs which often creates a sense of confusion and ultimately leads to bad user experience. Also, the platform is not at all interactive which leads to whooping 90% losing their interest once they enroll for a course.
Hence, the objective of this project is to redesign the Coursera platform to enhance user experience and maximise customer retention.
Sprint Duration
2 weeks
17 Feb '21 to 2 Mar '21
My Role
In a group project
UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
Visual Designer
Tools Used
Figma
Mural
Optimal Workshop
Google Spreadsheet
Trello
Responsibilities
User Research & Synthesis
Affinity Mapping
Create Persona
Sketching & Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing & Iterations
Create Style Guide
Understanding the Business
About Coursera
Coursera is a global online learning platform that provides massive open online courses (MOOCs).
It works with universities and companies to offer online learning courses, certifications and degrees to individuals and organisations worldwide.
Coursera’s business goals:
1) Growing its user base by increasing enrolments
2) Converting learners from free to paying to increase their revenue.
Coursera's key challenges:
1) The high dropout rates among learners, with the average completion rate of a course is less than 10%
2) The low percentage of people willing to pay for certificates
Understanding the User
User Interviews
With Coursera's business goals mind, we sought out conduct user research to establish a solid understanding of Coursera’s users that would guide us as well as help us in determining the task scope in the re-design.
Research Objectives
We conducted user interviews on 10 users who are current/past users of Coursera with the following research objectives.
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Explore motivations & aspirations for learning and upskilling
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Identify drivers and barriers for online learning
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Understand decision-making process towards online learning
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Delve into experiences using Coursera
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Pinpoint areas for improvement for the online learning experience
User Personas
Through our user interviews, we discovered 2 types of learners - serious learners and casual learners. The former is one who is professionally-driven and has the goal of upskilling to future-proof his/her career while the latter is one who learns for internal fulfilment with the goal of exploring his/her personal interests and passions.
Given Coursera's value proposition which caters more to professionally-driven learners, we chose to focus on addressing the needs of our primary persona - Stella, more specifically, the Design Fatigue and Lack of Continuity phases.
Lack of Continuity
Decision Fatigue
Decision Fatigue
Searching and deciding on a learning platform and course can overwhelm a user and induce decision fatigue.
The aim is to reduce cognitive load and optimise the user's decision-making process.
Lack of Continuity
With the end of a course, there'll be satisfaction as well as confusion as to how the user can proceed from here.
Hence, we hope to give more direction to the user and figure out the next steps on the user's learning journey.
Identifying Key Issues
With the objective of identifying existing issues on the Coursera website and mobile app, we conducted a Heuristic Evaluation and a Pre-Usability Testing with the following tasks.
The scenario is that:
You are an existing Coursera user looking to upskill by learning Python.
With the tasks of:
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Searching for a free Python course
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Registering for a free Python course
Heuristic Evaluation
Starting off with Heuristic Evaluation, we adopted Jakob Nielson's 10 Usability Heuristics as a guide and gave testers the following scenario and tasks.
Pre-Usability Testing
For this round of usability testings, we got 9 users to test out the current Coursera platform; 4 users for desktop and 5 users for mobile.
What could be improved:
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9 out of 9 users struggled with finding a FREE course
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5 out of 9 users did not notice the ‘audit’ button & don’t know what ‘Audit a course’ means
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3 out of 9 users were disappointed that there was no option to filter by price to find free courses
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2 out of 9 users commented that there are too many choices to choose from in the search listings
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4 out of 5 mobile users commented that there was no indication of whether the course is free even after clicking into the course page
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3 out of 4 desktops users were misled by the free trial and financial aid info into thinking that the course is not free
How might we make it easier for users to enroll for a free course?
How might we enhance users' learning experience on Coursera?
How might we encourage users to take on more courses on Coursera?
Establishing the Information Architecture
One insight from conducting our Pre-UT is that some users felt overwhelmed by the influx of information they were exposed to on the course information page. As such, our group conducted a closed card sort with the following objectives and categories:
Objectives:
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Gain insights into the considerations that users prioritise when searching for an online course to enroll in
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Improve organisation and presentation of information in a way that addresses users’ needs and preferences when it comes to evaluating a course
Categories
1. I find these the most useful to know about an online course (Top 5 considerations)
5 cards limit
2. I find these relatively useful to know about an online course
5 cards limit
3. I find these good to know but it will not affect my decision to join a course as much
4. I don't think this info is useful at all
We've gathered that from the top 10 considerations users have while searching for a course to enroll in, these are the main questions that they ask themselves.
Using those questions and the insights we have gotten from the card sort, we will be able to rebuild the course information page according to the content that matters most to the user. With these insights, we:
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Rearranged the order of our filters
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Organised information on the course page
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Crafted our course card components based on info that mattered to the users
Proposed Solutions
As mentioned earlier, our focus for this redesign would be the Decision Fatigue as well as the Lack of Continuity stages of our customer journey map. First up, it is crucial for us to find that sweet spot between business goals and user needs to churn up our proposed solutions.
Increases trustworthiness and credibility of Coursera for being transparent
Allows users to gain confidence in the course
Encourages conversion rate to obtain a paid certificate for endorsement
Address Decision Fatigue
"Skills You Follow" feature
In order to minimise user's cognitive load and optimise their decision making process, we propose to include a "Skills You Follow" feature to curate the course listings shown to users.
"What you will learn" pop-up
For the courses that users are more keen on, they can hover over the course card to view a short summary on what the course is about.
There is also a bookmark function for users to save the course and get back to it at a later time. In doing so, this allows them to access info more easily and not be overwhelmed by the bulk of info.
Enrolment options
Minimise users' frustrations with not being able to find free courses by standardising the use of terms to label free courses as 'free' rather than the term 'audit'. This in return builds greater trust between Coursera and users to increase enrolments on the platform.
Address the Lack of Continuity
Create a Learning Plan
The objective of allowing users to create a learning plan on Coursera is to allow for continuous learning but also ensure that users continue to take up more courses with Coursera.
In order to do so, users are required to complete a 4-part questionnaire for the platform to understand its learning needs and recommend courses accordingly.
Prototyping
Wireflow - Desktop
Wireflow - Mobile App
UT Iterations
UT Finding #1
7 out of 10 users commented that there was no indication of the course being 'free' on the search results page and course info page
Iteration #1
Added an ‘Option to enroll for free’ tag to distinguish courses that users can access for free and those that they cannot
UT Finding #2
6 out of 10 users felt that the user flow for the Learning Plan lacked clarity, many had doubts on what they were able to accomplish through this feature
Iteration #2
We simplified the questions asked and broadened the scope of the mini questionnaire to better understand users’ needs so that Coursera can address their learning needs more closely
UT Finding #2
6 out of 10 users felt that the user flow for the Learning Plan lacked clarity, many had doubts on what they were able to accomplish through this feature
Iteration #3
We narrowed the customisability of the plan to just reorganising & removing the courses and allow users to add courses through bookmarks on the product card.
Beyond doing iterations from UT findings, we added in a Skills Dashboard to accentuate the Learning Plan function. An insight from UT 1 is that most testers find the learning plan helpful to keep track of their learning progress which is why we included this skills dashboard as a source of motivation for them to complete the recommended courses.
Inclusion of Skills Dashboard
Majority of testers thought that this dashboard would be useful to motivate them and help them to keep track of their progress.
This also ensures that users would continue using Coursera for their learning needs.
Style Guide
We drew inspiration from Coursera's recent brand refresh for our style guide. Based on it's brand refresh, Coursera seeks to transform its identity to reflect its commitment to make transformative learning accessible, inclusive, and impactful for all.
Latest Prototype
Please bear in mind that this Coursera redesign is still a work-in-progress. With continuous usability testings, iterations, and prototyping, we hope to improve the Coursera platform and further enhance user experience.
But for now, feel free to check out what we have in our latest prototype!
Overall, the process is smooth and straightforward.
Very user-friendly.
Project Takeaways
#1 User testing & iterations never end
Design is a constant iteration of improving the experience for the end user. Despite the significant improvement in the SUS scores and ease of use ratings, our group felt that there was more that could be done to enhance user experience and better address business goals.
#2 Big challenges require small steps
Being one man short for this project, our group felt overwhelmed with the workload to complete this redesign in 2 weeks with just 3 people. However, with perseverance and nifty tools like Trello, we were able to break down the workload and manage our time well.
#3 Journey maps are our best friend
In the latter part of the project timeline, as the project gets more complex, it is helpful to look back at our journey map to see what needs to be prioritised. It also provides a basis for good cooperation among my teammates and I.
If there was more time available...
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Identify motivators for users to continue learning with Coursera. We would like to gain more insights to determine what kind of progress indicators users would like to see, especially for the Learning Plan.
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Since our redesign focuses more on the upstream aspects of the user flow, we would like to get to optimise the actual learning experience for Coursera users.
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Address the needs of our Secondary User Persona - Carl; extend Coursera's offerings to casual learners.
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Due to time constraints, we were unable to refine the visual design to the desired level of satisfaction. We would like to incorporate more visual elements on the Coursera platform that would reduce cognitive load so that users do not feel overwhelmed with the bulk of information.
