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Case study · IDEO U
Helping learners discover the right product at a design thinking school
Background
IDEO U is a design-thinking learning platform offering courses and certificates. In 2021, the marketing team found that too many options overwhelmed potential customers. I worked with them to design a solution.
Team
Product manager - Emma Leyden
Growth analyst - Kaison Tanabe
Marketing manager - Gloria Cho
Outcome
- July 2021 to March 2022 showed a 7.62%+ increase in homepage value and 2.6%+ decrease in bounce rate via Google Analytics.
- New sections enhanced IDEO U's overall marketing strategy to highlight learner stories, and further supported ad, social media, and email campaigns.
Research
I conducted stakeholder and observational interviews, a card sort, and analyzed marketing data, personas, and competitors to:
- Identify key competitors and their UX strengths/weaknesses
- Uncover user goals, frustrations, and navigation behaviors
- Evaluate site alignment with IDEO U's brand and messaging
Usability testing was also done to validate new designs.
Design objectives
01
Remove repetition
Streamline repeated content so customers can scan faster.
02
Highlight differentiators
Clarify what makes each offer distinct at a glance.
03
Showcase ROI
Communicate concrete value from enrolling in certificates.
Defining Scope
We focused on a popular product the team wanted to highlight to define a flow and prioritize redesign requirements.
Designing an intuitive IA
Based on user mental models from research, we reformatted the overall site navigation, made nomenclature clearer, and categorized the homepage by learning topic first.
Site Map
Homepage IA
Key design decisions
The redesign highlighted branding, simplified content, introduced learning paths, grouped products, added pricing to cards, and included testimonials, benefits, quotes, an interactive module, and FAQs—all ready for A/B testing.
Branding & first impressions
Selected high-quality images to bring out IDEO U's creative branding.
Homepage pathfinding
Grouped products into topic-based learning paths to streamline navigation and reduce repetition of showing the same products over and over.
Product differentiators
Created a new layout for certificates to set them apart from courses.
Testimonials, statistics, and benefits
Added statistics and highlighted testimonials for credibility, and added language to communicate the ROI of the certificate (a group of classes).
Learnings
At kickoff, the marketing team suggested a quiz to solve the way-finding problem but hesitated to alter the page after a past redesign hurt conversions. Research showed refining existing elements would improve the experience more than adding a new feature. I proposed a redesign in A/B-testable sections—which won stakeholder buy-in. This project reinforced that small changes can drive results, especially for risk-averse businesses, and was a fun, collaborative experience with the best team.
Final Samples
Homepage