On this project we worked with Agora Tutoring to design a functional “Launching Soon” page that helps users understand the Agora Tutoring service and sign-up to receive updates about launch.

Designers: Kyra Cushing, Maddie Kong, Yasmine Achibat and Paige Savino (Team Leader).

Agora Tutoring “Launching Soon”

Project Overview

  • The Problem

    Our client’s site is currently in development and they needed a friendly temporary design that informed users of their company and created a connection with users in order to give them direct information related to the company.

  • The Solution

    Develop an engaging and informative landing page that encouraged users to sign up for the newsletter to receive updates.

  • My Role (Team Lead)

    • managed client communication
    • organized our team meetings
    • managed our files and deadlines
    • ensured equal division of labor
    • provided feedback and support
    • generated community on our team
    • design contributions

Identifying Client’s Needs

In our initial meeting with the client, he knew he needed an under construction page, but was looking for guidance in order to identify what key elements were important for him to communicate to users.

In our next meeting, we created a presentation with examples of landing pages where we called out specific elements to help him verbalize how he wanted to connect with users.

Presentation by Kyra Cushing, the slides below were my contributions.

Project Plan and Timeline

After meeting with the client and separately as designers, we created the timeline and project plan below. Because the design needs were fairly straightforward, we wanted to ensure users felt like Agora Tutoring would meet their needs so we could encourage them to sign-up to participate at launch.

Testing how much information users needed before being willing to commit to signing up for updates was a key pain point.

The following slides were my designs.

Screener Survey

We created a survey to figure out what users were looking for and the key features of Agora Tutoring that we could highlight for users in order to help them connect to a solution to their problems on the Agora Tutoring Platform.

Key takeaways: trustworthiness and qualifications of tutor, convenience (location, scheduling), cost

The Screener Survey was created and analyzed by Yasmine Achibat

Wireframes

  • Overview

    Before testing we reviewed the wireframes as a team and provided feedback.

    Our client wanted the sign-up to be one of the first design elements, but we found through our testing that users were disinclined to sign-up before reading through the information.

    Design solution: We kept a newsletter sign-up button in the top menu, and included and secondary sign-up mid-page in the final design to address the client concerns and give users more opportunities to sign-up.

    An additional challenge for our team was lack of copywriting. We decided to test some copy starting in the wireframes.

    Maddie Kong designed these wireframes.

  • Wireframe #1

    Before feedback from designers meeting

  • Wireframe #2

    Testing the newsletter sign-up form higher up, per the client’s request

  • Wireframe #3

    Testing the same design with the newsletter at the bottom

Usability Testing - Round 1

Key feedback:
Customized content: users enjoyed the option to use the site as a parent/student or a tutor
Clarifying message: users wanted more content to understand how the service would work
User confidence: users wanted to understand the vetting process, more about the company, and testimonials from users (even test users)
Newsletter transparency: Users were disinclined towards “newsletter” language, wanted transparency to know what they were sign-up for

Our testing script was written by Kyra Cushing. The first round of usability testing and report were done by me.

Low Fidelity Designs

  • Overview

    We decided to use this an opportunity to test the language used on the site to see if it gained users’ trust. We added different elements based on user feedback in our initial round of testing. We added or expanded How It Works, Images, Testimonial/Quote, and Newsletter Content.

    The low-fidelity designs were designed by Kyra Cushing.

  • Student Tab

  • Tutor Tab

Usability Testing - Round 2

User feedback was positive, with users praising the site’s logical organization and intuitive navigation.

Key feedback:
Credibility: Generally viewed the site as trustworthy, they suggested enhancements (incorporating images, interactive design elements, and more precise copy to bolster credibility further)
Testimonials and Reviews: Participants appreciated the inclusion of testimonials but wanted to see a broader range of user experiences. Tutors, in particular, expressed interest in hearing firsthand accounts from both students and tutors about their interactions with the platform.
Newsletter Concerns: Many users expressed willingness to subscribe to the newsletter but emphasized the need for transparency about its content and value. The option to unsubscribe later mitigated their hesitations.
Tutor Qualifications: Users sought detailed information about tutor qualifications and credentials, advocating for clearer vetting processes and trust signals.
Tutor Onboarding: Users wanted to know more tutor experience and onboarding and felt it would enhance site credibility. 

Kyra Cushing conducted the second round of usability testing.

High Fidelity Designs

  • Overview

    We implemented the user feedback into our designs. We then had a few meetings as designers and with our client and went through an iterative design process. I was the primary designer of the high fidelity designs, while every designer contributed feedback and various design elements.

    Kyra Cushing designed the How Agora Works section.

    The fine-tuning was done by Maddie Kong and myself.

    Yasmine Achibat was primarily responsible for the copywriting and I helped edit and refine the text.

    On the day before the design was due, our client quickly requested Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages and a mobile version of the pages which I designed.

    All designs were delivered on time and the client feedback was very positive.

  • Version 1

    Our first design, client felt the “Launching soon” messaging was lost in the design. He wanted more construction or “coming soon” imagery.

    Wanted more opportunity for users to subscribe.

  • Version 2

    Added an “under construction” feeling to the text, and adjusted the cards under How Agora Works. Also added more “coming soon” language.

  • Version 3

    Client felt the hero section was too busy and wanted more “under construction” type language.

  • Final Design - Tutor Tab

    The client was very satisfied with the final designs. We simplified the top section of the page with icons in place of subjects, adding the logo, increasing the “Launch Soon” text and adding an icon, we mirrored this language in the newsletter sign-up as well. In the Student/Tutor sections we replaced the bullet points with icons as well.

  • Final Version - Student Tab

  • Final Version Mobile

  • Privacy Policy Page

Reflections

Overall, I’m very proud of the work our team created together. Every designer brought their unique strengths and contributed as they could in the different design phases. I enjoyed being team leader to such a hard working team and making sure someone was always completing the next phase of the project.

If I could go back, I would have requested more time from the client and Springboard in order to complete user testing on the final designs and create a functioning prototype. This project started over Thanksgiving holiday, our client had a substantial surgery with a week-long recovery, many of us were traveling throughout the course of the project and the first several days of the project we were unable to start due to technical difficulties outside of our control. Regardless of these obstacles, we completed this project from initial meeting to final deliverables in 27 days.