Euni
Studying abroad made easy
Introduction to the Project
PROJECT SUMMARY
Euni (euni.ru) is an education consultancy that provides reliable advice and educational products, saving time for students from Russian-speaking countries who wish to study in Germany or attend a German language school. By offering a seamless user interface, it alleviates the hassle of searching for useful information or suitable study programs. My role was to research, redesign, and test all UIs related to the project, collaborating closely with a Web Developer.
PROBLEM
As interest in higher education in Europe rises, competition among education consultants grows rapidly. With a new design concept, we aimed to achieve the following goals:
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Increased conversion
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Increased number of sold service packages
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Improved operational efficiency
SOLUTION
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Discover what users currently do, think, and feel
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Conduct evaluative research
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Develop a clear strategic vision & create customer value
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Identify hiccups and usability issues in the workflow
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Find and fix issues that could hurt the user experience
TOOLS
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Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Introduction to the Project
What I learned
ABOUT THE MARKETPLACE & COMPETITORS
In education online services, the usability is generally very poor:
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The most common homepage pattern does little to educate.
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Too much text makes the content unscannable.
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Overall, testimonials feel overly curated, leading to suspicion.
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Form usability is particularly poor.
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Decision-making around plans is daunting.
ABOUT THE CUSTOMERS
From the research, I learned that users of Euni are broad and conventional:
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Russian-speaking
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Age range: 18-54
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Mostly female
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Mostly likely to have a higher education or strive to get one
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Most likely to use both desktop and mobile versions of the website (euni.ru)
INSIGHTS FROM USER RESEARCH
I also talked to customers during the user research and found that:
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They trust testimonials from other users.
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They rely on word-of-mouth (even online) for many choices.
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They skim content and are easily overwhelmed by detail.
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They are influenced by deals and savings.
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Their online satisfaction was low and frustration was high.
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They strive to avoid negative past experiences.
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They seek to avoid hassles and bureaucracy.
Workflow
Discovery - Phase
Strategic Vision
Interaction Design - Phase
Users are motivated by their hearts,
but make decisions with their head.
So how do we create an experience
for this person?
This is her journey...
And here's where it starts
But on Google, everything looks the same
And users are forced to compare.
But what do you compare...?
“Value”
=
Cost
Coverage
Dependability
Cost...
Coverage...
Dependability...
Since the value is hard to assess...
Our Vision:
Be the most valuable choice as an education service.
Conclusion
STATUS OF THE PROJECT
After analyzing a big amount of data on euni and creating a new strategic vision, the client decided to use this concept and change the design of the website completely. The status of the project is ongoing. The web developer is preparing a new software engine with which we will start developing the website from scratch.
WHAT I LEARNED
During the user research process, I was genuinely surprised to see how many users ignore the search window while they are searching for some specific information. I also got some certain insights about their behavior online:
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What users say and how users actually act may be two completely different things.
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Unconventional UI patterns interrupt the users’ flow. Too many clicks during the booking a service package lead to overthinking & interrupt the early commitment.
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Users scim the texts on the websites, they don’t read them.
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They ignore the stock pictures.
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They are driven by their heart, but make decisions with their head.
CHALLENGE
There were many challenges during this project, but most challenging thing was finding a compromise between the business goals and the users‘ needs. It was also challenging to convince the client that the usability comes first.