BeCrop Advisor Course

UX Research

Biome Makers is a soil biology company aiming to optimize farming practices, improve soil health, and empower sustainability. My research allowed them to learn about the current use of the BeCrop Advisors course and to make adjustments that increase community interaction and ROI, as well as the overall reach of their company values and products.

Problem

Biome Makers wasn’t seeing an ROI for its BeCrop Advisors course and aspired to increase online community interaction and the overall reach of its company values and products.

Solution

Findings suggested a change in the online community platform, adjustments in their course UI, and further research to better understand their students’ needs could help solve their problem.

Constraints

Minimal time and resources.

Low survey response from stakeholders and users.

Minimal analytics data, only high level information.

Tools

Kajabi Analytics

My Role

UX Researcher

UX Designer, Communications & Content Manager, International Head of Marketing

Team

Timeline

6 Weeks

The Process

1

Surveys

10 People

Heuristic Design Evaluation

2

3 Pages

3

Site Analytics

Kajabi Analytics

Surveys - to gain direct insight into student and stakeholder perspectives.

Seven students received a survey with nine questions crafted to show why they chose this course, in what environment they’re using the knowledge, and to better understand their pain points.

Three stakeholders received a survey with six questions crafted to show the purpose of the course, how that interacts with the company's purpose, and what aspects of the course are most and least successful.

Findings:

  • Both stakeholders and students expressed a want for improvement in the sense of community.

  • Students described the current community as lacking engagement and exposure to other advisors.

Heuristic Design Evaluation - to assess site usability and friction.

The lack of budget for usability testing led me to heuristic design evaluation.

Footer links lead to new site without opening new window.

The footer links lead to a different website without opening a new tab, causing minor friction for students who want to return to their coursework.

Menu icon looks like logo.

The menu icon doesn’t look like a menu, potentially causing minor friction for students. 

Lack of subtitles & written content.

The lack of written materials or subtitles creates an inaccessible learning environment for people with hearing accessibility needs or those in an environment not conducive to audible learning.

Lack of ability to tag other students or respond with emojis.

The inability to leave comments, likes, or reactions in response to student posts shows an inability to build a student-to-student community.

Findings:

  • There are multiple opportunities for minor adjustments that decrease friction in the student experience. These include changing the menu icon so it looks like a menu and changing the links that lead students out of Kajabi so they open in a new tab.

  • The course's lack of written information meant that students had to be hearing capable and in an environment that supported audio learning to complete it.

  • The site that hosts the course is insufficient for community building. While there is a space for students to leave comments, there is no opportunity for comment reactions, tagging, direct messages, or profiles.

Site Analytics - to understand participation and drop-off rate.

I used site analytics to understand where students were struggling. I wanted to see where people were dropping off in the flow and other areas where there were pain points.

Student drop off rate in each area of the course.

Findings:

  • Primary dropout rates occurred in the introduction module and the learning materials module.

The Recommendations

Based on survey responses, heuristic design evaluation, and site analytics, I came to various recommendations for Biome Makers to implement. I decided to divide it into two parts based on the level of time and money investments required:

Short Term Recommendations (can be implemented quickly)

  • Create a community space on a platform that students already use.

  • Change the menu icon to be more easily recognizable.

  • Change the "About" and "Contact" links to open in a new tab.

  • Offer written content or video subtitles to allow more students to learn the course materials.

Long Term Recommendations (requires time and financial investment)

  • Lower drop-off rates by conducting interview research with students who have not finished the course and making course improvements based on their feedback.

At the end of this project, Biome Makers found value in and started implementing all of the short-term recommendations provided. We are in further communication about continuing to work together.

The Next Steps

Below are the next steps I discussed with Biome Makers.

01

Assess community interaction on the new platform to learn if the change in platform caused an increase in interaction.

02

Interview current students to learn about their experiences in the course and community.

03

Interview students who stopped the course before finishing to learn about their experience in the course and community.

My Learnings

As my first UX project outside of school, there was something to learn around every corner. The most impactful were:

  • Research takes time, and I need to better plan for future projects.

  • Structured communication is needed to finish a project in the agreed-upon timeframe.

  • Finding participants is hard when you’re not giving them incentives.

  • Analytics tools provide supplemental information to help with research and understand user behavior.

Interested in working together? Reach out here.