Wall Street English
Web (Research, UI, UX) | 2015 - 2016
Designing a social learning platform for English learners around the world
Wall Street English
Wall Street English is a global English language learning institution for adults. They have served over 3 million students around the world since 1972. They now have 180,000 active students across 420 learning centers in 29 countries. They were acquired by Pearson in 2010 and then sold in 2017.
Their blended learning method, designed to help students learn a new language with a holistic approach, includes online self-study, in-person teacher-led classes, and practice activities. Students listen, read, write, speak, and practice English to gain better understanding of the language.
Overview
Wall Street English wanted to be everything for their customers, from the physical space to the digital offerings. The blended learning method was something that the institution has been living up to for more than forty years. With the advancement of technology, they were even more determined that it was time to upgrade the online experience for learners and employees to enhance learning efficacy by making English learning more fun, engaging, and personalized.
This new online platform was a responsive web app that consisted of four components:
Core Learning - A series of interactive lessons
Informal Learning - Tools and content that complements the core learning such as practice activities and dictionary widget
Social Learning - A global online community of English learners around the world
Staff Tools - Tools and data that supports the teachers and staff in their work
My Role
The project was carried out in close collaboration between 6 designers across multiple product teams with product owners, engineers, and a UX writer across the U.S., U.K., Poland, India, and Spain.
I was the designer responsible for defining the social and informal learning component of the platform.
Major features that I designed includes:
Practice Activities
Discussion Forum
Community
Members Directory
Dictionary
User Social Profile
From left to right: Member directory, discussion forum, and dictionary
The Challenge
Learning a new language can be intimidating. While there are courses designed for students to succeed, we believe there’s more we can do to help them learn more effectively - by leveraging the power of community learning.
Some benefits from community learning are:
Learners would feel less intimidated to practice English in an environment where everyone else is also learning a new language.
It helps to broaden one’s perspective which could lead to new opportunities.
Fun helps increase learning motivation which determines how much knowledge we retain.
My goal was to bring the global learner’s community together, providing them the environment, tools, and opportunities to share their knowledge and experience with each other to achieve learning efficacy.
My Process
Define
Understanding user and business needs
Interviewed product managers and stakeholders to understand business goals and requirements
Defined project scope based on timeline and technical constraints
Conducted field research and user interviews to understand user needs, goals, motivations, and challenges
During my field research in Shanghai, China, I observed students in a social learning class where the teacher encouraged students to repeat after him in a fun and engaging way.
User Research
In order to design something that' would be useful and easy to use, I conducted remote and in-person user interviews to gain a better understanding of our users. I traveled to China, one of our biggest markets, to conduct field studies and user interviews to answer the following questions:
Who are we designing for?
What do they need?
Why do they want to learn English?
What are their challenges?
Field Research
What people say may be different from what they actually do, so it is important to observe people in their everyday environment to get first-hand insights into user behavior.
I shadowed the teachers and staff of different roles to learn about their responsibilities and how they accomplish their everyday tasks. I also audited several classes so I could see the world from the student's perspective.
This study was very valuable as it provided user insights that were less likely to be obtained through testing or interviews. Users weren't always aware of the external factors that shaped their decisions and perceptions.
Me auditing in a conversational class
Classroom settings designed to encourage group conversation
Students would sit in these individual pods to take interactive courses with audio and recording functionality designed to help them learn English through a holistic approach.
Workbook with notes from a student
User Interviews
I designed and conducted remote and on-site user interviews to understand user needs, goals, motivations, and challenges.
Being able to talk to the users in their natural environment was crucial to getting quality responses, as opposed to online surveys. These interviews were done in Mandarin Chinese to ensure the participants could fully and accurately express themselves.
It was quite inspiring to hear what motivated these students to learn English and how they learn English in their own words.
Students took notes by taking snapshots from the whiteboard during a class, which suggested the need for reviewing materials after the class.
A student showing the different apps he uses to help him learn English
Ideate
Exploring different ideas and solutions
Brainstormed on possible solutions
Defined user flow and information architecture
Discussed solutions with product managers and engineers with quick sketches, wireframes, and low fidelity prototypes
A study on the anatomy of course cards on Treehouse, an online coding academy
Sketching out ideas for course cards tailored to Wall Street English students
Build
Bringing ideas to life
Built interactive prototypes to carry out the vision
Created high fidelity mockups
Collaborated with engineering to deliver pixel perfect user interface
Experimenting with different visual treatments to see the effects on information hierarchy, readability, and user engagement
Evaluate
Measuring effectiveness and learning from mistakes
Designed and conducted usability testing
Analyzed findings and transformed them into actionable items that helped shape the product roadmap
A participant going under usability testing in one of the learning centers in Shanghai, China
Usability Testing
I conducted usability testing to find out what worked and what didn’t. I was able to identify usability issues and uncovered the why behind the scenes, which led us to the how for fixing them.
Participants were asked to complete a series of goal oriented tasks while I asked questions, took notes, and observed their reactions. Then, I analyzed the findings and transformed them into actionable design solutions that influenced the product roadmap. Being able to see the first hand user reactions definitely helped convince the team what we needed to focus on as seeing is believing.
Most importantly, the study allowed us to empathize with our users, which was the key to building something that's truly useful and intuitive for the users.
Lesson Learned
User research made me a more humble designer
After conducting so many user studies, it had changed my approach to design. Here are some examples of how user insights changed the design:
A good portion of usability issues uncovered actually came from the fact that the users weren’t able to understand the UI labels because they were written in English. English is a foreign language to our users, not to mention when the language is used in the context of the digital world where users were not familiar with. This led to change in some of the labels to eliminate confusion, and a proposal for leveraging illustrations throughout the UI to help with comprehension.
Our user base includes people from a wide range of age, gender, and cultural backgrounds. I’ve noticed that our senior users were not as tech savvy as the younger generation. To be inclusive of the different user groups, I decided to be more explicit when designing the UI instead of aiming for a clean and efficient UI where sometimes things are implied. We should be careful in assuming the users would know how to interact with particular UI pattern because that’s what I am accustomed to.
This experience has taught me to always stay humble and listen to your users.
Human-centered design process in the real world
While it’s every UX designer’s believe to do research (or have it done by someone else) before diving into design, you are often told that there’s not enough time and “the train has left the station”. More often, shipping the product on time gets prioritized over doing user research. Without going into whether that’s appropriate or not, it’s just how the world operates.
In my case, I wasn’t able to conduct research in the order I wanted, but I found opportunities down the road alongside the development cycle. I learned to adapt to the established process. Instead of conducting a your ideal robust user research before you design, it’s ok to start solutioning. However, plan out the study in a way that doesn’t stop the train. Slowly, the findings will guide the train back on the right path.