We evaluated Kaplan's web-based training marketing application and created an experience that would entice users to adopt their education service for online training and certification.
An expert review and user testing on Kaplan’s current website as well as focus groups drove our effort to design a concept to promote users’ continued engagement throughout their certification process.
After receiving feedback from several individuals at various stages of their career, we found that the target users of the certification program were unwilling to invest the necessary time and energy into their training. Neither the site nor the service motivated individuals to engage with it, leading to abandonment. Our challenge was to market an online training experience that framed courses as part of a user journey that was simple, easy, visual and emotionally satisfying.
“The Kaplan project was a great example of how UX can positively influence a product direction and take it to places that are not obvious.”
Initial discovery found that users perceive training opportunities as beneficial and worthy of the time investment if they enrich their careers in the long run. These implications guided the design of a visual experience that outlined a user’s current status and journey to successfully reach their end goals.
We conducted an expert review and usability testing of Kaplan’s current website in addition to focus groups to uncover immediate usability issues and offer insight into possible design directions for the online learning platform.
We discovered that users were interested in online training programs as a way to enhance their careers, and they would see value in a training tool whose investment would lead to career growth.
The findings from our research efforts allowed our design team to re-imagine Kaplan’s certification tool experience. Our approach connected individual’s LinkedIn profiles with the certification platform and offered a way to visualize their experience and skills, surfacing relevant trainings to help them discover new ways to advance their career.
The tool visually communicated where users stood in regard to their current career and guided them to alternative careers and training to help them ultimately achieve their goals. Usability testing conducted on initial design concepts solidified the fact that a focus on information visualization was paramount to foster continued engagement.
Based on our research activities, including an expert review, usability testing, and focus groups, we designed an improved approach to Kaplan’s online learning platform to create an experience that emphasized visually communicating users’ current status and future journey to enhance their career status through certification and training programs. We proposed recommendations for Kaplan’s UX strategy moving forward to make their product desirable and valuable to the target customer and created a look that helped users visualize where they stood in their current career and how they could transition to alternative careers through training opportunities.
The design was interactive and took real time information and changes from LinkedIn profiles and applied it to call out appropriate trainings. This platform and our design has since been acquired by Purdue University Global.
