I’m an active collaborator, aligning user needs with business goals.

Project by skill

1. Increasing conversions
2. Aligning user and business goals
3. Balancing user control with structured guidance

1. Increasing conversions

Context

This was a fast-moving project and I was pulled in during the wire-framing stage. Requirements had already been laid out by upper management.

My approach

1. Quickly built relationships with UX/UI designers by first fulfilling immediate needs — drafting copy for wireframes. Questioned the mental model that we were servicing with existing flows and gained the trust and respect of my peers.
2. Used given requirements, user data, and stakeholder feedback to continue iterating on content.
3. Collaborated on a prototype that was used in a UXR study and participated in the interview of 2 existing users.
4. Mapped the user journey to get a better strategy for tone, and identify areas in the flow where content was missing. Revised content.
5. Revised content according to UXR study results and stakeholder (product and marketing) feedback.

Content decisions

Homepage Hero: Educate

Hero content considerations:

• Sets the context and educate user about new free experience.
• Short, simple sentences improve scannability and quick understanding.
• The tone is positive but not overly excited. We wanted to be empathetic with the user, who was likely returning to a vastly reduced experience.
• If I could make revisions now, I would experiment with removing the hero. This content is likely no longer helpful to returning users.

Premium Content: perceive added value of subscription

Premium content considerations:

• The headline aims to spark interest and prep the user for a browsing experience.
• The body aims to show the breadth of content formats (not all of which is visible) and the high quality of the content.

Trial CTA: funnel users into the trial when they hit the paywall

Banner content considerations:

• The banner encourages the user to browse the content. The most convincing moment to start a trial is when the user finds a solution (premium content) to an immediate need (relevant to curriculum) that’s behind the pay wall.
• The activating word ‘Unlock’ is used throughout the free experience accompanied by the safe icon. This is relatively common for digital platforms and calls on the mental model of a paywall.

Modal: activate trial

Modal content considerations:

• The primary goal of the modal is to convert curious free users to trial users by highlighting and listing in a hiearchy the benefits users will enjoy, as well as educating the user on the trial terms.
• The secondary goal is to appease user concerns like: what can I do at the end of the trial if I like it? Will I be automatically charged if I miss the end date of the trial?
• The CTA indicates that the trial will start immediately (no need to fill in forms). It is a low commitment CTA.

Outcome

What I learned

The are many tools and models available to help us empathize with the user. Applying those tools effectively, paves the way for more targeted and empathetic content. Ideally, this happens in the discovery phase.

What I would do now

• Over a year later, the hero content needs to be updated to address the current context.
• Usage data and UXR studies should be conducted to better understand the user’s mental model of the free and paid experiences. Those results could be used to adapt content.
• Drop-off rates could help us understand where we are losing the free users and help us to optimize the experience.

2. Aligning user and business goals

My approach

1. Gather info and do some quick content research. I met with stakeholders to understand what content was pulled from other parts of the experience.
2. Drafted initial copy for the entire flow.
3. Identified missing content i.e. success modal and warning alert.
4. Worked with UX/UI designer to determine what components would be best.
5. Collaborated with the UX content design team to get recommendations that align with our content standards.
6. Had terms and conditions copy approved by our in-house legal team.
7. Reviewed with product stakeholders and engineers to answer questions and add transparency around design decisions, highlighting the value of certain decisions.

Content decisions

Step 1: Set up autopay

Step 2: Enter payment details

Step 3: Payment saved successfully

Step 4: Autopay is set up

Outcome

What I might have done differently

I’d have standardized autopay messaging across the platform. I was only able to align messaging with the account because I worked on that as well.

Ideally, this would mean a closer relationship with marketing where we could establish and document messaging for campaigns and in-product communication. That messaging could be implemented uniformly across the product and in the funnel.

3. Balancing user control with structured guidance

My approach

1. Provide guidance along the way that would give the user the best chances of success.
2. Provide tool tips that could educate new users while not overloading frequent users with any information that is only needed once.
3. Allow flexibility and provide context, so that the user can move back and forth between steps and complete the form as they see fit.

Content decisions

Step 1: Name the template

Step 1 content considerations:

• Help text below the field gives more context and increases user confidence.
• The CTA indicates what the following step will be.
• The tool tip (content in the top right corner) defines that term so that users can create re-usable product types and identifiable names.

Step 2: Select attributes and create template

Step 2 content considerations:

• Module title remains “Create a product template” so that the user has a reminder of where they are and the task at hand.
• Back button allows the user to return to the previous step and reminds them of what that was.
• Step label guides the user on what action to take, ‘select,’ and adds context while remaining concise.
• Primary CTA: indicates that the process is completed once selected.

Step 3: Edit new template

Step 3 content considerations:

• Content architecture: All product attributes are visible on the page with a pre-determined template structure and content clustering. This guides users on the ‘right’ path reducing the cognitive load of creating a template from scratch.
• Flexibility: All content is user-entered and can be edited and re-ordered.
• CTAs: short and repetitive with simple, clear language and standard terminology. This allows for full concentration on the user-generated content.

Outcome

What I learned

Tooltips and helper text are both excellent ways to provide extra information, answer user questions, and provide guidance. Tooltips are especially great for enterprise software because the user has control over seeing the information or not. Frequent users would likely prefer not to see extra information.

What I would do now

I would track how often the user clicks on a tooltip and reevaluate how effective they are in particular places. I would have also considered swapping the order of the steps, so that naming came second.