Teacher Training Video Revisions
Addressing specific pain points on the Teacher Training Videos website
The problem
Russell Stannard is a key name in the world of English language teaching (ELT) and has worked with major publishers such as Macmillan, Express Publishing & Richmond. Russell also has strong links with the British Council, the UK’s global organisation and charity that offers English exams, exchange programmes and English language teaching services.
He has received numerous awards for his work and for his website teachertrainingvideos.com. Whilst the content on Russell’s site is almost flawless big issues exist with the look and feel of the website. Furthermore, parts of the site are particularly confusing or difficult to navigate. His site is also not well-optimized for mobile.
For this reason, I have decided to pursue a partial redesign of Russell Stannard’s teachertrainingvideos.com website for the desktop version to improve the user experience in any way I can and to further understand any significant pain points.
Understanding
I began by conducting a brand analysis of teachertrainingvideos.com, learning about its competitors and customer demographics along the way.
Some key takeaways from 55 people surveyed:
- Almost three-quarters of teachers surveyed were female.
- Most of these users are using desktops 52.7% to access video content, whilst mobile devices are catching up fast and account for 47.3% of users.
- Half surveyed are over the age of 40.
- The most popular videos on the site by far seem to be ‘Zoom, the flipped classroom, and Google Tools’.
- Most surveyed appear to watch videos through YouTube and Facebook feeds.
The eLearning Market
I began by conducting a competitive analysis of how other video course providers are solving the problems around video learning. I chose Skillshare, Udemy, and FutureLearn (3 prominent providers of video-based learning) to fully understand how users can locate, access, and view video learning content. I concentrated on how UI features were laid out, the user flow, and navigation on both desktop and mobile versions.
Speaking to the users
I felt it fundamental to understand more about people’s true intentions for watching training videos, at this stage.
This led me to design approximately 10 questions to understand more about the users and what they were looking to seek and gain from the website.
Analysing the results #1
An affinity map is often used to group similar observations together. I used it to measure several key issues which were common among the participants surveyed.
Analysing the results #2
Another tool I utilised was the 2×2 matrices. This helped me to better understand the relationships between things on a spectrum. I used this to map issues important to teachertrainingvideos.com’s users versus business goals.
It also helped me prioritise which issues needed dealing with first.
- 8 out of 10 users wanted to ‘search’ for a video and couldn’t.
- 8 out of 10 users wanted the ‘publish date’ to be viewable on the videos.
- 10 out of 10 users wanted the menu bar to be redesigned.
- 7 out of 10 of users did not like the design of the videos and felt they needed simplifying.
Suggestions & Redesigns
The new menu bar condenses the amount of information by being more organised. The most essential points are moved to the right-hand side. Key features such as the videos and the ability to search are now in the middle of the page to assist the user to find what they need as quickly as possible. I also designed a new ‘look and feel’ based on a template design with set fonts, colours and menu items to ensure overall consistency.
Validation & Lessons Learned
The new menu bar condenses the amount of information by being more organised. The most essential points are moved to the right-hand side. Key features such as the videos and the ability to search are now in the middle of the page to assist the user to find what they nee
- 10 out of 10 found the new menu layout to be clearer and faster.
- 9 out of 10 users greatly appreciate the new search function and found the whole process much more intuitive.
- 10 out of 10 users like the signup option for new videos being less prominent on the site and shifted to the bottom of the homepage.
- 10 out of 10 said the new videos section is a vast improvement,
- 10 out of 10 found the publish date really useful for newly updated videos.
I really enjoyed this project, especially as I used to teach English as a Foreign Language occasionally myself and could relate to many of the common frustrations the people I interviewed were telling me.
I want to work with you to solve your usability problems
If you are interested in a no obligations chat to find out how you can mximise user engagement, productivity then let’s talk.
© 2023 All Rights Reserved.