DataCamp
Navigation data-driven redesign
2019
Information architecture and navigation redesign with data-driven research. DataCamp, an educational platform for data science, wanted to scale their product in terms of branding and also usability, as they were focusing more and more on B2B clients. As the core of the business is data, the design should follow this principle and be data-driven. However, qualitative research was needed for the mapping of the customer journey. The result was a new navigation design.
Disclaimer: Due to confidentiality reasons, limited information is shared and the designs are slightly changed
5-member agile team
#1 - No Insights on their Customer Experience
DataCamp has an approach to learning, however, they didn’t know how their users experienced their platforms. This resulted in a chaotic information architecture in which many useful tools are lost.
#2 - Give a professional look while satisfying the user needs
Till recently, the platform was targeting only B2C users. During the last few years, their content was scaled tremendously and they shifted their focus into B2B clients. Consequently, the design should follow this focus as well. Light and playful style.
#3 - Discover more content
Since now DataCamp has more than 300 courses, it is a challenge for the user to find what they need. Thus, the design should help them discover more interesting content for them.
In order to resolve this challenge, a detailed customer journey was needed. This would be the first time that there would be quantitative research about the holistic experience in the platform.
We decided that we would make one customer journey for each of the four personas. As a team, we decided that we would research the persona with the biggest population among our users.
The interviews were 1 on 1 and they were conducted via the online conferencing software Zoom. The conversation was very structured and the users had to share their experience with DataCamp from the first moment they heard about it till today.
The interviews were analysed and resulted in a customer journey with qualitative data.
However, it was very important to use all the data that the team had gathered from the online platform. Thus, with the help of the data scientist and the product manager, the data of each step were included on the customer journey.
The benefit was having a complete customer journey with both quantitative and qualitative research. This helped us point out the most critical moments where users drop or face an issue with the platform.
Due to the focus on B2B business, stakeholders wanted to give a more professional essence to the platform, since the current look was more light and playful. Of course, this request should be combined with a design that gives the most smooth user experience.
From the aforementioned quantitative research, we had many insights for the user needs. Thus, I designed an information architecture and navigation according to those.
Since the platform is an actual educational tool with a dashboard and many features, we decided to go for a left navigation bar. The chosen colours were clean while being accessible. This was tested with visual impairment tests. Finally, the illustrations were minimal to fit with the professional look of the briefing.
As mentioned before, DataCamp’s content was scaled incredibly the past few years from 5 courses to more than 300. Consequently, the users needed help in order to discover new content relevant to us. The obvious solution was a recommendation feature that was already being set in place. The second solution was a creative way of grouping the content and presenting it. In order to get the best feedback for this idea, we set up three online card sorting tests to identify which grouping was performing best.
Stakeholders gave feedback on this first design, which was incorporated in the second version.
However, we wanted to take user feedback while following the data-driven philosophy of the company. That is why we set up an online quantitative research plan. Combining it with a calculation of the long term value of each design, we identified the best version.
This quantitative research consisted of 5 rounds:
The final step of this redesign was the usability test. We set up an online usability test combined with a semi-structured interview. Each member of the team conducted 4 four interviews with users. We decided this in order to have all the members understand the user needs and the value of the redesign.
After the final incorporation of feedback in the design, we decided on different implementation versions in order to roll it out step by step.
