Designing Slot Selection for Outskill and How It Increased Enrolment Rate for Power Users — A Product Design Case Study
In this case study, you’ll see how we designed a feature from scratch to easily access different schedules for a particular workshop which later became instrumental in reshaping the business & revenue model
Hello folks!
I have been working at GrowthSchool as a Product Design intern and have had the opportunity to design 0 → 1 features for a new app called Outskill. Presenting one such feature, designed entirely from scratch, became instrumental in reshaping business and revenue models.
Here’s the final outcome:
In this case study we’ll explain the decisions taken to reach the final design and why was this feature important.
You can also interact with the prototype from here.
Before we begin, what is GrowthSchool?
GrowthSchool is an ed-tech startup based out of Bangalore where we partner with the top 1% of instructors to create high-impact cohort-based programs on personal and professional growth for learners worldwide.
Outskill is a Career SuperApp designed specifically to help users acquire new skills & gain valuable insights in industries like Marketing, Product and Design while making learning interesting, exciting, and affordable.
Users can upskill through Workshops, Audiobook Summaries, and Guides.
The problem we’re going to solve in this case study is related to Workshops mostly, so before you ask..
Here’s some context on Workshops
Workshops are expert-led engaging sessions packed with knowledge on specific topics, each lasting about an hour. Our Workshops cover a wide range of topics like Performance Marketing, Growth Marketing, Product -Led Growth, Product Management, UI/UX Design & many more taught by industry experts who work at top brands.
Outskill currently has 500+ Workshops scheduled to Broadcast across the 3 different industries: Marketing, Product, and Design.
Uhm…Broadcast?
Outskill differentiates itself from on-demand platforms by leveraging insights gained from GrowthSchool. Our findings indicate that users exhibit a higher engagement rate when they enrol in a workshop with a scheduled future date, as opposed to having unlimited access at any time.
Broadcast Sessions are NOT LIVE.
Our Broadcast sessions offer an interactive and engaging way of learning, making it more likely for the user to watch the entire session.
The concept is similar to TV channels airing specific shows at scheduled times. Think back to your favourite show or cartoon that you wouldn’t miss for anything because it aired at a specific time every day. We aimed to replicate that sense of affection and commitment to learning, aiming to establish a habitual routine.
But there are a lot of steps before a workshop starts to broadcast and the user can watch it. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process
How will the users join a Broadcast or enrol in a Workshop?
Understanding the Problem Space
Multiple cards for a single workshop are featured on the Home screen due to our scheduling approach, where each workshop is scheduled for the next seven sessions. The sorting on the Home screen is organized by the scheduled time.
The Problem with this Approach
First-time users are unclear about the concept of scheduled workshops and Broadcasts. So when they see the same workshop multiple times on the Home Screen they perceive the content on the app to be repetitive.
Due to varying time gaps between workshop schedules, users often face extended scrolling to discover alternate dates. This results in
- Users are unaware of later schedules, impacting enrolment and activation rates.
- If the user is unavailable during the first viewed card’s schedule, they are less likely to enrol and activate even though they want to watch the Workshop.
What was the Goal of this Project?
We want to design a way that will make it easier for users to see when workshops are happening, so they don’t miss out on later schedules. By streamlining the user experience and helping them know about other schedules of a workshop, the goal is to positively impact enrolment and activation rates, particularly for users unavailable during the first viewed card’s schedule.
Success Metrics to track
- Matched Enrolment Rate
- Interaction on Time Cards
- Activation Rate
Here’s the Final Solution 🎉
Want to know more about the journey behind this intriguing design? Keep reading! I went through several iterations before reaching the final design. It was a highly enjoyable process, and to be honest, this marked my first experience in designing this many iterations!
I used to hear senior designers stress the importance of iteration, and it finally clicked for me while working on this project. Creating rough wireframes for all my ideas provided invaluable clarity on what works and what doesn’t. It inspired me to refine my designs further. So, the lesson is clear — keep iterating!
Okay, so how did we end up here?
The objective is to make it effortless for users to learn about the workshop’s scheduled dates so
- How about we add all the scheduled dates on top of the workshop card?
After making a few more iterations it was clear that we could not showcase the schedules on the Card itself. So can we show them on the Details Screen?
The concept intrigued us because it suggested having a single Details Screen for each workshop. This not only resolves the issue of having multiple Workshop Cards cluttering the Home screen but also addresses the challenge of finding schedules for the same Workshop.
Our next step involved figuring out how users could seamlessly enrol in any schedule of their choice directly from the details page.
The First Idea
The initial concept involved a simple solution: implementing a dropdown menu, allowing users to choose their preferred time slot and enrol with ease.
However, in all these iterations, users could only view other schedules for that workshop once they tapped on the dropdown.
None of these iterations were able to solve our core problem: Users remained unaware that the workshop had been scheduled on future dates and the hidden nature of this information within a dropdown posed a discoverability challenge.
So we needed to be upfront with the other workshop schedules so that users would not miss them.
With that paradigm, we created the second set of iterations and after undergoing thorough reviews and collecting feedback, we identified the top 6 designs.
While none of them were flawless, a common issue surfaced in 5 out of the 6 designs:
The uncertainty of what happens when users scroll past the slots. The dilemma of whether to remind users further down the page or employ a sticky slot feature made the following iteration stand out:
And upon fixing the issues and modifying the design a little bit, we finally had the final design.
Let’s take a deep dive into “Time cards”
Despite initially using the term “slots” internally, we decided to call it “Time cards” to align with our users’ language. This was because we learned from user testing that users commonly inquire about the workshop broadcast time, asking questions like “What time is the workshop?” and “Are there different times for each workshop?” rather than using the term “slot.”
A time card is made up of 3 things:
- Day of Broadcast
- Time of Broadcast
- Enrolment Status
And here’s all the states of Time Cards ✨
Scalability is built into Time Cards!
Another reason why we decided to go forward with these cards is because they are wildly scalable. Locked states, Upgrade plan state, Enrolled, Remind Me, you name it; it just works!
Reference Board
Checking on competitors or evaluating how other companies approach design is always beneficial. It contributes to gaining a clearer understanding.
Hold on, things get very interesting now 👀
Data after 1 month of Slot Selection going live
Outskill currently has 100+ users, and the data obtained from this user pool was very interesting. We realized that the percentage of users who are interacting with Time Cards are the users who have the highest intent of watching a workshop; our Power Users. And even though the overall Enrolment Rate of Workshop didn’t increase much, we noticed that
If a user is interacting with Time Cards, the probability of them enrolling in a Workshop Schedule is much higher than users who didn’t.
Learnings
The marginal increase in the Enrolment Rate suggests two possibilities:
Either users struggle to find their preferred content, or they prefer to consume it right away and not wait for it to Broadcast.
Feedback and user testing indicate that content quality is not the issue, leading us to hypothesize that users may not be keen on scheduling for a later date. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that users avoid enrolling in time slots far in advance.
It prompts us to question the impact of the broadcast concept and consider whether pivoting towards an on-demand platform aligns better with the preferences of users who seek immediate content consumption.
So, What’s next?
Our ongoing efforts involve applying the insights derived from this feature to enhance our approach. We’re reassessing our revenue model, business strategy, and how we can better meet user needs. Excited to learn about the outcome? Download Outskill now for the latest developments
Download on App Store | Download on Play Store
One more thing…
We received a common concern from multiple users: “I’ve enrolled in a workshop that will broadcast in two days. What should I do now?”
Identifying it as a critical issue impacting user engagement, activation, and retention, we resolved it by introducing the Success Screen
This boosted our engagement and activation by 25%! 🚀
Keep an eye on the comments, I will add the link to this specific case study when it’s published! 🎉
This wouldn’t have been possible
Without the immense support, effective feedback, and constant reviews from @kingsidharth, Prerna Athia & Bhargava Venkata. They played a significant role in pushing my limits and bringing out my best work. Super grateful to every one of them. ✨
And that’s a wrap! 🌯
Thank you for sticking around till the end of this case study, it means a lot to me! I hope you found it insightful and enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed designing the feature.
🚨 I am currently looking for a full-time Product Designer role! If you’d love me to be a part of your amazing design team and help add value to your product, do reach out on LinkedIn /X.com (Twitter)/ Instagram or mail me at design.rajdeep@gmail.com.
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