EdTech eCommerce Redesign

A cross-functional initiative to integrate a newly-acquired company’s assets into the existing technology stack prompts a new eCommerce site rebuild.

Overview

This project involved creating a new site for a newly acquired business, Sarah Michelle NP Reviews (SMNP Reviews). The eCommerce team worked closely with the business owner, marketing manager, creative director, and product team to lift and reformat their existing marketing site content and put it into Adobe Commerce (Magento), making usability improvements where possible and establishing a web style/brand guide.

Role

This project involved the eCommerce team working closely with the business owner, marketing manager, creative director, and product team to lift and reformat their existing marketing site content. As lead designer, I worked closely with eCommerce developers to provide UX strategy, information architecture, wireframes, a style guide, and transactional email templates.

Problem

Blueprint Prep always intended to bring SMNP content into their proprietary LMS, but serious issues with the question bank experience accelerated the timeline. Because SMNP’s legacy LMS also provided the purchasing functionality, a new eCommerce site build was required to get users into Blueprint’s LMS.

Results

Because installing site analytics was not in scope for this project, success metrics for the launch of the new eCommerce site were limited. But anecdotal feedback from the customer service team suggests that the users found the site navigable and usable. The biggest boon was to the business, which was able to streamline systems and have more of the product catalog processed through the same payment gateway and financial reporting scheme.

Background

SMNP Reviews is a community-focused EdTech company that provides prep options for aspiring nurse practitioners seeking board certification.

In 2022, Blueprint Test Prep acquired Sarah Michelle NP Reviews, a small EdTech company that creates test prep content while providing a supportive online community for aspiring Nurse Practitioners looking to pass their board exams. This project involved the eCommerce team working closely with the business owner, marketing manager, creative director, and product team to lift and reformat their existing marketing site content and put it into Adobe Commerce (Magento), making usability improvements where possible and establishing a web-friendly style guide. Because of the compressed timeline of the projects, the goal of the project was to build an MVP that supported the selling/LMS access requirements and could be easily scaled as the brand grows and adds more products.

The Users

SMNP Reviews’ learners are primarily current or recently graduated NP students struggling with test anxiety ahead of their exams.

Very basic research was conducted on the Product side to create a profile of SMNP learners which was utilized for the purposes of this project. We were also able to draw on the knowledge of some of the companies founders and customer success teams to better understand user behaviors and pain points and develop the following archetype persona.

  • 61% post-graduation NP students, studying full time for NP exams

  • Largely female

  • Busy schedules - working professionals or students, balancing work and exam studying

  • High mobile traffic

  • High engagement on social media and review engines

The Challenge

The SMNP site was out of alignment with the company’s mission to support learners through their study process with usability issues that made product education and purchasing difficult.

By the time it was acquired by Blueprint, the SMNP Reviews site spanned several CMS (2 Wordpress themes and a Kajabi store) across 3 subdomains. Lack of best practices and foundational UX created a site experience that made product education and checkout difficult.

Three Navigations

Three navigations on three separate sites made for a complicated site map and difficult user wayfinding.

Contrast Issues

Lack of web-friendly style guide creates color combinations that are not WCAG compliant.

Embedded Checkout

Only one product could be purchased at a time as the checkout form is embedded on each PDP, which discourages larger AOVs (Average Order Value).

The Outcome

The eCommerce team came together to build a lightweight site on a tight timeline, built to scale as the SMNP Reviews business grew.

Added Cart

The creation of a “cart,” a feature the site did not have previously, created a more recognizable eCommerce experience for users and allowed for the purchase of multiple products, plus up-sells and cross-sells. If logged in, carts can be saved and abandoned cart efforts can be made, allowing for expanded marketing campaigns.

Universal Navigation

Through site mapping and a content audit, a new product-based information architecture was created that could accommodate future growth and product additions. Breadcrumbs were also added for improved wayfinding.

Web-friendly, accessible visual design foundation

With the creation of the new site, extra care was taken to establish a style guide which included shades based on the brand colors, an accent font with increased readability, and standardized iconography.

The Impact

By migrating SMNP Reviews onto existing Blueprint systems, the business benefitted from streamlined costs and consistent financial reporting, while usability improvements boosted the user experience.

Wins for the business

  • Ability to reduce costs by sunsetting legacy systems

  • Streamlined financial reporting reduced time to closing the books

  • Ability to run additional marketing campaigns like abandoned cart series and push higher AOVs through upsells and cross-sells

Wins for the learner

  • Better customer service and decreased wait times through an on-site, real time chat bot.

  • Improved wayfinding through global navigation and breadcrumbs

  • More payment options available through Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Affirm.