Website

Heuristic evaluation of Tutor Oriel’s sign-up flow to identify usability issues.

What was done:

User Research

Heuristic Analysis

Wireframing

High-Fidelity Prototypes

Usability Testing

Role:

Product Designer (UX/UI)

Tools:

Figma, FigJam, Principle, Notion

Timeline:

8 weeks

Team:

1 Product Manager, 2 Engineers, 1 UX Researcher

Design Thinking Process guides this project through Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test & Iterate to create user-centered solutions.

An Overview

An Introduction⁠

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The Process

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Design Solutions

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Outcomes & Learnings

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Goal

Evaluate Tutor Oriel’s sign-up flow to uncover usability issues, reduce friction, and improve the overall user experience, ensuring the system communicates clearly and supports users at every step.

Methods

Heuristic analysis based on established usability principles, combined with notes, scoring, and audits of adjacent and analogous industries to identify best practices and inspiration for interface improvements.

Insights

Key issues included unclear system feedback, inconsistent terminology, and cognitive overload. Simplifying the flow, clarifying instructions, and aligning the interface with real-world expectations can significantly improve completion rates and user satisfaction.

Usability Heuristics⁠

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Sketches

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Problem Statement

Users struggle to complete the Tutor Oriel sign-up flow because the current design is confusing, inconsistent, and overwhelming. Key pain points include unclear instructions, poor feedback on actions, and difficulty navigating through account creation and scheduling steps.

Goals

Simplify the sign-up and scheduling flow with a clear, intuitive interface.

Provide users with consistent feedback and guidance at every step.

Simplify account creation, tutor selection, and scheduling.

Ensure the flow is friendly, clear, and trustworthy.

Affinity Diagram

Hard to tell what the site offers. It’s a mix between a website that’s not interactive and an application that is interactive.

Kendall Drake

The head, title and blurb is like a marketing website, which is not functional from a user perspective if you want users to sign up for a tutoring service.

Kendall Drake

Testimonials and popular topics makes sense to have on landing page

Kendall Drake

Get rid of promotions button. Too many calls to action. Choose between taking a quiz or search function. More data collected on the user will be beneficial to providing a better user experience

Kendall Drake

It’s good to have the value proposition above the fold on the landing page. ie “How are we different”

Kendall Drake

“Let’s chat” is in a weird place, should be on the bottom right hand side of the page.

Kendall Drake

Video tutorials / masterclasses. Could be promoting master tutors or up and coming tutors who have been successful.

Kendall Drake

Filtering by topic is good navigation.

Kendall Drake

Remove “explore top tutors” in the hero. Too many calls to action.

Kendall Drake

Likes that landing page is more functional than previous flow.

Kendall Drake

Camera icon not ovbious that it is a moving video

Kendall Drake

Change location dropdown to remote or in person.

Kendall Drake

Give users the option to choose tutors according to ranking and level of expertise. Different price points given to different rankings.

Kendall Drake

Filter down options under “learn best when”

Preferred method of learning is a good option to have.

Kendall Drake

Good to include personality and behaviour to better prep the tutors.

Kendall Drake

Allow users to filter tutors by rating, as well as premium plus tutors.

Kendall Drake

Add a filter feature for tutors who have achieved grade increase percentages from students.search: grade increase % of 20/30%

Kendall Drake

Can’t ask learning styles unless you’re able to meet those requirements.

Kendall Drake

Remove “tell us more” it’s free text and won’t be able to translate in the experience. Also not the point in the journey to be getting feedback.

Kendall Drake

Be more specific about the topic tags you want people to input.

Kendall Drake

Remove “explore top tutors” in the hero. Too many calls to action.

Kendall Drake

Remove top nav bar, once people are in the flow, you don’t want them to leave.

Kendall Drake

Ask the user whether they need to purchase standartized test prep bundles in the quiz, step 3 of 3. Instead of areas of interest. Think about how these options would translate in payment.

Kendall Drake

Students under 18 cannot book a session with an in-person session. You’ll have to find a solution around that.

Kendall Drake

Show steps of the process clearly so users know where they are in the journey.

Kendall Drake

Include native language of the student in the sign up quiz, as well as the language of the tutor.

Kendall Drake

Remove hourly rate from quiz to give students access to premium tutors.

Kendall Drake

You need to think about how you would retain good tutors. In order to retain tutors you need to make sure they’re getting the price they require. eg. Premium plus tutor at a 20% premium.

Kendall Drake

It is not obvious that you need to select a tutor before moving onto the tutor profile page

Kendall Drake

Separate the tutor profile page and scheduling page. It’s hard for users to determine their focus.

Kendall Drake

Include what school the tutor went to. This will automatically gain trust from the user, as the tutor is framed as an expert in their field.

Kendall Drake

Use a back button on the scheduling page for users to go select a different tutor if needed.

Kendall Drake

The way you’re displaying the filters is not very scalable

Kendall Drake

Add refferals/testimonials and ratings on the tutor profile page based on what prior students have experienced with this particular tutor.

Kendall Drake

Change horizontal scrolling to vertical, it is more user friendly and you’re able to show more tutors at once.

Kendall Drake

Tutor’s areas of expertise needs to be framed differently. More text base than just a line feature of pills. ie. chemical engineering with a focus on XYZ.

Kendall Drake

Missing terms and conditions

Kendall Drake

If you wanted to use the pill layout for areas of expertise, the options shown need to come from a pre-defined list that the user has selected on previous pages.

Kendall Drake

The higher the grade increase percentage is, the higher the tutor’s fee should be.

Kendall Drake

Include a metric to gain trust by displaying the average test store increase or average score of a user who has been tutored by this person. ie. this tutor has a grade increase value of 20%

Kendall Drake

Selecting an alternative tutor should be removed completely or pushed to the bottom of the page. Or provide a back button that takes the user back to the tutor list if they’d like to select differently.

Kendall Drake

Additional services, is it necessary to have? Schedule this tutor should be your call to action, not proceed to payment.

Kendall Drake

On tutor profile page, change “send message” to “ask a question”

Kendall Drake

For in person tutoring, how do you validate that this tutor won’t be a sercurity risk?

Kendall Drake

Horizontal scroll isn’t responsive

Kendall Drake

Monthly calendar is in the incorrect place, it should be at the top

Session format and duration underneath

Kendall Drake

Remove breadcrumbs

Kendall Drake

Scheduling must come before payment, re-look at the flow

Kendall Drake

On the scheduling page the call to action button “schedule” should then lead you to the sign up page.

Kendall Drake

Side panel on the scheduling tool is not valuable at this point, it should only appear at the end of the journey on the user’s dashboard.

Kendall Drake

Upcoming sessions are not adding value at this stage of the journey, as it’s a new user who hasn’t scheduled a tutor before.

Kendall Drake

Hard to tell what the site offers. It’s a mix between a website that’s not interactive and an application that is interactive.

Kendall Drake

Payment confirmation button should lead to your dashboard

Kendall Drake

Promo code is good, layout of the cart is good.change the title, don’t use “in your cart’ you’re not purchasing merchandise.

Kendall Drake

Remove bi-weekly, monthly, annually, replace with pay as you go, pay over time. First session is risk free, if you don’t like the tutor we’ll refund you.

Kendall Drake

No student is going to want to pay upfront, students are broke. Subscription options should be pay as you go, or pay over time (look at vendors for this). None does tutoring indefinitely.

Kendall Drake

Remove country on payment page. Billing address and payment information are two separate things. Explore one click payment options in addition to manual input.

Kendall Drake

People like to sign up with existing accounts and one click sign up. Include microsoft identity management. Facebook sign in also common for parents. Make it as frictionless as possible.

Kendall Drake

ie. a bundle of 10 classes and an 18 month payment plan to pay it off. happens over 10 weeks at x amount of interest. Consider consumer financing like klarna, affirm

Kendall Drake

Use the “parent” or “student” selector on sign up. You can use this for budgetery constraints as opposed to placing these filters at the beginning of the journey, as then you’d have to create two separate flows.

Kendall Drake

Remove location in sign up.

Kendall Drake

Remove upcoming sessions on the confirmation page. Remove amend / cancel options on confirmation page. This would appear on their dashboard.

Kendall Drake

Session summary should include duration, zoom link, time & date, location, format, subject, tutors name, amend/cancel.

Kendall Drake

Preparing for classes should be bundled with upcoming sessions, either in an email or on the dashboard.

Kendall Drake

User icon should be to the left of the logout button. User icon should be clickable and a dropdown menu will allow you to go through the panel options.

Kendall Drake

Remove the panel on the dashboard. The panel could have options to manage your tutor, your tasks, and rescheduling or cancellation options.

Kendall Drake

Dashboard: more focus on getting me through the prep to make sure I’m successful.

Kendall Drake

How do I manage or upgrade my account, get access to invoices, settings etc.

Kendall Drake

Dashboard should show what’s been booked, ie. SAT prep. How far along I am in my bundle of 10, what homework I need to prepare for my next session. Tasks you need to complete / check off ie. project management.

Kendall Drake

Sketches

Created early sketches to visualize key flows and interactions. These low-fidelity layouts helped quickly test structure, hierarchy, and screen order before moving to higher-fidelity designs.

Wireframes

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Deliverables

High-fidelity screens were created for the full sign-up and scheduling flow. Interactive prototypes allowed early testing of navigation, feedback, and usability, while consistent patterns ensured clarity across the interface.

“The interface is clear, guided, and designed to help users complete tasks effortlessly. Feedback and cues were added to build trust, reduce errors, and improve confidence throughout the flow.”

Kendall Drake, Product Designer (UX/UI)

Outcomes

Early heuristic evaluation and usability testing revealed friction points and unclear instructions in the sign-up and scheduling flow. By addressing these, the flow was refined to be intuitive, consistent, and aligned with Tutor Oriel’s brand.

‍

The results were measurable: users completed sign-up more efficiently, and feedback indicated improved clarity and confidence throughout the process. This project reinforced that thoughtful, user-centered design is about guiding users smoothly, not just implementing features.

Method

Tested with 8 participants across account creation, tutor selection, and scheduling.

Findings

Flow was confusing in parts; users needed clearer feedback and instructions.

Iteration

Added progress indicators, clarified messaging, and adjusted UI elements for clarity and usability.