Redefining Brainly's Value Proposition

Brainly, as an ed-tech market leader, needs to keep the communication of its value proposition consistent with users’ expectations as well as broader market trends. Since the target demographic skews younger, communicating the value proposition offers unique design and product strategy challenges.

Company

Brainly

Years

2020-2023

Categories

UI and UX Design
Leadership and Strategy
Visual Design

My role

Both hands-on work and leading support on most projects related to the initiative. Leading and managing design processes, research, and cross-team collaboration.

Background

While Brainly has hundreds of millions of users globally, most aren't engaged with the product beyond their immediate needs. Due to this, it's difficult for users to grasp the product's entire value proposition, ultimately decreasing retention. Strategically, it's a significant bottleneck, further compounded by the constantly evolving feature set.

Data analytics, particularly of some A/B tests, pointed me in the best possible directions for conceptualization of a broader strategy.

Stakeholders’ ideas were often difficult for users to comprehend; it was my responsibility translate those technical concepts so they’d be comprehensible to a younger target demographic.

Routine user-testing and interviews helped align aspects of value proposition communication with users’ expectations, greatly contributing to the success of many experiments.

The Process

Understanding the overarching business context is crucial in communicating the value proposition in a way that benefits both the user and the bottom line. Stakeholder interviews were a crucial part of all design projects related to this initiative.

Drafting project scope and planning work. With an understanding of the business context related to communicating value proposition, I and other team members could begin to identify basic UX issues and possible approaches.

User testing, benchmarks, data analytics, background research. Strong research was the basis for the communication of value proposition. Users’ feedback directed us towards the most effective ways to explain complicated concepts, whilst data analytics paved the strategic outlook.

Summarizing research, ideating and workshopping solutions. Collaborative work based on largely completed research helped create a unified understanding of the main objective and other smaller contributing goals.

Strategic thinking and planning validating experiments. With the initiative being a long-term strategy, proposed changes and designs had to have been planned ahead to ensure only the most promising opportunities are tackled.

Wireframing, user testing, gathering stakeholder feedback. Creating simplified designs typically followed all "theoretical" work. With those, I could swiftly align with stakeholders and developers on fundamental basics.

Designing the final product UI and consulting with developers. While specifics depended on the project, all of them were created under the same scrutiny and followed best possible practices – RWD, accessibility, design system alignment, among other aspects.

Launch and learning from experiment results. “Continuous growth” was the guiding approach throughout the initiative, meaning everything was made with room for improvement in mind. Quantitative A/B testing helped validate specific hypotheses and quantify opportunities' potential.

While "Tutoring Sessions" were core to the value proposition, I'd noticed hesitancy towards the term on user tests. I consequently suggested renaming it to "Live Expert Answers" in an A/B experiment that massively increased conversion.

I’ve maintained a complete, easily navigable documentation of insights from user-tests, interviews, and experiments. It was critical in improving work efficiency and accuracy.

A fake-door experiment explored conversion prospects of features that could potentially be added to value proposition.

Collaboration and iterative work were critical to the design process. Effective communication of the value proposition requires a synergy between visual identity, marketing, strategy, product design, and more.

The Outcomes

Altogether, an improved and clear-cut value proposition was instrumental in boosting several crucial metrics. Qualitatively, users quickly grasped the product offer, especially in strategically important product areas. While the changes were designed and implemented under multiple distinct projects, below are some slices of the broader vision.

Best-performing practices became standardized parts of the product as icons, key phrases and visuals, among other solutions, would gradually become parts of the design system and branding.

Validating hypotheses and possible strategies through A/B experimenting was critical as many of stakeholders’ speculative concepts had wide-reaching consequences.

As a designer versed in the topic, I guided others by providing feedback on how the value proposition could be properly communicated in their projects.

Introducing an Offer Screen inside the in-app onboarding significantly enhanced conversion to the Brainly Premium trial.

A customizable pictogram template helped quickly draft instantly recognizable and brand-consistent icons that symbolize particular features.

The Home Page contains interactive elements that make the value proposition tangible to new users. The Hero Section functions as an independent part of the page, providing the most important takeaways as research proved visitors tend not to engage with content past the fold.

The interactive grid section allows users to try features out right on the Home Page.

The Paywall’s (a critical entry point) customizable, 3-step structure severely improved several key metrics and allowed for further optimization with relatively simple communication changes.

A redesign of the Question-and-Answer Page eases users into this novel AI tech. An inviting "message bubble" seamlessly highlights the value, presents the mascot, and visually suggests a chat feature.

Engaging onboarding animations introduce features early in the user flow.

Illustrations are essential to Brainly's visual identity. Over the years, I've sketched out many simple vector visualizations that communicate product-related concepts in a fun, clever, or unexpected way.

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As usual, there is still so much more to cover but only so little time. Feel free to check out my social media links or drop me a message to learn more about my work, skills or availability.