Laureate

Laureate is a global leader in higher education with more than 70 educational institutions and 1 million students in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

I was responsible for the research, interaction design, and copywriting for Laureate, working with two visual designers to redesign the e-commerce experience.

Conveying Trust of an Education Titan

The Laureate company approached us to help them communicate the best of a robust education group and bring out the critical information for people to enroll in online distance learning.

The project involved redesigning the Laureate e-commerce website and optimizing the enrollment flow of information needed for students in online distance learning.

With a three-month timeline, we focused on delivering the education experience more effectively and meaningfully.

Laureate Immersion

We started the project by investigating the requirements for online distance learning and the nature of education service provision thoroughly and quickly. As a result, we conducted ethnographic research to understand the three stakeholders’ perspectives in the service with students, institutions managers, and university center owners.

How do you choose online courses?

We interviewed 6 university center owners, 12 undergrad students, and 4 institutions managers in São Paulo. We aimed to gather insights into how they feel, perceive, and think about online distance learning.

“The course needs approval by MEC.”

Students felt insecure navigating the old website because they could not determine if institutions and courses had approval by MEC, the Brazilian federal education agency.

“I want a university center close to my home or work.”

According to the Brazilian federal education agency, online distance learning format students must visit a university center for presential tests.

“I want to use my ENEM score to skip the admission exam.”

Students could get discounts that would make up to 100% of the monthly fee without even sitting to an admission exam, determined by their scores on ENEM.

“I am doing online graduation to help me get a better job.”

Students who opted for online graduation envisioned the courses as an investment to replace their present job for future ones with better quality of life.

Insights from our discovery work revealed many areas of improvement for content that connects to the user and transfers the education quality and trustworthiness of Laureate to the website.

Organizing Content and Workflows

Before we started to design, it was essential to have a holistic approach to each institution’s enrollment flow and existing content required for the course.

After we mapped out the workflows, we came up with a single proposal that could improve user experience and optimize the development and maintenance of the flow during a moment of heavy online traffic.

With the new workflow, Laureate can track information at each step by the user if they abandoned the funnel halfway through, enabling them to send more relevant and personalized information.

Introducing Laureate

We designed the new e-commerce experience to convey trust for students with straightforward navigation and content that showcases the university brands, institutions, and courses approved by MEC.

Designed for scale

We conceived the visual design as a flexible system that adapts the new application model to all universities’ brand systems, focused on users’ actions in each journey step.

Quick application process

With a few steps and questions, students could apply for the courses. We fast-tracked the process using the discounts provided by the ENEM scores - a perfect match of motivation and ease of use.

Easy decision making

We designed the new course page to bring all the essential information for students. We tell a story presenting the seal of approval by MEC, a summary of the course, the extent of its content with an online class preview, leading market indicators for the profession, and frequently asked questions about the occupation.

Results

The redesign of the e-commerce and the enrollment flow of Laureate had a significant impact on acquisition, activation and retention metrics.