Survey Results
What 723 students told us 📊
The survey was my widest net. It helped me see the big patterns across all kinds of students before I zoomed in with interviews. Here's some of what came back.
A student app had 80,000 people who could use it. Only 5,000 did. The CEO faced a tough call: pump more money into marketing, or invest in research. He chose research. Then he hired me, and I built the team that figured it out.
Universities were paying for this app for its students so they could use it for free. But most students who tried it didn't stick around past a couple taps.
One of the best parts of this project was getting to hire and lead a team of junior designers. Watching them grow was genuinely one of the highlights of my career. Several of them went on to land 6-figure design roles. Pretty cool.
| Team | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| 1 CEO | Key decision maker |
| 1 VP of Engineering | Scoping and feasibility |
| 1 VP of Success | Connect to users and budget |
| 3 UX Designers Hired by me | Craft wireframes and prototypes |
| 2 Success Managers | Support end-to-end research |
| 2 iOS Engineers (UX-focused) Hired by me | Build designs in mobile and web app |
| 1 UX Researcher (me!) | Lead end-to-end research |
Before I talked to a single student, I needed to understand the people around this product. Who makes the decisions? Who has a stake in the outcome? Who am I actually designing for? Mapping this out helped me see the whole picture and ask better questions from day one.
Hover over each stakeholder to see their role 💛
I used a mix of methods to understand the full picture. Some methods helped me see the big patterns. Others helped me understand the real stories behind those patterns.
The survey was my widest net. It helped me see the big patterns across all kinds of students before I zoomed in with interviews. Here's some of what came back.
The SQL data and interviews showed three very different types of students using the app. Each group needed something different, and if the app wasn't serving at least one of these needs really well, students left.
Surveys and interviews told me what students thought. Heatmaps showed me what they actually did. Using HotJar, I could see where students clicked, how far they scrolled, and where they dropped off. It gave us a visual layer of proof to back up everything students had told us.
Students were getting dropped into the app with zero guidance. So onboarding became priority number one. We redesigned it with a friendly welcome, helpful tooltips, and a clear path to the features students actually cared about.
Since almost 80% of students were leaving to use Quizlet for flashcards, we knew this was a make-or-break feature. We upgraded the flashcard experience to be something students would actually choose to use inside CircleIn.
Here's the interactive prototype we built and tested with students. Click through to see the new onboarding, flashcards, and features in action.
Replace the src with your Figma embed link
The findings went straight into designs, got tested with real students, and shipped as new features, all within 3 months.
This project showed us that low adoption wasn't a marketing problem. It was a "we don't understand our users yet" problem. Once we understood who students were and what was getting in their way, the product decisions got a lot clearer, and the results spoke for themselves.
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