Aspireship provides on-demand training in SaaS sales through an online portal, and graduates of the program receive assistance with job placement.
Skilled SaaS sales representatives are in high demand at the moment. In fact, they are so in demand that Aspireship’s partner companies are willing to subsidize the cost of online SaaS Sales training in exchange for access to high-quality graduates. Through these subsidies, there is no cost to students who graduate the program within 30 days. It is free, there’s no catch.
Problem / Opportunity
Aspireship has seen a plateau in the rate of user signups. This project presents an opportunity to research how users interact with the site, and make improvements that will increase sign-up rates.
Before we could start working on solutions, our group needed to properly frame the problem through the eyes of the user. In what ways does the current Aspireship site work well, and where does the site fall short of meeting user needs and expectations?
Our group conducted five usability tests to help answer these questions.
People reported an overall positive reaction upon visiting the site. It was reported to be visually satisfying, but after reading further into the content people reported a low level of confidence in their decision to sign up for the service. Blockers can be summed up in two main categories:
Unanswered Questions: People reported wanting to know more about the curriculum, how Aspireship would help with job placement, and data on success rates.
Distrust of Pricing: People didn't believe the service was actually free. Everyone suspected hidden fees. There just had to be a catch.
The good news is that Aspireship can provide answers to all of these questions, and the service genuinely is free to prospective SaaS sales representatives.
How the website better convey information and build trust? Let us consider the site experience from the perspective of someone visiting for the first time.
4 out of 5 people could not find the information they were looking for.
5 out of 5 people do not trust that the service is actually free.
To better understand how people use the site, our team mapped the journey taken by the typical person. This map is based on data from Google Analytics, and insights gained through a series of usability tests.
A simplified Journey Map is shown here, and you can read the full research report in this PDF.
According to Google Analytics data, 5% of unique visitors to the site will sign up for the program. How can we help the other other 95% of visitors feel more confident in their decision?
When a user comes to this site, it means they are likely looking to get into into SaaS Sales. Changing careers is a big decision, but even the smallest details can determine how that decision is navigated, and whether or not the user will choose Aspireship.
Every time a user clicks a button and that button doesn’t act as expected, it undermines confidence.
Updating how the information is laid out on the site and minimizing what was presented in the menu allows for a more intuitive navigation.
Research showed that changes were needed in language to more accurately reflect the content. This would help people understand what Aspireship is offering.
Each decision our group made about information architecture and language was the direct result of research, and every design iteration was validated with user testing.
We asked users helped organize content on the site in a way they thought most intuitive. Through conducting a series of three card sorts, we were able to organize the high-level information architecture to be intuitive to the majority of people visiting the site.
With this redesigned information architecture, when a person clicks a button they will now see what they expect to see. Each successful click helps build confidence that Aspireship’s SaaS sales training course is the right decision.
Imagine you're visiting a site and the product is advertised as free. Does it sound like a good value? Would you trust it?
100% of people interviewed did not trust that the service is actually free.
In the original pricing section, the Free version and the Pro version are presented side by side, as shown here. Users interpreted these as two distinct programs.
We created a low-fidelity prototype that simplified the section to its most basic visual components.
User testing revealed that the layout of this design lead users to make an incorrect assumption about the services.
A series of various layouts were tested that better reflected how the pricing structure works.
This final version helped users more easily understand what the program is offering.
This design more clearly communicates what is being offered, and in turn increased user confidence.
During usability testing, people reported being more likely to sign up for Aspireship.
Through iterative testing and refinement a story began to emerge, one that anticipated questions and presented relevant information at just the right time.
This diagram represents an ideal journey through the site. Information is presented in a way that anticipates questions, and it provides many opportunities to sign up.
I created an interactive version of the final design using Figma. You're welcome to view it here:
Please note that this prototype focuses on the registration process only. This leaves some content outside of the scope for this three-week project, so only relevant links are functional.
Since the redesign of Aspireship's website went live, they have an increased rate of signup by over 20%.
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