Brand Values
The Scholastic Reading Club (formerly Scholastic Book Clubs) fosters a community of readers, partnering with teachers to enrich classroom libraries and promote lifelong reading habits among students.
Goal
To boost parental participation in the Reading Club by encouraging online orders, ultimately benefiting teachers and students.
What was Happening
Challenges Identified
1. A significant 90% drop in parent registrations.
2. The cumbersome registration process with excessive steps and questions.
3. Poor mobile experience and desktop-centric design.
4. Lack of engagement from parents who solely used paper orders.
Methods Used for Problem Identification
1. Tracking Customer Service calls and reviewing associated tickets.
2. Analyzing feedback from ForeSee satisfaction ratings, open-ended comments, and Communispace interactions.
3. Conducting usability tests on the existing registration process.
Hypothesis
Streamlining the parent registration process will accelerate their entry into the Reading Club's website, enabling them to explore age-appropriate books for their children, leading to increased engagement and recommendations.
Where we started
Design Thinking Process: Discovery / Define / Ideate / Design / Test
User Research
• Interviewed parents who participated in the Reading Club.
• Identified pain points through user testing with non-participating parents.
• Collaborated with stakeholders to understand business requirements.
Ideation and Prototyping
• Formed a multidisciplinary agile squad for iterative design.
• Developed personas, journey maps, and prototypes.
• Created clickable prototypes for user testing and feedback iteration.
Demographics
Framework
Pain Points & Key Findings
Themes & Opportunities
• Allowed browsing without mandatory registration.
• Customized experience by linking parents with their child's teacher.
• Simplified account creation during checkout.
• Enhanced mobile-friendliness of the eCommerce site.
• Implemented a campaign to communicate the benefits of the Reading Club to parents.
The Results
Increased parent registration completion by 85%.
This metric indicates a substantial improvement in the number of parents successfully completing the registration process compared to the previous year. The redesign of the registration process addressed the issues identified during the analysis phase, resulting in a smoother and more user-friendly experience for parents.
Higher rate of returning parents.
A higher rate of returning parents signifies an improvement in customer retention and loyalty.
Boosted parent online orders by 46%.
This boost in online orders reflects positively on the effectiveness of the design changes in driving tangible business outcomes, such as increased revenue and customer satisfaction.
What I did
My Role
As Creative Director and Product Design Lead, my responsibilities included research, strategy, concept development, and overseeing implementation.
Key Talking Points
1. User-Centric Approach: Prioritized user needs by simplifying registration and enhancing the browsing experience.
2. Iterative Design Process: Iterated through prototypes and user testing to refine the solution continuously.
3. Collaborative Team Effort: Engaged a multidisciplinary team and stakeholders to ensure alignment with business goals and user needs.
4. Measurable Impact: Achieved significant improvements in registration completion and online orders, indicating the effectiveness of the design changes.
Through a focused approach to user-centric design and iterative development, the Scholastic Reading Club successfully enhanced parent engagement, benefiting both teachers and students alike.
In collaboration with:
David Vozar. Senior VP, Creative Services
Ghalia Bhatty. Senior Product Manager and Director
Elizabeth Kokot. Business Analyst
Ruben Perez. Senior Project Manager & Analyst
Lara Kohl. UX Research and Design
Isa Gouverneur. Senior UX Designer
Ben Luckey. UX Designer
Godwin Chu. Senior Copy Director
Alicia Vergel De Dios. Senior Art Director
Daniel Ocando. UX/UI Senior Designer
Umakanth Thanasekaran. Senior Manager – Application Development
John Davis. Senior Manager – Front End Developer
Shashi E. Quality Assurance Manager
David Vozar. Senior VP, Creative Services
Ghalia Bhatty. Senior Product Manager and Director
Elizabeth Kokot. Business Analyst
Ruben Perez. Senior Project Manager & Analyst
Lara Kohl. UX Research and Design
Isa Gouverneur. Senior UX Designer
Ben Luckey. UX Designer
Godwin Chu. Senior Copy Director
Alicia Vergel De Dios. Senior Art Director
Daniel Ocando. UX/UI Senior Designer
Umakanth Thanasekaran. Senior Manager – Application Development
John Davis. Senior Manager – Front End Developer
Shashi E. Quality Assurance Manager
Interviewees:
Parent 1. 2 kids. Kindergarten & Pre-K
33 y-old – Suburb. Homemaker. Household Income $125K+
Parent 2. 1 kid. !st Grade
41 y-old – Suburb. Fulltime. Household Income $76-100K
Parent 3. 4 kids. 23 yrs, 19 yrs, 3rd & 1st Grade
40 y-old – Suburb. Fulltime. Household Income $30K+
Parent 4. 1 kid. Kindergarten
28 y-old – Urban. Fulltime. Household Income $30-50K
Parent 5. 2 kids. 25 yrs, Kindergarten
42 y-old – Suburb. Fulltime. Household Income $76-100K
Parent 6. 1 kid. Kindergarten
30 y-old – Urban. Homemaker. Household Income $125K+
Parent 1. 2 kids. Kindergarten & Pre-K
33 y-old – Suburb. Homemaker. Household Income $125K+
Parent 2. 1 kid. !st Grade
41 y-old – Suburb. Fulltime. Household Income $76-100K
Parent 3. 4 kids. 23 yrs, 19 yrs, 3rd & 1st Grade
40 y-old – Suburb. Fulltime. Household Income $30K+
Parent 4. 1 kid. Kindergarten
28 y-old – Urban. Fulltime. Household Income $30-50K
Parent 5. 2 kids. 25 yrs, Kindergarten
42 y-old – Suburb. Fulltime. Household Income $76-100K
Parent 6. 1 kid. Kindergarten
30 y-old – Urban. Homemaker. Household Income $125K+
