Reducing Tutor Activation Friction in an Education Marketplace

Product Design, UX Research

Learn To Be

User research, journey mapping, onboarding flows, design system creation, prototyping, usability testing, and engineering handoff

Intro

Learn To Be is a non-profit providing free online tutoring to underserved youth across the United States. As the platform grew, the team identified significant friction in the experience for new tutors joining the platform.

New tutors struggled to understand what actions to take after signing up, which delayed their ability to connect with students. Reducing this early friction and helping tutors reach their first meaningful action became the primary objective of this project.

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Problems

New tutors were expected to complete their tutor profile before connecting with a student from the student queue, but this requirement was not clearly communicated.

After logging in, tutors were dropped into a dashboard that lacked guidance and clarity. The combination of unclear next steps and a confusing dashboard created hesitation, slowed progress, and increased early drop-off.

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Hypothesis

If first-time tutors were guided through a clearer onboarding experience instead of being dropped directly into the existing dashboard, then completing their profile, finding a student, and sending a connection request would feel more intuitive and lead to increased tutor-to-student connections.

Early stakeholder feedback surfaced two key themes: “frustrating” and “intimidating”

With these concerns in mind, our first task was to analyze the current onboarding experience and identify friction points new tutors were encountering. These findings were documented and shared with stakeholders to align on priorities and direction.

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Here are the key issues identified:

→ The dashboard was not designed for first-time tutors and lacked clear direction

→ Poor hierarchy and overwhelming UI elements on the “find a student” page made it unclear where to begin

→ Summarizing friction points early allowed for faster stakeholder alignment and decision-making

Understanding the full tutor journey from sign-up to student connection

Expanding research across the entire tutor flow uncovered additional pain points beyond the dashboard. This shifted the project scope to ensure tutors were guided from sign-up through student connection without being left at unclear or confusing stopping points.

User interviews validated issues and expanded the project scope

Tutors struggled with broken filters, information overload on the “find a student” experience, and unclear navigation within the tutor dashboard. Although the dashboard was not part of the original scope, presenting this data to stakeholders resulted in approval to address it as a key activation blocker.

Defining a focused tutor persona to guide design decisions

Insights gathered from interviews and flow documentation helped define tutor goals, motivations, and constraints. This persona served as a reference point throughout the design phase to ensure solutions aligned with real user needs.

Creating a Tailwind-aligned design system for scalable handoff

Framing the core design question around tutor activation

Research indicated that new tutors required a different experience than returning tutors. The initial solution introduced a progress bar, checklist, and clearer navigation to reduce uncertainty and guide first-time users toward their first connection.

Improving tutor matching for new and returning users

Experienced tutors benefited from a clearer view of upcoming sessions through a calendar, while separate progress indicators and checklists helped maintain clarity across experience levels.

Streamlining the “find a student” experience

The “find a student” experience was refined by consolidating filters, introducing visual tags, and improving hierarchy, making it easier for tutors to quickly identify relevant opportunities.

Outcomes

The updated prototype was tested near the end of the project timeline to validate the most critical improvements.

Despite limited time, feedback from stakeholders and users was overwhelmingly positive, confirming that the changes reduced confusion and improved clarity across the tutor onboarding experience. With alignment in place, the project moved forward to handoff.

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A thorough handoff to support engineering

To ensure a smooth transition into development, the handoff included a Tailwind-aligned design system, a complete walkthrough of the updated experience, and well-organized files to support efficient implementation.

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Setting future goals based on our research insights

Based on research and testing outcomes, the team projected a minimum 5% increase in new tutor conversion, measuring success from initial sign-up through a fully onboarded tutor ready to connect with students.