Overview
Availy is a 1:1 English learning platform that matches students with qualified native-speaking tutors. The previous system, EngAll, required learners to navigate across six different platforms, leading to inefficiencies, booking errors, and disengagement. Additionally, onboarding relied heavily on founder-led consultations, making it difficult to scale.
This project focused on streamlining key user flows while reinforcing long-term learner motivation. By integrating intuitive scheduling, personalized feedback, and structured learning content, Availy provides a more engaging, structured, and scalable learning experience.
MY ROLE
As the Product Design Lead, I conducted a UX audit, user interviews, and secondary research to gather insights and designed EngAll 1.5, an initial iteration focused on improving the booking experience with short-term, implementable enhancements.
Building on user feedback from EngAll 1.5, I worked closely with a product manager, engineers, learning content designers, a brand designer, and operations managers to redesign Availy’s end-to-end user experience from user flows to hi-fi prototyping, creating a more seamless and engaging learning platform.
Role
TEAM
Deliverables
Tool used
Timeline
Project Background
Its reliance on SaaS tools and direct student management limited scalability
The previous service, Engall, was a desktop-based one-on-one English tutoring platform that matched students with qualified tutors. Thanks to its competitive pricing, high tutor quality, and the founder’s personal consultations, it achieved an impressive trial-to-paid conversion rate of 75%. However, this pricing strategy and personal consultation approach was unsustainable in the long run. Furthermore, relying on multiple external SaaS tools (e.g., Zoom, Google Drive, Google Docs, Calendly, Zapier, Notion) resulted in a fragmented user experience and increased operational costs, leading to a platform dissatisfaction rate of 86% and an inactive user rate of 65%.
Project timeline
Availy project consisted of three main phases: feature upgrade, rebranding, and product redesign
While the brand designer worked on the rebranding, I focused on Engall 1.5, which aimed to enhance the specific flows of the existing service. After this period, I conducted user research to guide Availy’s product design. After the rebranding was finalized, I incorporated insights from both Engall 1.5 and the new brand identity to design Availy’s mobile app and desktop web products.
Project Brief
TARGET USER
Self-Driven Learners
Career-Oriented Professionals
Mission
We help people turn their dreams into realities by advancing their English skills.
Design Solution
Encouraging Consistent and Sustainable Learning
Goal-Oriented Learning
Displays personalized learning goals on the home screen to keep users motivated and reinforce the value of language learning.
Ongoing Support
Supports learners through ongoing guidance from tutors and learning managers, fostering a supportive and engaging learning environment.
2. Report
Providing Supportive Feedback Instead of Evaluations
Dashboard
Dashboard is designed to track each learner’s progress while also presenting average learning trends to help users stay motivated and continuously improve.
Feedback
When designing the review screens for learners, I focused on creating a psychologically pleasant experience by incorporating soft, engaging illustrations and animations to make the reflection process more encouraging and approachable.
3. learning Content
Adapting Learning Content to Different Study Environments
On desktop, content is displayed side by side with key expressions and discussion questions to encourage deeper focus during extended study sessions. On mobile, where learning is often short and task-driven, content is segmented into step-by-step interactions to make short learning sessions more intuitive and effective.
4. Class Booking
Seamless and Integrated Booking & Class Management
The class booking process is designed to be seamless and intuitive, ensuring a frictionless user experience from scheduling to session participation.
Research
1. UX Audit
Users face a fragmented and inefficient experience as they switch between 6 different platforms
Before redesigning the platform, I conducted a comprehensive analysis of the existing user journey to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. I mapped out the entire end-to-end experience, from sign-up to ongoing learning management, uncovering critical pain points that hindered usability and scalability.
High-touch but unsustainable process
The manual, founder-led onboarding provided a personalized experience but could not scale with business growth.
LAck of Automation
The heavy reliance on phone calls for onboarding, tutor matching, and progress tracking created operational inefficiencies.
Inconsistent user experience
Learning progress tracking and tutor recommendations lacked standardization, leading to variability in service quality.
Fragmented user journey
Users had to switch between six different platforms (Engall, Calendly, Gmail, Zoom, Google Docs, Notion) for class booking, learning, and management, causing high cognitive load and frustration.
2. User Interview
Users struggle with a fragmented learning experience, inconvenient booking, lack of motivation, and limited mobile access
The class booking, learning, and rescheduling processes were overly complex and fragmented, requiring users to navigate across 6 different platforms (Engall, Calendly, Gmail, Zoom, Google Docs, and Notion). This resulted in a high cognitive load, inefficiency, and potential user frustration.
pain points
Fragmented & inconvenient learning experience
Frustrating booking & class management process
Difficulty maintaining learning motivation
Limited mobile accessibility
3. Secondary Research
Insights from academic research on promoting motivation in foreign language learning were integrated to enhance user engagement.
I reviewed research on sustaining and enhancing language learning motivation to build a strong UX foundation. Understanding key motivational factors helped inform design decisions that foster long-term engagement and effective learning experiences.
Key Takeaways
Perceiving learning as valuable (value perception) and engaging in collaborative learning (cooperativeness) significantly influence learning behavior.
The stronger the sense of purpose, the more likely learners are to stay engaged and proactive.
Setting and tracking goals helps sustain long-term motivation.
Personalized learning paths tailored to individual needs enhance motivation.
Strong student-tutor connections foster trust and long-term commitment.
A relaxed learning environment improves retention and engagement.
Mega Insights
Users needed an integrated platform
Users experience inefficiency due to the fragmented system that requires them to switch between 6 different platforms (Engall, Calendly, Gmail, Zoom, Google Docs, Notion) for key user flows
Motivation is key to sustained engagement
Users struggled to stay motivated. Secondary research shows that maintaining motivation relies on value perception, goal-orientedness, and collaborative learning.
A relaxed and positive learning atmosphere enhances student engagement
Research shows that a relaxed learning environment reduces learner anxiety and encourages active engagement.
Mobile accessibility is essential for a seamless learning experience
Users preferred booking and managing classes on mobile, but the system only supported these actions on desktop.
The onboarding process was highly personalized but not scalable
The founder-led, manual onboarding provided a personalized experience but doesn’t scale. As the user base grows, reliance on phone calls and manual follow-ups introduces bottlenecks and operational inefficiencies
Goals
Consolidate scattered user flows into one unified system, ensuring both desktop and mobile learning environments are tailored to different usage patterns yet remain consistent overall.
Enhance user motivation and engagement
Implement goal-setting, personalized progress tracking, and supportive learning features to help users stay engaged.
Create relaxed and positive learning atmosphere
Use interactive and graphic elements to foster a comfortable, encouraging environment.
Automate and standardize key processes
Reduce reliance on manual calls by introducing survey, tutor/content recommendations, feedback, and progress monitoring systems.
Design Process
Problem 1
Dispersed booking flow
→ A unified scheduling experience
As-is
The previous booking and class management processes were scattered across 6 different platforms, causing users to frequently select incorrect dates or times and leading to numerous cancellations. Users also wanted the convenience of managing their lessons on mobile devices, but mobile support was limited.
Design Challenges
Consolidate six separate user flows into one seamless platform.
Reduce scheduling errors by making date and time selection more intuitive.
Adopt a mobile-first design to ensure flexible lesson management.
Solutions
Implemented a weekly calendar UI with horizontal scrolling, making date selection both clear and convenient.
Added time-related icons to help users instantly recognize different time slots.
Optimized the limited mobile interface using scrollable layouts and bottom drawer components, simplifying class slot selection and class-content matching.
Engall 1.5
Enlarged the date display on the tutor schedule selection screen.
-> Users found the unfamiliar UI uncomfortable.Provided a date-range search option to browse multiple available classes at once.
-> However, tapping repeatedly for specific dates felt awkward to some users.Added a floating button on the lower right to view all selected classes in one place.
-> The icon’s function was not immediately clear, and the number of selected classes was too small.
Availy - final
Incorporated a weekly calendar UI for more intuitive date selection, allowing horizontal scrolling to change dates easily.
Updated a bottom drawer UI immediately after class slots were chosen, making the number of selected classes clearly visible.
Added time-related icons to reduce confusion about time zones or class times, preventing incorrect bookings.
Problem 2
Inefficient, hard-to-read Google Docs feedback
→ A comprehensive Report section
As-is
Previously, tutor feedback was provided through Google Docs, requiring users to search manually for each report on Google Drive and offering no straightforward way to track or visualize learning progress.
Design Challenges
Create a relaxed, encouraging report screen that boosts learner motivation.
Quantify and visually represent each user’s current learning progress in a clear, intuitive way.
Solutions
Developed a learning progress dashboard so users can instantly gauge their overall status.
Designed a feedback page grounded in educational insights, providing assessments that feel more like progress toward a goal rather than a rigid report card.
Incorporated engaging interactions and subtle gradients to foster a welcoming, motivational atmosphere
Low-fi Prototype
Collaborated with the founder, an educational content designer, and engineers to structure four in-depth evaluation criteria.
Availy - Hi-fi Prototype
Incorporated playful graphic elements so feedback would not resemble a traditional report card
-> but received comments that large graphics seemed unrelated to user levels.
Availy - Final
Created a star-shaped level system to visually communicate progress in a more motivational, less intimidating manner. Subtle interactions help users understand their level without feeling discouraged.
Problem 3
Ineffective content layout
→ An engaging cross-device experience
As-is
Users with either short-term goals (e.g., achieving a test score) or long-term goals (e.g., improving overall English proficiency) often struggled to stay motivated. While various study materials were available, they were presented in a list view showing only the content titles, making it difficult to convey each topic’s unique focus.
Design Challenges
Classify and filter content effectively, allowing users to find topics of interest quickly.
Restructure the content page so users can study independently.
Tailor the study flow to both desktop and mobile device constraints.
Help learners prepare potential questions and answers for class discussions.
Solutions
Enriched each content card with relevant details.
For desktop, split the screen so learners can view the main text alongside key expressions and Q&A prompts in one view.
For mobile, broke content into step-by-step segments, accommodating shorter, more frequent study sessions.
Engall 1.5
Organized unclassified content by topic -> But unique topic names made it hard to guess what each topic covered
Adopted a card UI for intuitive content preview → Users still couldn’t fully identify the lesson topic from the card
Availy - final
Enabled filtering by common topic names while curating content with unique titles to spark interest
Redesigned content cards to convey key information at a glance without requiring full-text reading
Engall 1.5
Placed main text beside Q&A/expressions to encourage contextual learning → Two simultaneous scrolls caused confusion
Designed a mobile version → Users had to scroll too far to reach the questions
Availy - final
For mobile, segmented the learning content into step-by-step stages to suit short-term engagement
Maintained scrolling for the main content on desktop while fixing the Q&A section’s scroll to avoid dual-scroll confusion to support longer, uninterrupted reading sessions
Problem 4
Uninspiring Home screen
→ Encouraging Home screen
As-is
Used the same screen for both logged-out and logged-in states, resulting in a generic user experience.
Design Challenges
Motivate users on the first screen after login.
Ensure upcoming classes are prominent, preventing missed sessions.
Solutions
Reinforced the value of English learning by reminding users of their personal goals right on the home screen.
Featured messages from learning managers and tutors to encourage learners and provide additional materials or tips.
Personalized the main screen with upcoming lessons and recommended content/tutors, creating a supportive and motivational environment.
Engall 1.5
Displayed personalized messages, upcoming classes, and remaining credits after login.
Availy - final
Showcased user's English learning goals at the top to boost motivation.
Added tutor materials and learning managers comments from to create a more supportive environment.
Problem 5
Founder-led, non-scalable onboarding flow
→ A sustainable, user-focused onboarding
Previously, the founder conducted 1:1 consulting calls to assess users’ learning goals and create personalized study plans. However, this approach wasn’t scalable. To address this, learning managers were hired to distribute the workload, and a survey was designed to reduce the time spent understanding users during consultation calls.
As-is
Previously, users had to provide their information and learning goals twice, once during sign-up and again when booking a trial class. However, these forms contained excessive input fields, which caused massive cognitive load, and inconsistent responses made it difficult to quickly assess users during consultations, prolonging the process.
Design Challenges
Gather necessary user information without overwhelming either the user or the staff.
Seamlessly guide newcomers from sign-up to consultation and trial lessons.
Solutions
Implemented a weekly calendar UI with horizontal scrolling, making date selection both clear and convenient.
Added time-related icons to help users instantly recognize different time slots.
Optimized the limited mobile interface using scrollable layouts and bottom drawer components, simplifying class slot selection and class-content matching.
Availy - final
Introduced a post-sign-up survey with an easy-selection UI to gather standardized responses, reducing consultation time.
Personalized the home screen based on survey answers to naturally guide users toward trial lessons.
Problem 6
Inconsistent user interface
→ A design system for efficiency and consistency
The previous platform blended web-builder pages with custom-built pages, resulting in an inconsistent user experience. With mobile now a priority, a design system was necessary to unify the look and feel across all devices.
Design Challenges
Deliver a cohesive user experience across desktop and mobile.
Simplify and standardize UI components to improve maintainability.
Solutions
Proposed a design system incorporating MUI v5 to ensure consistency in typography, colors, and component usage.
Consolidated branding and UI elements into a shared library, enabling faster iteration and uniform experiences on any device.
Revisit Design Solutions
Reflection & Growth
Key Learnings
Importance of a Cohesive User Flow
I realized that consolidating multiple platforms into a seamless experience drastically improves usability and reduces errors.
Balancing User Motivation & Practical Needs
I learned that merging motivational elements (e.g., goal reminders, progress tracking) with functional needs (e.g., scheduling, content access) can sustain long-term engagement.
Power of Data-Driven Iterations
I discovered the value of leveraging user feedback to refine design decisions quickly and effectively.
Measuring Impact
Although actual metrics weren’t tracked, here’s where and how they could be monitored in the future
User Engagement Metrics
Analyze session duration and feature usage in the booking flow, onboarding flow and content page.
Implement analytics tools (e.g., Mixpanel, Google Analytics) to track clicks, conversions, and drop-off points.
Retention & Conversion
Observe trial-to-paid conversion rates and monthly active users across mobile and desktop.
User Satisfaction & Feedback
Collect ratings after classes and gather qualitative comments through micro-surveys.
Future Considerations
Deeper Mobile Integration
Adding more robust mobile capabilities, such as push notifications for class reminders or real-time progress updates.
Continuous Engagement Loops
Explore gamification techniques (e.g., achievements, streaks) to maintain momentum, especially for users with extended learning goals.