Teo Yu Siang

Teo Yu Siang

Why Does Someone Learn UX Design?

2019UX research, UX design

Through conducting user research using the “Jobs to be Done” framework, I uncovered key user insights that led to an increase in our course completion rate by 49%.

This case study contains only a snippet to maintain confidentiality.

The problem

The Interaction Design Foundation is the top online learning platform for UX design. However, we’ve realised that our courses had low completion rates. We wanted to see if we could increase course completion rates, as well as grow our user base.

The solution

I adopted the “Jobs to be Done” (JTBD) approach to conduct user research on new and active users. Through 24 user interview sessions, I built rich JTBD user personas that explained their underlying motivations. I then facilitated an internal ideation workshop and worked with the Editorial team to make key changes to courses.

The process

Jobs to be done

“Jobs to be done” is about finding the underlying motives that drive users to purchase a product. A popular quote by Theodore Levitt explains JTBD: “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

I interviewed users with this framework. In the video interviews, I started from the “moment of hire”, when the new user signs up or the active user participates in a course. From there, I teased out information to build a rich description of that moment in the user’s life. Through working backwards, I began to understand their motivations.

Key insights

The user interviews gave us a treasure trove of user insights that changed the way we teach.

For instance, when we think of competitors, what comes to mind might be other UX design educational platforms. What we found is that our fiercest competitors are often competing activities, rather than competing organisations. Video streaming sites, family time, and rest are our biggest rivals.

Changing the way we teach

Armed with our findings, we made the following changes to how we teach:

Results and impact

In 2019, we revamped our top beginner course based on the changes above.

When we compared 3-month periods before and after our course revamp, we found that the completion rate of the course increased by 49%.


Teo Yu Siang

UX research
UX design

IxDF team

Editorial work
Video creation and editing

Hey there!

Got a project in mind? Let's create something crazy awesome together. World domination via wicked design is just a chat (and a coffee) away.

Get in touch