Best in Class

Content Design, Strategy, and Product Development, 2021-2023

Overview and Problem

Our user research and data analytics found that post-pandemic, teachers were more time-strapped than ever, and our primary search-and-browse experience no longer met their needs. Since 90% of our traffic came from search engines and sessions were short, I prototyped a new content type that would give these educators a faster, more effective way to find the vetted tools they were looking for.

Process and Solution

Common Sense functioned as a non-profit with a startup mentality, and we often had limited engineering and design resources. With this in mind, I started testing the concept as a series of blog articles that presented a handful of actionable recommendations in our approachable editorial voice. The idea was to give at-a-glance top recommendations and some alternatives for educators. Users could get all they needed from the page or dig deeper into our more substantive content types. Every session would include a CTA for the newsletter. I collaborated with a UX researcher to conduct user interviews, run A/B tests, and dig into Google analytics. The articles tested well both in the interviews and in the user data, including high satisfaction on a pop-up survey.

I used this data to shop the concept to executive leadership who greenlit the project. I joined a small team as the key content stakeholder, and we used a design studio process to iterate on the initial prototype. My role involved:

  • Creating the editorial processes and style guides that guided the curation process
  • Working with our copywriter to develop reusable template copy
  • Leading my editorial team to develop and write all the “Best in Class” curations
  • Informing the page’s final design, which included slimming down the prototype, automating content generation, and adding a new at-a-glance comparison table

Results and Impact

The initial blog post prototype immediately validated our hypothesis with high user engagement. The final, dedicated content type built on that success:

  • The new, automated design significantly reduced page creation time for my team
  • Surprisingly, these pages satisfied the user need for at-a-glance info while increasing time on page over the site average and dramatically reducing bounce rate from search engines
  • Several of the Best-in-Class pages entered the pantheon of top-trafficked pages on the site

Check out some of the Best in Class curations