About
Established in 2005, 24HourAnswers is a secure platform connecting students and tutors, offering services like homework help and live online tutoring through a state-of-the-art whiteboard platform.
Role & Collaboration
As Lead Product Designer, I collaborated with the Founder and PM to improve the web portal for students and tutors. This was a UX/UI redesign focused on optimizing the existing experience rather than a full 0-1 rebuild. My role involved auditing the platform, conducting competitive research, and refining user flows to reduce friction and improve discoverability. I also redesigned the UI to enhance accessibility, usability, and responsiveness across mobile devices.
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Role
Lead Product Designer
Services
Stakeholder Interviews
Competitor Research
User Flows
UI/UX Design
Interactive Prototypes
Usability Testing
Dev Support & Collaboration
Competitor Research
User Flows
UI/UX Design
Interactive Prototypes
Usability Testing
Dev Support & Collaboration
Status
Launched
Length
4 months
Platforms
Mobile App (IOS, Android)
Web App Experience
Responsive Website
Web App Experience
Responsive Website
Key Challenges
Student retention was declining, raising concerns among stakeholders. The web app’s outdated design and poor navigation made it difficult for users to find key features, leading to a frustrating experience. Additionally, the platform lacked mobile optimization—a critical issue given that a significant portion of users accessed the site primarily from their phones.
The current experience
Before diving in, I took the time to understand the platform by going through both the student and tutor flows firsthand. I also spoke with key stakeholders, who shared valuable user feedback collected from both groups. Combining my own experience with the platform and the insights from these conversations, I identified recurring pain points and areas for improvement.
With a tight deadline (2 weeks), I took a lean, high-impact approach—focusing on features that meaningfully improved the user experience and benefited the business while keeping development effort low.
Competitor Analysis
I analyzed 12+ direct competitors to understand their onboarding processes, usage patterns, and navigation flows. This analysis helped identify key areas for improvement in the current experience and provided insights on aligning with user mental models to better meet user expectations.
Improving IA & User Flows
By optimizing student and tutor flows, I gained deeper insight into the complete journey, identifying user pain points and reducing the number of pages. This streamlined the process by removing redundant pages and minimizing extra clicks.
Revamped Experience Comparison
Outcome & Impact
18
Retention Rates Increase within the first 30 days post redesign
37
Increase in Company revenue within the first 6 months
50
Overall reduction in support tickets
We opted for a soft rollout to 5% of the user base over several weeks to address bugs and collect feedback. The Web App and Site are now live, with a key success being our focus on mobile responsiveness, as testing showed many users accessed the platform via mobile. Overall, the project succeeded, and 24HourAnswers continues to thrive 2+ years later.
Website Analysis
I audited several key web screens and user flows from the landing page to conversion within the web portal. This helped document usability and UI improvements while identifying areas for quick, minimal-development fixes.
Web Competitor Analysis
I analyzed over 20 web competitors to understand how they communicate their USP, structure their content, and manage onboarding, usage patterns, and navigation flows.
Eye Tracking and Heatmap Results
The XFN team provided a heatmap of key screens, showing that the header took up nearly 25% of the “above-the-fold” space and users typically scrolled only twice before stopping. This indicated the need to reduce the header size, make the content more engaging, and ensure that crucial information was visible within the first two scrolls.
