Retail Sales Academy

Summary

WhizBang! Retail Training created the Retail Sales Academy using an LMS service that they ultimately outgrew. They needed a custom solution that could not only support their retail sales course, but could also support their customers in creating their own custom training. The new Retail Sales Academy was designed to be a platform that connects course creators with learners.

Challenge

The primary challenge in designing this app was catering to each user type: course creators, course takers, and top-level admins. Each user type had very different needs and requirements in order to be able to accomplish their goals within the system, so understanding each user type was crucial to getting each experience just right.

"I own a retail store, and I want to offer my own store training to my employees."

Course creators are store owners whose primary goal is to create their own custom retail training course and track their employee's training progress. These users require the most expansive interface because, while they're creating and assigning their own custom course to their employees, they may simultaneously be completing the Retail Sales Academy course themselves.

1. Create course
2. Add course content
3. Assign training
4. Track progress

"I'm an employee, and I just want to complete my training as quickly and painlessly as possible."

Course takers are employees of a retail store that only care about completing their assigned training and earning their certification. These users require the most streamlined experience because their goals are very simple.

1. Receive notification
2. Complete lesson
3. Take quiz
4. Download certificate

Solution

Using established user stories, the process began with the creation of wireframes that detailed the most important user flows and functionality required for each user type. Wireframes became clickable low-fidelity prototypes that we tested internally to ensure that the flow of screens made sense. After the wireframes were approved, we moved onto applying design that elevated the Retail Sales Academy's existing branding in a more modern way while staying true to the brand's fun and quirky personality.

Designing a complex course creator tool

Because it was such a complex tool, the course creator itself took a lot of trial and error to get just right. After some initial testing, we realized that users were having a hard time using it to create new courses from scratch. To help ease this process, we added a small tutorial that could be accessed at any time. We also added default course content to demonstrate a suggested course structure. Both of these additions dramatically improved the experience to the point that even the least tech-savvy users were able to use it.

Keeping learners on track

In order to help course creators keep their learners on track with their training, we designed an assignment system that alerts users when their training is due soon and/or becomes overdue. Users receive notifications straight to their email so they can jump straight back into their training without needing to consistently check the app. Course creators can also opt to receive notifications if their learners training becomes overdue or if they earn certificates.

Results

The new and improved Retail Sales Academy launched in April 2022, and so there isn't much data to make any conclusive statements. However, anecdotally, we received many positive comments and the general consensus is that this new tool is a vast improvement from the previous solution. Their users love having the ability to create their own courses, and the experience of taking a course and receiving certification was seamless.

Personally, I learned a lot about user testing during this project. I created many static prototypes initially to get the general layout and design, but only after the initial implementation did we find the majority of opportunities for improvement. The beta version was tested extensively by the client as well as current customers who opted in for the beta testing phase. We received a lot of great feedback from real users that helped shape the Retail Sales Academy into what it is today.