Overview
FlatWorld publishes high quality textbooks for higher education at a fair price. Most of their catalog costs as low as $29 dollars for online access. They also provide course supplements for instructors and an online homework system for practice and grading.
I worked there for over four years on a number of projects. We were primarily focused on efficiency as a business and incrementally improving our key performance indicators in adoption, sales, and experience.
User Research
Most of our projects were based on insights gained from user research. We constantly looked at our usage data and tracking information to determine problems our customers are experiencing. We also sent out quarterly feedback surveys to gather data directly from our customers’ comments and ratings.
We used this data to create hypotheses and formulate projects around solving the problems. Some of the output of this process was improving our textbook search, accessibility audits and remediation, updating our purchase flow, and the list goes on.
Design
Here are some designs I specifically worked on to improve the experience of FlatWorld’s suite of products.
Textbook Reader
The design focused on the table of contents as the primary navigation. The supplementary features such as search, typography, practice, and settings have a dedicated panel on the right.
PDF Viewer
We also needed to provide a way for our users to read pdf formatted documents that were a part of our curriculum so I built a React application that could display the files in addition to providing a table of contents and page navigation similar to our online reader.
Bookshelf
The location for learners and instructors to easily access their books and the supplements that are included.
Search
One of my favorite projects was completely overhauling the search functionality of our online reader. Based on feedback we included the top definitions, chapters/sections, and text matches based on the search criteria.
Ideating, Wireframes, Prototyping
We were always testing out new ideas to improve metrics. We used A/B tests and front-end monitoring software to turn insights into action Here are few example of experiments we ran:
Vertical layout of book purchase process.
More prominent location of supplements included with the textbook.
Async request of the search results with loading state.
Updating the flashcard design in the online reader practice panel.
Learning
I am blessed to have invested over four years at FlatWorld improving my ability to design and build solutions for customers in the higher education space. I grew in my knowledge of building accessible products that meet WCAG standards, increased my programming knowledge, and matured my product design processes.