Streamline the Search Path
for
Simplifying the search journey by redesigning the information architecture and visual hierarchy—so educators can easily scan, compare, and act on curriculum options.
Client Project
Tools
Background
EdCuration is the first U.S.-based marketplace that allows K–12 educators to search, compare, and purchase education resources in one place. In the past, educators often relied on Google or reached out to vendors individually, which made the process inefficient and inconsistent. Although the platform showed strong potential, the MVP was built without design input
users struggled to search, filter, and evaluate curricula effectively. I joined the project to redesign the search experience—bringing clarity, focus, and a smoother journey for educators.
Project Time Line
My Role
Challenge
Redesign a way for educators to navigate the marketplace, find, research, select and order instructional resources.
EdCuration’s MVP had the essentials, but lacked clarity. Educators found the navigation confusing, filters inconsistent, and product info overwhelming—making it hard to search, compare, and decide.
The goal wasn’t to add features, but to restructure the information architecture and visual hierarchy to support confident decision-making.
Users consistently knew what subject and grade they needed, but couldn’t easily find relevant, trustworthy resources. The design had to balance emotional ease with logical flow—from first search to final action.
🎯  Target Users
  • Teachers who research and recommend curriculum
  • Department heads who lead the evaluation process
  • Principals / curriculum directors who control the budget
We focused on K–12 educators with decision-making responsibilities. These users work collaboratively to review and adopt curriculum tools, prioritizing clarity, trust, and shareability.
⚡️ Break Down the Challenge
From the beginning, I focused on creating an intuitive starting point. I collaborated with both the client and educators to define a simple, fluent user flow and to align the journey with how educators naturally think.
After a heuristic evaluation, I translated user needs into three goals:
  • Easy start without confusion
  • Three clicks to narrow down a product
  • Easy end to access info and act quickly
Research
To better understand educator behavior, we conducted a mix of  Comparative, and Competitive analysis heuristic evaluations, user interviews, and usability testing. We also examined emotional triggers and practical constraints—like budget restrictions, school approval processes, and technical literacy.
User Interview
Despite role differences, educators showed consistent search behavior. Most came with a clear subject and grade in mind, but struggled to:
  • Trust product information
  • Compare options efficiently
  • Locate key actions like requesting info, sharing, or accessing pilot lessons
💡 Key Insights
ighting the need for clearer structure and support across roles.
  • Converging search patterns
    Regardless of role or decision stage, users showed similar behaviors and expectations, revealing opportunities for a more unified and streamlined experience.
  • High intent, high skill—still stuck
    Users came with strong purpose and solid search literacy, but often felt lost or overwhelmed, pointing to UX issues rather than user limitations.
  • Multi-stakeholder
    Curriculum decisions often involve multiple roles—teachers, coaches, and district leads—who each search with different priorities but face overlapping challenges.
Persona
Affinity Mapping
User Journey
The search and consideration stages are where most confusion happens—users need fewer steps, better structure, and clearer product signals.
“HOW MIGHT WE create a reliable search system and consistent product description page for educators so they can pick the right resources for their school/curriculum/district?”
Design Goals & Key Decisions
Design strategy
Guided by user research and behavioral patterns, I translated key insights into clear design goals:
  • Easy Start: A simple and confident entry point
  • Three Clicks: Help users narrow down options efficiently
  • Easy End: Present essential information and clear next steps
Transaction-based Revenue Model
Each time an educator connects with a vendor or completes a purchase or service agreement through the platform, EdCuration collects a service fee from the vendor. This model incentivizes high-quality listings and encourages vendors to present their offerings clearly and competitively.
Main CTAs
These goals shaped the redesign of the information architecture and interaction flow, aiming to reduce friction and match educators’ real decision-making process—often collaborative and time-constrained.
Meanwhile, the client wanted to highlight sponsored content and promote more products, so I worked to balance user logic with business needs in search results and homepage layout.
To guide the user journey, we identified 4 key CTAs:
Based on those insights, 4 CTAs are decided.
  • CTA1: Request Info / Ask Questions
  • CTA2: Click on Pilot Opportunity / Demo
  • CTA3: Share with Co-workers
  • CTA4: Download Quote OR Start Order
These actions informed the layout of product pages and shaped how we prioritized content and interaction cues.
Must Have
  • Consistent product page
  • Bulleted keywords in description
  • Sharing option
  • Improved search bar
  • Instant quote
Nice to Have
  • Navigation tabs
  • Product rating
  • Vendor rating
  • Personalization recommend
The Solution
From Strategy to Execution
To translate the design goals into real interaction, I focused on reshaping how information is layered, prioritized, and presented across three key pages: the homepage, the search results page, and the product detail page. My guiding principle was to limit cognitive load and reduce each major task to no more than three intuitive steps.
Work flow
To support an easy start
From Confusion to Clarity: Redesigning the Homepage Search Experience
“I guess I will choose the subject first, then…”
Users typically begin with a clear subject and grade in mind. I prioritized an “Easy Start” by surfacing three key filters—Subject, Grade, Type—and restructuring the visual hierarchy to emphasize user actions over platform messaging, enabling a fast, low-friction entry.
🔧 User Pain Points
  • Users didn’t know where to begin
  • Filter hierarchy was confusing and unclear
  • Homepage and search felt disconnected
  • Narrowing down options took too much effort
🎯 Design Goal
Create an intuitive entry point that reflects users’ mental models.
✅ Design Response
  • Surface top 3 filters (Subject, Grade, Type)
  • Group filters by popularity to reduce scanning effort
  • Restructure homepage to enable faster actions
  • Add sponsored content thoughtfully, without disrupting flow
💡 Key Insights
  • Most users enter with a clear goal
  • Subject → Grade → Type is a common filtering path
  • User logic should guide design before brand messaging
Before
Iteration
After
I guided users through a natural filter flow, matching their mental model while balancing visibility of client-prioritized content.
Usability Test
  • 7/8 users completed tasks using the 3-step flow
  • All interviewees followed the same filtering logic
  • Other filters are deferred to reduce cognitive load
To speed up decision-making
Making search results easier to scan and compare
“I’m confused, I select math but this product has Science in its name. I’m not sure whether I did it right.”
Before
🔧 User Pain Points
Many users struggled to determine whether the search filters were working correctly. They knew what they were looking for—but the page layout made it hard to verify or compare key details at a glance.
🎯 Design Goal
Improve decision efficiency by simplifying how key information is scanned and compared.
✅ Design Response
I restructured the search result cards to surface the most essential information upfront, using visual hierarchy and consistent formatting.
 The redesign ensures that each card communicates:
  • What it is
  • Who it's for
  • Why it matters
After
I improved decision efficiency by simplifying how key information is scanned and compared.
  • Subject and grade tag: Supports quick match with user’s mental filter
  • Consistent score display: Builds trust and makes comparison easier
  • Bulleted layout and spacing: Enables rapid scanning across multiple cards
  • Short, helpful description: Answers “what is this?” in under 2 seconds
To streamline key actions
Structuring the product page around 4 key CTAs
“Where is the price?”
🔧 User Pain Points
More confusion came on the product page. The original product page includes enriching information to fulfill different educators needs. However, they are not easy to locate and encourage the next action. I reorganized the layout around 4 main CTAs to make the page clearer and more actionable.
🎯 Design Goal
Guide users toward key actions with a clear and structured product page layout.
✅ Design Response
I restructured the product page based on four primary CTAs:
  • Request Info / Ask Questions
  • Try a Demo / Pilot Opportunity
  • Share with Co-workers
  • Download Quote / Start Order
Each section was designed to support one of these actions, making the page task-oriented, scannable, and easy to act on.
💡 Execution Highlights
Layout
  • Key actions and information appear above the fold
  • Page content is grouped into clear segments: Description, Pricing, Learn More, Pilot Opportunities
Visual Hierarchy
  • Each section uses consistent styling and labeling
  • Important actions are visually distinguished without being overwhelming
  • Repeated components (e.g. cards, buttons) follow a systemized pattern
Improved Flow
  • User doesn’t have to scroll back and forth to understand or act
  • CTA buttons are placed contextually, close to relevant content
After
✓  Task-focused layout – Each section supports a single user goal
✓  Scannable content blocks – Improves orientation and readability
✓  Top-aligned pricing + action buttons – Answers key questions faster
✓  Segmented structure – Mirrors real educator decision steps
⚡️ Challenge: Balancing Business Needs and User Clarity
  • To support both business visibility and user trust, I designed a segmented layout that separated sponsored content from core product details. Promoted items were visually distinct yet unobtrusive, ensuring they didn’t disrupt the evaluation flow.
  • By aligning closely with stakeholders, I balanced their goals with user logic, helping educators stay focused while still meeting exposure needs.
Measuring Success
Homepage: Entry Efficiency
  • Time to first action: time from landing to initiating any entry behavior
  • Entry method distribution: % of users who begin with search, filter, or browse
Search Result Page: Scan & Relevance
  • Scroll depth: average number of result cards viewed before exit or click
  • Result click-through rate: % of result views that lead to product detail clicks
  • Back-navigation frequency: may indicate confusion or poor filter alignment
Product Detail Page: Action & Trust
  • Primary CTA click rate ("Let’s Talk"): measures vendor interest and lead generation intent
  • Secondary CTA usage: includes Download Quote, Ask for Demo, or Share
  • Direct conversion action (via pricing section):% of users who proceed to purchase using platform-exclusive pricing
  • Post-click engagement:% of users who successfully initiate vendor conversation or reach the external purchase page
Multi-step Decision Support
  • Repeat view rate: % of users who return to the same product before taking action
  • Share action rate: reflects collaborative behavior in institutional purchasing
  • Time-to-action gap: average time from first view to CTA engagement
Reflection & Learnings
Reflection & Learnings
  • Turn user friction into clear, actionable goals
  • Balance stakeholder needs without compromising usability
  • Design for flow—not just clarity, but momentum
  • Focus on trust and control over visual flashiness
Client & User Feedback
“The new structure makes it much easier for us to find what we need and explain it to others.”  — Educator in user testing
“We’re seeing clearer engagement patterns—people are going deeper into product pages.”  — Client team member (post-launch review)
Next Steps / If I Had More Time...
  • Unify filters
    I'd apply the same filter layout to the product page for better flow and consistency—this was a UX-driven suggestion, though the final call followed client input.
  • Add AI search
    Natural language search could simplify access and support broader user needs.