A Critical Analysis of the Education App User Journey

Nov 28, 2022 Samuel Thomas

EdTech, or educational technology, has made significant headway, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The social distancing norms that accompanied it have been the primary contributing factors. The EdTech industry has radically transformed into a standard teaching essential across all four main markets (Pre-KG, K-12, HIE and Professional learning). Despite the radical growth of the EdTech industry, there are a plethora of inherent flaws that are causing user abandonment.

Due to the saturation of the marketplace, even low-quality EdTech products seem to fly under the radar, giving some students a negative experience from the start of their user journey. The good news is that there are several ways to circumvent this problem and make the user journey as smooth and seamless as possible. However, it is imperative for education app development service providers to approach the challenges methodically.

Stakeholders and key decision makers in the EdTech app development services industry must look past the glowing reviews and statistics of the segment and adopt a progressive perspective. Mapping the user journey provides mobile app development companies with critical insights into optimizing customer experience and eliminating pain points throughout their app’s UX.

But why restrict user journey analysis to achieve only UX goals?

Related: Evaluating and Enhancing Your Mobile App Development Strategy in 2022

Descending Into the Educational App User Journey

Submerging into the EdTech User App journey is important since user abandonment may happen at any stage. Currently, many flaws in EdTech apps get brushed under the carpet since the current machinery is working well. But a stage-wise evaluation of the user journey sets a precedent for developing a clear roadmap for Education App Development companies to chase user retention effectively. Here’s the breakdown!

Sign up

In the sign-up stage, EdTech app owners get their first chance to leave a lasting impression on their users. Hence the sign-up process must be precise and concise. Unfortunately, a mix of functional problems and rigid sign-up processes leave a lasting impression on the user, just not in the desired way! As a result, EdTech app organizations lose money by retaining customers and encouraging them to continue using the service without monetizing the relationships over time.

Onboarding

77% of mobile app users abandon the app within the first three days of usage, according to a survey by Quettra, the San Francisco-based mobile intelligence company. This means that within 3 to 7 days, the EdTech app owners must grasp the user’s attention by eliminating roadblocks impeding the user journey in the onboarding stage.

The user journey-related challenges at this stage can arise from multiple sources ranging from cluttered UI/UX, intrusive questions that should have ended during sign-up, etc. Only a closer look at these challenges can enable development teams to address them.

Course Selection

Most users accessing EdTech Apps are uncertain about career choices and specializations. The user's mind is teeming with questions about course content, efficacy and its relevance to their personal goals. Hence, the course selection stage must be the guiding light for users.

All functionality considerations stimulating the user's curiosity will enable greater user retention. There is immense potential for EdTech app developers to alter their current approach and offer greater personalization for their users to catalyze the engagement that is usually expected in the course selection stage.

Course Consumption

In the course consumption stage, EdTech apps often lack the depth to engage hyper-personalization. Presenting the same course for different individuals constitutes the conventional one-size fits all approach. In today's world of personalized content consumption, such an approach isn't effective enough to harness sustainability.

Hence, offering users key functionalities, such as the ability to interact with professors through the app platform, can effectively increase user retention. It eliminates uncertainty in the user's mind and guides them in the desired direction regarding specialization and career progression.

Exit

At the end of an EdTech App user journey, it's not just the user taking their final steps to exit your app. At one end of the spectrum, the app owners are liable to fulfil their promises on outstanding deliverables such as scorecards, access to subsequent courses, certificates etc. On the other, the proactive nature of engagement at the exit stage will resonate well with users, prompting them to leverage services in their learning experience in the future. So it's simply not game over at this stage. But, it's the absence of such initiative that leads to abandonment.

Related: Affordable mobile app development services for your business

Recalibrating Your Education App Development Services

A good look under the hood will enable Education App development companies to reconcile their current app development strategy with the client's end goals. In a market inching towards maturity, a differentiator will determine user retention and hence the efficacy of an EdTech app.

This publication is the first of a blog series that covers the challenges in the EdTech user journey and associated opportunities. Stay tuned to this space to redesign your mobile app development strategy for the educational industry in 2023 and beyond!

Send us an email at info@nalashaa.com to know how a powerful partnership with Nalashaa can be your key differentiator.

Samuel Thomas

Samuel Thomas has over 6 years of experience in business development, Pre-sales, and IT consulting across Healthcare, Networking & Financial domains with extensive exposure to US Healthcare from a marketing & sales standpoint.

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