Dec 2024 - Feb 2025
Designing an accessible onboarding experience for users with intellectual disabilities driving a 70% increase in member conversion
Re-designed the MeplusMore intellectual disability learning platform's onboarding to help users including NDIS government supported users to sign up and start their learning journey towards independence.
B2C
B2B
Non-profit
Cognitive accessibility
My design approach: Conducted heuristic analysis and benchmarked high-performing platforms to surface effective usability and accessibility patterns. Used these insights to improve onboarding accessibility, then iteratively tested with users to identify cognitive needs to optimise final design.
Role
UX/UI designer
Timeline
2.5 months
Client
MeplusMore
Learning platform to help people
with intellectual disabilities learn to be indpendent
Business objective
Engage Individuals with intellectual disabilities and advocates to convert into members (B2C)
Secondary focus to engage disability service providers to incorporate MeplusMore into their offerings (B2B)
Responsibilties
User research, heuristics analysis, user flow, rapid protoyping, usability testing
Deliverables
UX heuristic audit + MVP prototype with a scalable design system and developer handoff.
How I created value and impact
70%
increase in member conversion
+70%
increase in member conversion
Design solution overview
Before
After
Problem
Difficult to navigate on landing due to complex icons and no clear entry point especially for government-supported NDIS disability users.
Solution
Tailored CTA and navigation entry points for specific user needs including NDIS support with simplified icons to reduce cognitive load.
Problem
Accessibility tools were hard to locate and use, especially for users with screen readers. Users also didn’t understand how Easy Read worked.
Solution
Designed accessibility toolbar to help users find and use tools, with voice-over navigation, full-screen search & easy-reading mode toggle.
Problem
Onboarding flow excludes 90% of users under are government funded (NDIS), forcing them to call for support without a clear path to sign-up.
Solution
New flow grants dashboard access before membership confirmation, making sign-up accessible to all and enabling freemium upsell.
Problem
No clear way for providers to onboard multiple clients and no evidence of results makes it hard for them trust and adopt MePlusMore offerings.
Solution
A clear provider entry point with case studies, reviews, and client logos to build trust and mirror their decision-making flow.
Full case read: 7 mins
The problem
70% of Meplusmore's current members have intellectual disabilities
and are unable to signup to the learning platform independently
Indicating the onboarding experience is not effectively designed to support user needs,
a clear barrier to Meplusmore’s sign-up conversion
Landing page
Signs up
Learning course
Meplusmore learning platform
Onboarding also doesn't align with the learning platform's product mission
of helping users with intellectual disabilities lead their own learning journey to independence
The users
A closer look at users needs with intellectual disabilities
Reveals onboarding architecture and navigation needs to support the range of cognitive accessibility needs in order for users to sign up.
ADHD
Needs clear
visual supports
Screen readers
Keyboard
Accessibility
Dyslexia
Large and
readable fonts
Autism
Step by step
instructions
Range of core user cognitive needs
Meplusmore has also expanded their offerings to B2B providers
Mapping all users and needs reveals how complex the architecture needs to be to support.
Individuals (B2C)
Accessibility for all
cognitive abilities
Advocates
Wants to help indiviuals
towards indpendence
Providers (B2B)
Needs group
membership packages
NDIS users
(government supported)
want to use funding
Support workers
Helps individuals work towards independence
Organisations
Looking for
workshops
Support
coordinators
memberships
90% of current members
Map of users and their needs
The design objective
How can the onboarding be designed to meet business objectives while staying aligned with the product mission of empowering self-led learning?
Convert users (B2C) into members
Attract providers (B2B) to adopt offerings
Design goal: Accessibility for all mental models
See design trade-offs
To align with MeplusMore’s product mission of everyone having access tools for independence, the experience needs to be accessible to all users and support a range of mental models.
Approach
I kicked off with a heuristic audit to identify usability gaps
and found 3 key problem insights
Given MeplusMore’s low UX maturity, I began with a heuristic audit of the onboarding journey including the user entry points of the landing page. Applying Nielsen’s 10 heuristics helped identify usability gaps and accessibility barriers early.
Landscape research
I analysed high-performing patterns from sites that excelled in
solving similar usability problems
Survey data revealed mainstream user buying patterns & habits
and uncovered Lyka's pain points
Majority of customers
60.8% prefers to buy dry food
Lyka needs to highlight benefits to appeal
to dry food customers.
Lyka's is wet dog food product
73% of customers buy in
bulk on weekly & monthly basis
Lyka needs to match user purchasing habits to attract customers.
Lyka's subscription pricing is daily
78.6% of customers
buy supermarket brands
Lyka needs to position subscription as a more convenient option for supermarket shoppers.
Only 6.7% customers buy subsciptions
Avg monthly spend for dog/s
$100–$200 on dog food & treats
Lyka's needs to educate new users on Lyka's value especially to multi-dog households.
A medium-sized dog on Lyka is $364
What's driving these habits and patterns?
Interviews with customers uncovered the "why" behind these patterns, revealing 3 key drivers influencing purchasing decisions.
Semi-structured of 25 minute interviews were conducted with 5 target users who own dog/s to validate initial findings and to uncover what drives customers to choose dog food and what shapes their buying patterns.
Driver to buy: Dog palette
Why woukd i buy Lyka if I already know what my dog likes?
Driver to buy: Price
“I only buy in bulk when it's on sale"
Why would I buy Lyka if I can buy cheaper?
Driver to buy: Nutritional value
Why would I buy Lyka if I can cook fresh meals?
Highlights from interview
Landscape review: existing conversion patterns
Interestingly, the same key drivers were reflected in the conversion strategies used by mainstream competitors
Landscape analysis was conducted to understand how competitors use visual cues such as pricing and nutritional value to meet customer expectations and influence decisions. To remain competitive, Lyka needs adopt similar strategies while maintaining brand integrity.
Price driver
Shoppers are influenced by familiar patterns, yellow "Sale" which signal value and savings.
To be competitive Lyka needs to incorporate this cue into their subscription pricing.
Supermarkets
|
#1 competitor
|
78% buyers
Nutritional value driver
In-store banners like "High in Protein" help shoppers quickly identify products that meet pet’s dietary needs
To be competitive Lyka needs to incorporate this cue into their landing messaging.
Pet stores
|
#2 competitor
|
61% buyers
Digging deeper into what customers said vs did, revealed they were
unaware of the impact of kibble vs. Lyka's fresh high quality meals, a clear opportunity to educate the new market.
Empathy mapping uncovered that even health-conscious customers were mixing fresh food with kibble without realising kibble is highly processed. This insight reinforced the value of Lyka’s product, which removes the need for processed kibble altogether by offering a wholefood option that’s minimally processed and tailored to each dog.
Identifying Lyka's opportunities in the new market
Usability testing confirmed awareness gaps, 4/5 customers wouldn’t buy into Lyka's subscription and uncovered Lyka's key barriers to staying competitive
5 participants were user tested on Lyka's subscription offering on the landing page to onboarding sign-up, to find out how users engage with Lyka's product offerings, subscription model & likelihood of purchasing. Testing was focused on the mobile interface, as most users (85.6%) access Lyka via mobile.
Awareness
3/5 see Lyka for wealthy
Cavoodle owners
Interest
Lack of endorsement credibility
Sign up
CTA doesn't allow
multiple dog breeds
Select meals
Customer
chooses meals
View prices
4/5 prices did not
meet expectations
+1
0
-1
-2
Opportunity: Improve subscription suitability, brand credibility, and onboarding accessibility to better support and convert first-time mainstream users to Lyka.
Solution: align subscription with mainstream user patterns
Before: premium & niche
After: trusted & inclusive
To stay competitive, Lyka needs to re-position their subscription model to align with mainstream user drivers and patterns to alleviate customer barriers, in order to better support awareness and adoption of Lyka's fresh, high-quality offering.
To better communicate my findings, designed UI to visualise how the research insights could translate into design improvements for the stakeholder.
Problem
Users are overwhelmed by daily price, they are used to thinking in weekly/monthly spending habits & mistake total weekly cost.
Solution
Improve Lyka’s suitability and convenient by aligning pricing with weekly/monthly habits to reduce cognitive load. easier decision-making.
Before
After
Users are overwhelmed
by daily costs
"Save" aligns with mainstream user preference for sales
Users are overwhelmed
by daily costs
Problem
'Gently cooked' benefits appeal to niche users but are unclear to the mainstream, and without clear vet backing, credibility suffers.
Solution
Boost credibility & trust by highlighting 'vet formulated' USP with vet endorsements to strengthen competitive advantage.
Before
After
"Gently cooked" benefits may
be unclear to users.
Vet logos boost credibility and amplify the 'vet formulated' message.
'Vet formulated' gets lost, reducing credibility.
Problem
Lyka’s CTA targets single-dog homes and aligns with breeds tied to affluent lifestyles, reinforcing premium positioning.
Solution
Broaden Lyka’s accessibility by updating the CTA & replacing ‘Cavoodle’ with a mainstream breed to shift from exclusive to inclusive.
Before
After
Cavoodle' implies exclusivity & aligns with affluent lifestyles
'Add' button improves CTA usability for
multi-dog users.
CTA only supports single dog owners
Placeholder text uses a common mainstream dog breed.
Problem
The landing page isn't positioned for mainstream users unaware of the differences between kibble and Lyka's fresh meals.
Solution
Educate unaware customers on Lyka's benefits over kibble by positioning content that highlights why Lyka is better for their dog.
Before
After
