Skill and rep decoupling and sequencing

Time frame: 2021–2022

An abstract representation of two concepts decoupling

Context

What is a Rep? A Rep is the demonstration of a skill. Rep is derived from the fitness analog of doing weightlifting repetitions. You do repetitions of a curl or a deadlift to strengthen specific muscles. Likewise, you Rep skills to strengthen your mind and grow in both experience and proficiency. At BigSpring, you’re able to Rep in different formats depending on the skill and setting. We currently allow story Reps (written form), image Reps (take pictures or upload images), video Reps (record yourself in real time practicing a skill or upload videos), and file Rep (upload a file, such as a doc). Coming soon are audio Reps due to demand from learners and coaches.

Problems to solve

Improved discoverability of Rep assignments on the home view.
Increased % of Rep submissions starting from the home view vs. from either the skill or portfolio views.
Improved usability of the learning plan.

Prioritization

This project was prioritized before introducing audio Reps, redesigning the Rep creation flow, and making Reps sharable across platforms, because it will give us much needed insight into the discovery of Reps, specifically Rep assignments, and the overall relationship between skills and Reps. The outcome of this test will directly impact the ongoing vision work for Reps and the holistic experience.

A look at a collection of narrowed explorations for the Rep creation flow

Observations

Quant issues

Funnel

0% of learners discover and access their Rep assignments from the home view.
~74% of learners discover and access their Rep assignments from the skill view.
~26% of learners discover and access their Rep assignments from the portfolio view.

Rep submissions

~68% of learners who access Rep assignments from the skill view submit a Rep.
~32% of learners who access Rep assignments from the portfolio view submit a Rep.

Qual issues

Feedback from learners and coaches

“I had no idea I had to go to the portfolio screen to find my Reps.”
“Why are Reps not on their own page?”
“It’s really confusing that I have to go to the portfolio to find my Reps.”
“What’s a Rep?”

Legacy issues

Rep assignments are not discoverable on the home view. (unknowable)
Rep assignments are discoverable on the portfolio view. (confusing)

Discoverability issues

As a learner, after I complete a skill I do not realize that I still have to create a Rep and have it approved by a coach.
As a learner, I do not know that I have assigned Reps.
As a learner, I do not know where I have to go to find my assigned Reps.

Coherence and comprehension issues

As a learner, I do not know there is a flow to Reps, similar to Skills.
As a learner, after I create a Rep I have no expectation that it will be sent to a coach for review and feedback.

Hypothesis

If we decouple Rep assignments from skills and then sequence Rep assignments into the learning plan on the home view, then we will see an increase in Rep assignment discoverability, engagement, and submission.

Scope

The scope of this project was twofold:

We ran an unmoderated usability test on usertesting.com.
We ran an A/B test on our PWA/web experience with a segmented group of learners.

Metrics for success

Primary

Engagement (click-through rate) with the Rep cards on the home view.
Increase in funnel progression from the home view to portfolio view.
Comparison in Rep submission rates from the home view vs the skill view vs the portfolio view. Higher % Rep submission from the home view.

Guardrails

No negative impact to overall Rep submission rate.
No negative impact to learning plan or skill progression.

Explorations

We had to reimagine having our skill cards next to Rep assignment cards. All cards were redesigned to work side-by-side in a learning plan. We also had the opportunity to optimize our horizontal scroll pattern for usability and accessibility that we use on our learning plans module. Once I had initial explorations in place, I synced with the rest of the product team to ping ideas, discuss pros and cons from a learner, design, and development perspective, and align on direction.

Solution

Skill cards

All skill cards are a fixed 260x230px.
All skill cards will be clickable/tapable anywhere on the card, except for locked cards. Locked cards will have a white skrim overlay and will be unclickable/untapable.
When a user clicks/taps on a clickable/tapable skill card, it will take them to the skill view.
If the skill title spans beyond 1 line, then an ellipsis will append to the title when it collides within 12px of the edge of the skill card.
On desktop, the left and right margins have been increased from 20px to 40px to account for the new horizontal scrolling navigation pattern.

Rep assignment cards

All Rep assignment cards are fixed at 260 x 230px.
All Rep assignment cards will be clickable/tapable anywhere on the card, except for locked cards. Locked cards will have a white skrim overlay and will be unclickable/untapable.
When a user clicks/taps on a clickable/tapable Rep assignment card, it will take them to the Rep thread view.
Locked unassociated Rep assignment cards have two states: 1) proceeding skills and Rep assignments, or 2) proceeding skills.
For this test, we will use English only. No translations necessary. However, I will design accounting for all supported languages.

A look at a collection of the new skill and rep prompt card sequencing

Learning plan sequencing

Connecting, unlocking, steps, and spacers.

An associated Rep assignment is a Rep assignment that is unlocked after completing an associated skill.
An unassociated Rep assignment is a Rep assignment that is not associated with an individual skill, but rather the learning plan itself. These unassociated Rep assignment cards are often placed at the beginning, end, or beginning and end of a learning plan.
If there are only skill cards, then the first skill card will be unlocked. After a user completes a skill, the next skill will unlock. This pattern will repeat until a user has completed all skills for a learning plan.
If there are only Rep assignment cards, then the first Rep assignment card will be unlocked. After a user completes a Rep assignment, the next Rep assignment will unlock. This pattern will repeat until a user has completed all Rep assignments for a learning plan.
If there are a combination of skill cards and associated or unassociated Rep assignment cards, then follow the above patterns as well as the following.
A Rep assignment card associated with a skill card will be locked until the user completes the associated skill.
If the first card in the learning plan is an unassociated Rep assignment card, then it will be unlocked. If the second or beyond card is an unassociated Rep assignment card, then it will be locked until the previous skill has been completed.
Between each skill, skill + Rep assignment, or Rep assignment, and the next skill, skill + Rep assignment, or Rep assignment, there will be a spacer (color-gray-ui-light), as shown above and below.
After the learning plan title, we will indicate how many skills and Reps there are and if any remain to be worked on.

Learnings

Unmoderated study results

All users understood the connection between a skill and a connected Rep.
All users understood they had to complete a skill to unlock the connected Rep.
A few users were confused on the skill view about the difference between the “Practice” step and the “Rep” step of a skill.
A few users had initial confusion around the term Rep. Users made assumptions. Once they clicked in to create a Rep, most users discovered and viewed the help tooltip that clearly defines a Rep.

A/B test on PWA/web

Our quant findings varied when split across cohorts. These are median overall numbers.

Control

0% engagement (click-through rate) with Rep cards on the home view in treatment.
0% of learners who access Rep assignments from the home view submit a Rep.

Treatment

~44% engagement (click-through rate) with Rep cards on the home view in treatment.
~67% of learners who access Rep assignments from the home view submit a Rep.

We saw an increase in overall Rep submission was ~70% higher in treatment and there was no negative impact to learning plan and skill progression.

Next steps

A few descoped items, such as accessibility standards and localization keys, need to be included in the solution. Based on our learnings from this project, we will be implementing the decoupling and Rep assignment sequencing into the higher vision work already underway for Reps and the holistic redesign.