Dissecting the current layout

My Courses

Topic Page

Updates

Course Discovery

Mapping out the current content structure

Notable observations

1. On the dashboard (first page upon logging in) the user is presented with courses they've enrolled in, courses that are "inactive", and courses they've completed on three separate views
2. Recommendations are given based on what the user is interested in, which is determined by user input
3. On the Explore section, Courses, Specializations, and Degrees are all intertwined, despite being of completely different caliber. Even on Topic pages, different types of content are all laid out with relatively equal importance
4. Specializations and Course Pages are largely treated the same in the context of discovery
5. In a Topic Page, you can filter by skills, job title, and level
6. Coursera lists that they provide five separate learning programs (Course, Specialization, Professional Certificate, MasterTrack Certificate & Degree) and what each represents, but does not indicate where to find Professional or MasterTrack Certificates
7. Over time, the explore page recommends courses in the same category as courses you have already completed. These seem to be arbitrarily intertwined among the other categories in the diagram. (I compared my old Coursera account with a freshly created account to verify this)
8. There is a search functionality accessible from all pages that allows you to sort by primary language, subtitle languages, topic, and keywords. There is no functionality to filter by type (course, specialization, degree, etc.)

Potential pain points

1. "Explore" seems to be tailored around the content available, rather than what is relevant to the user, which directly increases the difficulty of doing what Coursera is meant for—learning.

   • There is no way to filter what content you can explore, and with so much content available, it can be difficult to find what course is the right one for you
   • All types of content, despite varying in difficult and duration, are interspersed between each other—as such, the page emphasizes the variety of content rather than the relevant content
   • For a user who is not familiar with higher education, the content presented can be intimidating—before the user even scrolls, they are shown four master degrees under "Earn Your Degree", regardless of whether they are looking for an online degree

2. The content itself is not very scannable, and it is hard to determine what is relevant.

   • Helpful information such as duration and difficulty are not displayed until you hover over a course card. For a new user, this can stop them from enrolling in the course suitable for them.
   • Permanent feedback cards stretch across the screen, with prior users proclaiming the benefits that come with Coursera, but no course is mentioned on any of these cards
   • Categories such as "Trending Courses" or "Top Rated Courses" do not give much value to the user. This is based off the assumption that users on the platform decide what to learn based on personal interest, rather than what others are interested in