The Great Courses Redesign

Founded in 1990, The Great Courses have been uniquely crafting engaging, immersive learning experiences you can’t get in a lecture hall. After more than 20 years and 10 million courses sold, The Great Courses was challenged with the need to further transition itself from a primarily mail order catalog company, into an online content provider to increase digital purchasing and consumption, while also appealing to a slightly younger audience. To execute this transition, a rebrand of their digital experience was in order, as well as branching out into mobile applications. 

In 2013, I came on board as the Sr. User Experience Designer and effectively took the lead in the redesign efforts. Even though previous ideation with third-party vendors had been explored, there were still many challenges and ideas that lay ahead.  After advancing all prior concepts, it was determined that a project reboot was in order. I was tasked with, and contributed to: site auditing, analysis of customer needs, research, gathering and/or writing requirements, conceptual sketches, wireframes, interactive wireframes, user testing, style guide and application templates, visual design, specifications, and working with third-party developers to ensure consistency and integrity of the user experience throughout the process.

Highlights Include:

  • Responsive design to increase revenue by allowing customers to shop from any device.
  • New global search functionality and improved search results refinement.
  • Global mega-menu navigation making categories and sales easier to find from anywhere on the site.
  • Ability to save products to a Wish List. The number one requested new feature from users.
  • A great new digital library experience that gives users more control over their courses and streamlines their consumption via global notifications to resume right where they left off.
  • Streamlined User Account Management and functionality
  • The new site features slick interactions and animations to appeal to younger mobile-ready customers.