~67%faster
on average, to first reach student management
Matific · Teacher onboarding
Show the value first. Ask for setup when it's needed
With the Product Manager, I redesigned how new teachers discover Matific, choose how to set work, and set up a class only when they need to.
- With
- Product Manager
- When
- Released Sept 2025
- For
- Evaluators and new teachers
Explore the product
Quick Start Guide
Choose a route
Three ways to set student work
Students set up
My Students
Results
Earlier access to setup. Higher focus-setting adoption
Results at a glance: 6-week A/B test
~26%faster
on average, to start creating a class
~1.9×more
teachers set a learning focus, nearly doubling adoption
Also sooner
Setting a first focus~52%
Browsing activities~40%
Opening reports~27%
Mixed elsewhere
Small gains in first assignments and class creation; library browsing held steady; report use and student additions dipped slightly.
Method
A six-week A/B test across all locales compared new teachers on the previous and new onboarding. A preceding A/A test, with both groups on the same onboarding, checked the tracking and natural variation between groups.
Reading the results
- Timings show how soon teachers first reached a step, not how long tasks took or whether setup was completed.
- Faster access to student management partly reflects an automatic redirect in the new flow.
- Statistical significance wasn't formally established, so treat these as strong directional signals.
- There was no pre-launch usability testing; this was the post-release evaluation.
- The report did not separate evaluators.
What changed for new teachers
| Step | Change |
|---|---|
| Reached student management | ~67% sooner |
| Set a first learning focus | ~52% sooner; and adoption nearly doubled |
| Browsed activities | ~40% sooner; browsing rate unchanged |
| Opened reports | ~27% sooner; usage slightly lower |
| Started creating a class | ~26% sooner; slightly more teachers |
| Assigned a first activity | Slightly more teachers |
| Added students | Slightly fewer teachers |
01 · The UX problem
Setup was still a barrier to getting started
Who it’s for
Evaluating Matific
School leaders or teachers trying it out, through the free trial or a trial their account manager set up.
Need
See the value before committing to setup.
Joining their school
Teachers arriving by an admin's email invite or the school's access code. Their class may not exist yet, be empty, or already have students.
Need
A working class with as little setup as possible.
Syncing from a classroom platform
Classes and students come from the classroom platform; students are added or removed there, then synced.
Need
Skip Matific's own student setup.
Any of them can arrive with no class, an empty class or a class that's ready, so setup responds to what's in place, not to who they are.
The previous onboarding
- Sign up → Welcome
- Optional student teaser
- Setup checklist: add class & students, start students, school info123
- Setup prompts on page visits3
What wasn’t working
Setup came before value
In the previous flow, only around 15% of sign-ups went on to add students manually.
Student data was a barrier
Many teachers hesitated to add students, or their details, before seeing what Matific could do for their class.
Floating UI disrupted the experience
The onboarding checklist and pop-ups distracted from the actual games and educational material.
Design Goal
Let new teachers see Matific’s value before any setup, while getting those who are ready up and running with a class quickly.
Why it mattered: Evaluators decide whether their school adopts Matific, and teachers only get value once their students are added. The previous flow asked for this class setup before showing enough of the product's value, resulting in only 15% of sign-ups actually taking the time to add students.
02 · design decisions
Introduce the value, then connect it to a classroom goal
The new guide leads with exploration, offers three ways to set student work, then asks only for the setup each teacher still needs.
How we worked
Requirements & Alignment
Collaborated closely with Product Manager (PM) to define user needs, establish goals, and iterate on early structural feedback.
Structure & Design
Partnered with PM to refine the overarching user journey, then independently designed the high-fidelity UI to bring the agreed-upon flow to life.
Review & Iteration
Co-presented in product and board reviews with the PM, explaining UX decisions and making live design updates to help the group quickly align on a direction.
Delivery & Rollout
Prepared and delivered development-ready designs. Following release, the team used A/B testing to evaluate changes in teacher setup and product engagement.
2.1 · Product exploration
Lead with product value, not setup
To replace the previous flow's easily missed optional teaser, the new guide immediately surfaces Matific's core offerings on the page: student learning zones, interactive sample activities, and actionable teacher reports.
I designed an accordion-based UI to keep this information digestible. As users navigate the steps, short value propositions are paired with context-specific visuals. Within the Activities section, teachers can directly interact with demo games tailored to their target year level, proving the platform's worth before any data entry is required.
2.2 · Ways to set student work
Offer a clear choice of next steps
To actively educate teachers on the platform's capabilities, we surfaced three distinct pathways tailored to different workflows. These options cater to varying user types by offering progressive levels of control: a zero-setup automated adaptive route driven entirely by the algorithm, a targeted topic approach where the algorithm adapts to a chosen focus topic, and a manual assignment path for teachers who require full granular control over what student learns.
The Pivot
To clarify these distinct choices, I initially designed text-free visuals to bypass localisation costs. However, we ultimately opted for a highly scannable, text-only interface. This joint business decision ensured the pathways acted as strict functional aids—avoiding abstract graphical elements that might add cognitive load without supporting text.
2.3 · Setup when needed
Ask for class setup only when needed
To get classes ready and the first activity started with minimal friction, the flow dynamically adapts to the teacher's starting state (No class, Class but no students, or Ready). It asks only for missing information while seamlessly carrying their chosen activity through to completion.
Syncing from a classroom platform
The core setup flow remains unchanged, but importing a class triggers a specific "My Students" variation. To reflect the external data source, manual controls (add, delete, and edit) are intelligently replaced with a single Sync button.
The Pivot
We initially designed a "demo class" so teachers could experience and evaluate the product without adding real students. When development constraints forced us to descope it, this adaptive approach became our critical solution to prevent drop-off.
The change in the journey
From setup-led guidance to exploration and choice
Previous
Setup-led
- 1Optional student teaser
- 2Setup checklist: add class & students, start students, school info
- 3Setup prompts on page visits
New
Explore, then choose
- 1Explore: learning areas → activities → reports
- 2Choose: explore · set focus · assign
- 3Setup only where it's missing
In the A/B test
By streamlining the flow and introducing strategic redirects, these updates got teachers to class creation ~26% faster and student management ~67% faster, while driving a ~1.9× increase in focus-setting adoption.
The complete Quick Start Guide
Featuring student learning zones, interactive sample activities, actionable teacher reports, and three distinct setup pathways.
Complete setup flow overview
Complete setup flow overview
The previous onboarding
Featuring an optional student teaser, a heavy setup checklist for classes and students, and persistent setup prompts across page visits.
Reflections & follow-up proposal
What launch taught us, and what I'd do next.
Learned after launch
Premature setup caused friction
To filter year-level-appropriate activities for the manual assignment path, the system needed the teacher's Year Level. We opportunistically asked for a Class Name at the same time to speed up future setup. However, prompting for this data before users were actually ready to create a class caused unnecessary friction and hesitation.
Visual fallbacks lacked context
High localisation costs across 50+ languages prevented us from showing the actual student UI to teachers. I pivoted to a scalable zone selector using easily translated island names. While efficient to build, later user feedback revealed a critical tradeoff: introducing the zone selector and its names simply didn't provide enough context. Teachers still needed to see the actual student experience.
The value of persistent guidance
The shipped version dismissed the guide immediately once a route was selected, relegating the alternative pathways to the Help menu. I had originally advocated for keeping the guide persistent until a student completed their first activity. Observing the live product reinforced this recommendation: premature dismissal created friction for teachers who wanted to safely explore other routes or resume an incomplete setup.
What I'd do next
Keep guidance available, and make learning concrete.
Pending prioritisation · not released or tested
The launched experience drove immediate business value, but our post-launch feedback highlighted clear opportunities for iteration. Here is what I would do next to further optimise the flow:
Leverage new touchpoints for personalisation
Since this project launched, Matific introduced an upfront subject-selection screen. By utilising this new touchpoint to capture "Year Level" and "Curriculum" before the user enters the web app, we can completely eliminate data-entry friction from the manual assignment path, instantly pre-populating demo activities with year-level-appropriate content.
Show the actual student experience
Leveraging a newly agreed, cost-effective localisation strategy, I would replace the abstract zone names with short, auto-playing muted videos. This finally gives teachers immediate, concrete context of what their students will experience.
Centralise onboarding in a "Get Started" hub:
Replace the obtrusive floating checklist with a dedicated page. This hub would permanently house the onboarding progress tracker, the three pathway choices, and contextual help links—keeping guidance accessible without cluttering the UI.
Reintroduce lightweight visual aids
Test simplified, minimalist icons for the three pathways to improve scannability and quick comprehension without adding visual noise.
Here is a look at the proposed next version, bringing these strategic updates together into a unified "Get Started" experience:
Front-loading setup
Capturing Year Level and Curriculum during initial subject selection to eliminate downstream friction.
Concrete visual context
Replacing abstract zone names with localized, auto-playing video previews of the actual student experience.
Centralised guidance
The new "Get Started" hub replaces floating UI elements to provide persistent, distraction-free onboarding.
Adaptive progression
The hub dynamically updates once setup is complete, surfacing relevant next steps to maintain momentum.
More subjects. Different roles. One framework
I designed a framework—converting top navigation to a scalable side navigation—connecting school roles, classes, and subjects as Matific expanded beyond Maths. It launched alongside the first new subject.
Next: Teacher & admin navigation →