Creating a tutoring website that helps parents feel confident and informed when choosing the right math tutor for their child.
Team
4 members
Timeline
3 months
Scope
UX, UI, Development
Year
2025
From Strategy to
Deployment
I led UX strategy and client communication for our team of four. I helped plan the research, co-designed the prototypes in Figma, and built the site in Squarespace.
Context
From a Simple Refresh to a
Full Redesign
What started as a quick website refresh for Chad, a math tutor, quickly revealed a bigger opportunity: rethinking how parents find and trust a tutor online. Our focus shifted to understanding what parents need to feel confident, while staying realistic about Squarespace’s design constraints.
Pictured: Original screens prior to redesign
Research
When we first met Chad and his wife Alexa, we started by listening. Chad tutors math students from middle school through college, with most of his clients coming through word of mouth. He wanted a simple, trustworthy website that clearly shared his story, highlighted his credibility, and made it easy for parents to connect. While he plans to add online booking in the future, his priority was a warm, welcoming, and informative space, one that reflects both his professionalism and the genuine care he brings to every student.
Chad’s brief set three priorities for the website:
Simple & Trustworthy
Authentic & Personal
Parent Friendly
Parent interviews
Each of us on the team interviewed parents who had previously hired math tutors, hoping to understand what truly matters to them when making that choice. Those conversations were rich, full of real stories, frustrations, and insights about how parents search, decide, and ultimately trust someone with their child’s learning.
Competitive analysis
Professional
and
Personal
We started by looking at both ends of the spectrum: large tutoring platforms and small independent professional sites (trainers, tutors, etc). The big platforms felt efficient but distant, more about transactions than relationships. On the other hand, smaller websites often felt warm and personal, but were less structured about credentials, and sometimes less inspiring visually.
Through this comparison, we found our goal: to design something that builds trust through clarity and professionalism, while still keeping the human side of tutoring front and center.
Persona
Designing for
Prisha
To guide our design decisions, we created a user persona, Prisha Patel, a busy mom who wants her 14-year-old daughter to feel confident in algebra. She values education and wants to invest in a tutor that she can trust, and who will genuinely connect with her daughter.
Prisha
Prisha wants a tutor she can trust to help her 14-year-old daughter understand algebra and feel more confident about learning.
Problem statement
Trust:
Parents like Prisha aren’t just looking for a tutor: they’re looking for trust. They want someone who has the right qualifications, yes, but also the right heart and teaching approach.
A Solution That Feels
personal
and
credible
Our final design for Propel Tutoring centered on creating a website that feels warm, professional, and reassuring where parents like Prisha could find both the information and the trust they need.
We focused on:
Showcasing Chad’s experience, teaching style, and the subjects he tutors (middle school through college math).
Including genuine testimonials from parents and teachers.
Using a clean, friendly layout that feels approachable and easy to navigate.
Task flow
In our main task flow, Prisha visits the Propel Tutoring website wanting to learn more about Chad, his personality, his teaching style, his experience, and the subjects he covers. Her goal is simple: to feel confident enough to reach out and start a conversation.
- Homepage
Browse through Homepage
- Homepage
Chooses to learn more about the tutor
- About
Looks at tutor’s profile description
- About
Verifies tutors’ credentials
- About
Looks at grade levels & subjects taught
- About
Chooses to contact tutor
- Contact Us
Fills in contact form
- Confirmation
Receives confirmation of submission
Sketches & prototype
From Sketches to Our
Low-Fidelity
Prototype
Once we had a direction, we turned our sketches into a low-fidelity prototype. This stage let us test structure and flow without worrying about colors or visuals. The goal was simple: could users find what they needed easily and take action without confusion?
Testing the design
Testing
the Design
Making it Easier To
Reach
the Tutor
When our prototype was ready, we ran a usability test with four participants to see how easily they could navigate the site and reach the main goal: contacting the tutor. We wanted the experience to feel simple and trustworthy. Overall, the results were encouraging:
Even with strong results, we noticed a few moments of hesitation, small details that, once refined, could make the experience smoother.
Task success
All four participants reached the goal of contacting the tutor.
Time on task
Average completion time, measured in minutes.
User satisfaction
Average satisfaction score for the tested prototype.
Homepage misclicks
A small point of friction to refine in the next iteration.
Key
Learnings
and
Improvements
This round of testing reinforced what we already knew: clarity and connection matter most. The goal wasn’t to overwhelm parents with information, but to create a flow that feels natural, welcoming, and easy to act on. By refining these small details, we turned a solid design into a smoother, more human-centered experience.
Delivering a
Responsive
Math Rocket
With research and testing guiding us, we brought everything together in a high-fidelity design: a clean, modern website that helps parents quickly understand who Chad is, what he offers, and how to reach him. The homepage focuses on credibility, connection, and clarity: parents can see Chad’s qualifications, get a feel for his teaching style, and contact him easily.
Since many parents browse on phones, responsiveness was key. The layout adapts seamlessly across mobile, tablet, and desktop: text remains readable, images scale properly, and CTAs stay easy to find and tap. No matter the device, parents can browse, learn, and take action easily.
Closing Reflection
From Simple to
Meaningful
What began as a small website refresh grew into a full UX journey: from research to strategy, design, and testing.
This project reminded us that good design isn’t just about visuals. It’s about clarity, empathy, and connection. We transformed a simple tutoring site into a space that builds trust, communicates value, and feels genuinely supportive for both parents making decisions and the tutor behind the brand.
In the end, Propel Tutoring became more than a website. It reflects what learning should feel like: clear, confident, and human.
Let’s give your next idea a head start.
Have a project that could help people move forward? Let’s turn it into an experience they can trust.