UX Researcher, Information Architect, UX Designer
1 Project Manager, 1 Web Developer
June–July 2021
When academic researchers landed on XpertVR’s website, they were intrigued, but unclear on what the company actually did. The site failed to communicate XpertVR’s value, especially to those unfamiliar with virtual reality or unsure how it applied to them.
I led a UX-focused redesign to clarify the value proposition, simplify the user journey, and build trust across XpertVR’s key researcher audience.
Results from the redesign:
To uncover how the site needed to evolve, I started with foundational studies focused on XpertVR’s core audiences in education and research. At the time, the team didn’t have a clear understanding of who these users were or how they evaluated VR services. I ran a short survey across campus VR research groups and educator communities to gather early signals, following up with targeted interviews.
Most participants were beginners, having only tried one or two educational VR experiences. They used VR simulations to study a wide range of disciplines: decision-making in simulated environments like stores, social psychology, and even criminology. They primarily discovered VR through product websites and social media, not through institutional channels.
From the 22 survey respondents, I selected six for deeper 1:1 interviews. There were two goals:
These sessions revealed early trust gaps in XpertVR’s experience, especially trying to understand what the company actually does.
Live remote interview with an academic researcher exploring initial impressions of the site.
After reviewing the interviews and usability testing of XpertVR's site, two critical issues stood out:
I mapped the typical journey of a researcher, highlighting the pain points at key steps, in order to plan the improved experience for lead acquisition.
A journey map illustrating how researchers encountered friction and uncertainty at key steps, especially when trying to evaluate XpertVR’s relevance and initiate contact.
With the customer journeys defined, I turned the research insights into a revised site architecture—one that better aligned with researchers’ mental models and built early trust. The scope expanded a bit here to include two other user types, trainers and participants, but these ended up fitting neatly into the IA changes for the site.
I focused on two key structural changes:
Annotated sitemap showing changes to the homepage architecture that surfaced trust-building content and created clearer paths for key user groups.
After validating the site structure, I created wireframes to bring the new architecture to life, focusing on three key pages: the homepage, Our Story, and a services subpage tailored to researchers. Each design aimed to build trust, clarify value, and guide researchers more confidently into XpertVR’s offerings.
The homepage was the most critical screen. It had to function as a high-level wayfinding tool for researchers and the other core user types, trainers and research participants, while also establishing credibility early.
Key design changes included:
V1 of the homepage showing designs changes to add clarity and trust for the three XpertVR user types.
At the time of writing this case study, the site was in the final stages of QA. You’ll be able to see the new XpertVR site here.
The final draft of the XpertVR homepage, after revising the wireframe above.
Results from the redesign, aggregated across all three user types—researchers, trainers, and VR participants:
These results were tracked through XpertVR’s internal analytics and CRM tools over the first few months post-launch, validating the redesign’s effectiveness with both researchers and stakeholders.
One of the biggest takeaways was how interview structure affects data quality. The 60-minute format left some participants fatigued, which may have impacted depth and accuracy of later responses.
In the future, I’d keep the sessions shorter and more focused with breaks or follow-ups to maintain energy and attention.
Restructuring interview format would likely improve accuracy of findings.
