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XpertVR Reboot

Designing a customer-centered web experience for an educational VR development company

A homepage with a hero image showing a man with a VR headset on followed by a section telling the story of XpertVR

Role

UX Researcher, Information Architect, UX Designer

Team

1 Project Manager, 1 Web Developer

Timeline

June–July 2021

The challenge

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:

128%
more demo inquiries
40%
faster lead conversions

User research

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.

What we learned

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.

Interviewing potential XpertVR users

From the 22 survey respondents, I selected six for deeper 1:1 interviews. There were two goals:

  • Observing how they searched for information or evaluated VR services online
  • Understanding user expectations for a VR company website

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.

Research synthesis

After reviewing the interviews and usability testing of XpertVR's site, two critical issues stood out:

  • Academic researchers felt lost in long blocks of copy with few clear cues to guide them to relevant services.
  • They also lacked a clear sense of XpertVR’s value or credibility, which led to uncertainty and hesitation to engage.

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.

Sitemapping

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:

  • Trust-building content surfaced early: Positioned the tagline and Our Story section at the top of the homepage to communicate XpertVR’s mission and credibility before researchers had to dig for it.
  • Homepage as a wayfinding tool: Created prominent entry points for each audience type — researchers, trainers, and participants — so all user types could quickly self-identify and access relevant services.

Wireframing

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.

Initiating customer journeys through the homepage

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:

  • Featuring the branding tagline and “Watch Video” CTA above the fold to hook attention and establish purpose
  • Placing the Our Story section early in the scroll to build trust with skeptical first-time visitors
  • Creating three distinct service CTAs (“How can we help?”) that mapped to the core journeys for researchers and the other user types.

Outcomes

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.

Impact

Results from the redesign, aggregated across all three user types—researchers, trainers, and VR participants:

128%
more demo inquiries
40%
faster lead conversions

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.

Lessons learned

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.

A notional image showing confirmation bias about multiple bookings impacted following an initial booking impacted

Restructuring interview format would likely improve accuracy of findings.

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