2x weekly active users for SudoStudy through a focused product redesign
User Experience (UX) Design
User Research
Interaction Design
Information Architecture
Prototyping & Usability Testing
🚀 Executive summary
The Problem
SudoStudy’s platform was feature-rich but not value-driven. The design prioritized functionality over outcomes, leading to a cluttered experience that failed to guide students toward meaningful learning.
Key features like practice mode and quiz creation suffered from usability issues, causing many students to abandon them entirely. Without a clear sense of progress or where to begin, users often dropped off before realizing the platform’s value.
Key features like practice mode and quiz creation suffered from usability issues, causing many students to abandon them entirely. Without a clear sense of progress or where to begin, users often dropped off before realizing the platform’s value.
My role
I led the end-to-end UX redesign, starting with a full audit to remove redundant features and declutter screens resulting in a cleaner interface and simpler codebase.
From there, I redesigned core experiences like onboarding, dashboards, and study flows using insights from user interviews, session replays, and UX principles to guide every decision.
From there, I redesigned core experiences like onboarding, dashboards, and study flows using insights from user interviews, session replays, and UX principles to guide every decision.
The impact
→
2x increase weekly active users
→
+27% practice mode use
→
-31% first-session drop-off
→
Students who completed onboarding and started practicing from recommended topics showed significantly higher week-over-week retention.
.avif)
Old ‘Home Dashboard’
New ‘Home Dashboard’
🔍 Research approach
User interviews
To understand student pain points and behaviors, I conducted a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. I conducted user interviews with high school students (ages 16–19) to understand study habits, frustrations, and motivational triggers..
See user interview analysis on FigJam
.avif)
User interview snapshots
💡 Lesson learned
Quality over quantity in user interviews
Initially, I prepared an extensive list of 20 questions for the interviews, aiming to cover as much ground as possible within the 30-minute timeframe. However, after the first two interviews, I realized that rushing through the questions limited the depth of insights.
By shifting my approach to asking high-level questions first and observing the interviewee’s responses, I uncovered valuable insights that wouldn’t have emerged with a rigid structure. This new approach also allowed me to ask meaningful follow-up questions, leading to richer, more actionable findings.
Behavior analytics
Spent hours watching PostHog session replays of users interacting with the product and funnel data to identify friction points and drop-offs in the learning journey.
Spent hours watching PostHog session replays of users interacting with the product and funnel data to identify friction points and drop-offs in the learning journey.
Competitor analysis
Studied platforms like Quizlet and Save My Exams to benchmark best practices in personalization, mobile design, and study progress tracking.
Studied platforms like Quizlet and Save My Exams to benchmark best practices in personalization, mobile design, and study progress tracking.
Key insights uncovered
→
Students needed clearer study direction and goals.
→
Poor mobile UX discouraged repeat use.
→
No visible progress led to low motivation.
→
Complex features like practice mode caused drop-off.
These insights directly shaped the redesign strategy.
🎨 Redesigning sign-up & introducing onboarding
SudoStudy’s existing sign-up flow lacked clarity and structure, creating unnecessary friction for new users.
Old ‘Getting Started’ modal
The primary issues included:
No clear distinction between “Sign Up” and “Sign In”
The Start for Free button on the landing page led to a sign-up modal, but it was unclear whether this was for new users or returning users.
Confusing sign-up modal layout
The Get Magic Link and Use Password options were placed in the same row but were mutually exclusive, leading to usability confusion.
No onboarding experience
Users were immediately dropped into the home screen without any guidance, making it harder for them to understand key platform features.
Overwhelming sign-in process
Users had multiple ways to sign up (Google, Microsoft, Email + Password, Magic Link), but the layout didn’t guide them effectively.
How I addressed these issues:
To improve the first-time user experience, I made several key changes:
1. Improved Sign-Up flow
→
Introduced explicit Sign Up and Sign In buttons in the top navigation bar for clarity.
→
Separated Sign Up and Sign In into distinct modals instead of using the same UI for both.
→
Redesigned the sign-up modal to improve layout clarity.
Old ‘Getting Started’ modal
New ‘Getting Started’ modal
2. Introduced a guided onboarding experience
Previously, users were dropped straight onto the home screen after signing up, with no onboarding to introduce them to the platform.
The assumption was that removing onboarding would allow users to “jump right in” without friction. However, user testing revealed that a lack of guidance caused uncertainty, leading to disengagement.
The assumption was that removing onboarding would allow users to “jump right in” without friction. However, user testing revealed that a lack of guidance caused uncertainty, leading to disengagement.
New getting started flow
Onboarding design
🔧 Major screen redesigns
Once onboarding was improved, I turned focus to the core learning screens students use daily. I prioritized and designed the most used screens first, since it’s a live platform.
Research, interviews, and session replays revealed friction points across navigation, progress tracking, and task flow.
I redesigned key screens to simplify, declutter, and guide users toward faster, more engaging study experiences.
Home Dashboard
Old ‘Home Dashboard’
⚠️ Issues identified:
- A given student can only relate to 1/3rd of the content at max. 2/3rd will always be irrelevant for all students.
- No motivation system like streaks or health indicators.
New ‘Home Dashboard’
✅ Solutions implemented:
- Delivering the key value of the platform early on. Added daily streak to encourage consistent practice.
- Following Hick’s Law I limited displayed subjects to user selections from onboarding to reduce decision fatigue.
- Introduced subject health and coverage scores to boost engagement.
Subject Dashboard
Old ‘Subject Dashboard’
⚠️ Issues identified:
- No true subject dashboard; users landed directly in practice mode without seeing learning progress.
- Key insights (value for user) like weak topics were hidden under “Reports,” making it hard to track performance.
- Unclear tab structure (Practice, Topical, CIE Yearly, Assigned, Reports) created confusion about where to start.
- Students felt overwhelmed without clear guidance on which topics to prioritize.
New ‘Subject Dashboard’
✅ Solutions implemented:
- Designed a true subject dashboard instead of immediately dropping users into practice mode, applying the UX principle of Visibility of System Status to give students a clear view of their learning journey.
- Added a clear “Start Practicing” CTA and Recommended Topics to guide focus and reduce decision fatigue.
- Consolidated secondary study methods into a separate section to declutter navigation.
Practice mode
Old ‘Practice Mode’
⚠️ Issues identified:
- The screen was cluttered with unrelated CTAs like “Give Feedback” and “Buy Subscription,” distracting students from focusing on practice.
- No clear option for users to exit a practice session if they wanted to stop midway.
- Users could select multiple topics and subtopics, but interviews revealed they preferred practicing one topic at a time, the multi-select approach didn’t match real study behavior.
- Redundant options (like selecting exam board and year range) made the start of practice unnecessarily complex, frustrating users according to session replays.
New ‘Practice Mode’
✅ Solutions implemented:
- Added a clearly labeled “Exit Practice Mode” button in the top-right, enhancing user control and freedom, one of Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics.
- Redesigned the layout to prioritize user actions: selecting difficulty and topics first, streamlining the flow, and reducing cognitive load in line with Hick’s Law.
- Changed topic selection from checkboxes to radio buttons, allowing one topic at a time, simplifying the flow through Progressive Disclosure.
- Nested secondary actions under an options icon to declutter the interface and help users maintain focus on the primary task.
Quiz management screens
In addition to the main study flow, I also redesigned supporting screens like Self-Quiz, Past Papers, and Assigned Quizzes. These updates focused on improving clarity, layout efficiency, and terminology to better support student navigation and task flow.
.avif)
📈 Outcomes and results
2x
Increase in weekly active users
+27%
Practice mode
usage
usage
-31%
First-session drop-off
Students who completed onboarding and started practicing from recommended topics showed significantly higher week-over-week retention.
🤔 Reflections
This project reminded me that great UX isn’t just about cleaner screens, it’s about building systems that support users end-to-end.
Grounding every decision in research and real behavior helped turn scattered features into a more focused, usable learning experience.
Even small friction points can pile up, but thoughtful design rooted in user needs makes a measurable difference.
Testimonial
Arslan Arshad
CEO SudoStudy
“I’m thrilled to recommend Momina Rehman for her outstanding contributions as Senior Product Designer at SudoStudy, an online assessment platform that empowers teachers to create, assign, and grade quizzes across A-Level, GCSE, and other exam boards.
From day one, Momina owned the end-to-end design process: she synthesized requirements from founders and stakeholders; conducted over 20 in-depth interviews with teachers and students to map real workflows; and translated insights into detailed wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma. By leveraging analytics tools like PostHog to identify under-used features, she expertly streamlined the information architecture, removing redundant elements, simplifying complex flows, and ensuring that core functionality was always front and center. The results spoke for themselves. Within a few weeks of rollout, weekly active users on the platform increased by 2x, and conversation rate saw an increase as well.
Beyond the metrics, Momina’s crystal-clear documentation and regular design walkthroughs became essential touchpoints for developers, product managers, and our marketing team, ensuring everyone moved in lockstep. Her blend of user-centered research, analytical rigor, and hands-on collaboration makes her an invaluable asset to any product team.”
From day one, Momina owned the end-to-end design process: she synthesized requirements from founders and stakeholders; conducted over 20 in-depth interviews with teachers and students to map real workflows; and translated insights into detailed wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma. By leveraging analytics tools like PostHog to identify under-used features, she expertly streamlined the information architecture, removing redundant elements, simplifying complex flows, and ensuring that core functionality was always front and center. The results spoke for themselves. Within a few weeks of rollout, weekly active users on the platform increased by 2x, and conversation rate saw an increase as well.
Beyond the metrics, Momina’s crystal-clear documentation and regular design walkthroughs became essential touchpoints for developers, product managers, and our marketing team, ensuring everyone moved in lockstep. Her blend of user-centered research, analytical rigor, and hands-on collaboration makes her an invaluable asset to any product team.”
.avif)
.avif)