Case Study: Redesigning the Learning Flow at Hallo – Making Speaking Practice Accessible

Overview

Hallo was an edtech startup focused on helping non-English speakers improve their conversational fluency through live 1:1 video sessions with English tutors. I joined the team to help simplify the product experience and improve user retention, especially for first-time learners who felt intimidated or unsure about speaking live in English.

The Problem We Were Solving

Most Hallo users came from non-English-speaking countries and joined the app with the goal of practicing real conversations. But user data and session recordings revealed that many signed up but never actually joined a live lesson.

Through user interviews, we uncovered two core reasons:

• Unclear expectations — users didn’t know what to expect from a live session.
• Anxiety around speaking — they were nervous about being judged or making mistakes.

This gap between intent and action was causing drop-offs at a critical moment: the first conversation.

My Approach

Redesigning the Onboarding & Booking Flow
I redesigned the onboarding flow to better prepare users for their first live call:

• Added warm-up steps explaining how the live lessons worked, what tutors were like, and what to expect during the call.
• Integrated lightweight language goals and preferences, so users felt more control over their learning experience.
• Designed a tutor preview screen showing tutor availability, vibe, and reviews — lowering the emotional barrier before booking.

This gave new users both clarity and confidence.

Creating a “First Lesson” Experience
We introduced a guided “First Lesson” flow:

• Offered free or discounted intro sessions with beginner-friendly tutors
• Used a custom script with suggested conversation starters and progress indicators
• Designed a subtle in-call UI (e.g., friendly prompts, topic suggestions) to keep learners engaged without overwhelming them

I worked with engineering and tutoring teams to make sure the experience balanced structure with natural flow — especially important for real-time video.

Why I Made These Decisions

I focused on reducing cognitive load and emotional friction. Learning a language is already intimidating — the product shouldn’t add more pressure. Every UI element was designed to feel welcoming, intuitive, and non-judgmental.

A major challenge was balancing user needs with the realities of live tutoring. For example, we had to design around tutor no-shows, laggy connections, and inconsistent user readiness. I worked closely with support and ops to make sure fallback states and error handling didn’t break trust.

Defining Success

Since anxiety and confusion were the main blockers, we tracked:

• Conversion from signup → first live session
• Session completion rate
• First-time user feedback (collected through post-call surveys and lightweight in-app prompts)

Rather than focus just on DAUs, we looked at how many users meaningfully engaged with a tutor, because that’s where the learning happened.

Outcomes & Impact

After the redesign:

• More users booked and completed their first live session
  
• New users reported feeling “less nervous” and “more prepared” in feedback
  
• Tutor satisfaction improved as learners came in with clearer expectations
  

This helped reduce churn, boosted positive reviews, and gave the company stronger onboarding data to share with investors and partners.

Final Reflection

This project taught me how to design for confidence and clarity — especially in emotionally sensitive spaces like language learning. I learned to see onboarding not just as a funnel, but as emotional preparation. It also gave me experience working with real-time systems, operational edge cases, and culturally diverse user bases.