Yandex Practicum Mobile App
A lightweight learning app for Latin America
The challenge
Practicum, now TripleTen, needed an affordable way to introduce people in Latin America to IT careers and bring new leads to its paid education programs.
The app combined career orientation, free introductory courses, graduate stories, webinars, and personal advice. A small team had to get it into people’s hands quickly.
My role
I designed the app’s user journeys and production UI, working with a product manager, two Flutter developers, and the sales team. I also worked with local teams in Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, and Peru to turn research findings into product decisions.
Process and insights
To understand what felt familiar in each market, we ran surveys and interviews with the help of the local sales teams. The findings shaped the visual language, navigation, and scope.
Use photography to make the product feel familiar
In tests and interviews, we found that people in Latin America responded more positively to photos of people than to illustrations or infographics. I used this finding to shape the profession pages and graduate stories.
Keep the important routes close together
Flat information architecture was the clearest navigation model for participants. I kept careers, introductory learning, and advice close to the catalogue, with short routes back from stories and overlays.
Share the navigation across markets
We did not find meaningful differences in navigation habits between the four countries. A common structure kept the experience consistent and avoided separate country-specific interaction patterns.
Spend the small team’s effort on the key decisions
We reused earlier code iterations and kept the first release focused on career orientation and free introductions. I concentrated the journeys on helping people understand a profession, try learning, or get answers before choosing a paid course.
The user story map
From finding a direction to trying a course and getting help. Four journeys are unpacked below.
Finding a direction
- Find a starting pointExplore
- Explore IT professions — Out of case study scope
- Compare course lengths — Out of case study scope
- Check course prerequisites — Out of case study scope
- Choose by interests — Out of case study scope
- Understand the study commitment — Out of case study scope
- Switch to another career path — Out of case study scope
Evaluating a profession
- Understand career prospectsExplore
- Explore the daily work — Out of case study scope
- Review the skills to learn — Out of case study scope
- Compare entry-level roles — Out of case study scope
- See a possible career path — Out of case study scope
- Check graduate outcomes — Out of case study scope
- Understand career support — Out of case study scope
Webinars
- Choose a webinarExplore
- See what the session covers — Out of case study scope
- Compare available sessions — Out of case study scope
- Check the local start time — Out of case study scope
- Change the selected session — Out of case study scope
- Receive a joining link — Out of case study scope
- Return to the profession page — Out of case study scope
Learning from others
- Watch a graduate’s storyExplore
- Browse different career changes — Out of case study scope
- See how learning works — Out of case study scope
- Discover work after graduation — Out of case study scope
- Return from a story to courses — Out of case study scope
- Find a relevant graduate story — Out of case study scope
- Revisit a story — Out of case study scope
Trying the course
- Start a free introduction — Out of case study scope
- Resume an introductory course — Out of case study scope
- Follow sprint progress — Out of case study scope
- Move between topics — Out of case study scope
- Open a lesson — Out of case study scope
- Check understanding with a quiz — Out of case study scope
- Choose a next step after the intro — Out of case study scope
Personal advice
- Ask which course fits — Out of case study scope
- Contact an adviser on WhatsApp — Out of case study scope
- Request a callback — Out of case study scope
- Share contact details — Out of case study scope
- Explain learning goals — Out of case study scope
- Ask about the paid program — Out of case study scope
- Continue a support conversation — Out of case study scope
Account and access
- Create an account — Out of case study scope
- Sign in — Out of case study scope
- Recover account access — Out of case study scope
- Resume a previous session — Out of case study scope
- Update account details — Out of case study scope
- Review consent choices — Out of case study scope
- Sign out — Out of case study scope
Everyday use
- Change country — Out of case study scope
- Browse in Spanish — Out of case study scope
- Explore the local catalogue — Out of case study scope
- Return after an interruption — Out of case study scope
- Retry content that did not load — Out of case study scope
- Open a shared course link — Out of case study scope
- Get help with app access — Out of case study scope
How people choose a course
Find a direction
What could I do in IT?
Explore careers and orientation. Pick a profession.
Picture the job
Is this work for me?
See the skills and graduate stories. Look at the prospects.
Try it first
Will I enjoy learning?
Take a free intro or join a webinar. Ask questions.
Talk it through
Which course fits?
Get advice from a person. Discuss the paid course.
Story 01
Find a starting point
Explore a free introduction or ask for advice before choosing a paid course. Both routes start from the same orientation screen.
Story 02
Understand career prospects
Before signing up, see what the job involves, what skills the course develops, and where graduates go next. The registration action stays available throughout.
Story 03
Choose a webinar
Choose a session from the profession page, change the time if needed, and register. The confirmation explains where to find the joining link.
Story 04
Watch a graduate’s story
Browse graduate stories alongside the course catalogue. Closing the player returns people to the same place, ready to keep exploring.
Impact
The app-store funnel brought paid-course enquiries to the sales team at $12 per lead — tens of times less than any other acquisition channel. The exact channel benchmarks are under NDA.
The US team took over the app to bring this efficient lead-generation model to a larger market.