Varsity is an in-depth collection of stock market and financial lessons created by Karthik Rangappa at Zerodha. It is free and openly accessible to everyone and is one of the largest financial education resources on the web. No signup, no pay-wall, no ads.
Varsity Live takes a step further by offering interactive simulation of stock market for real-time learning experience
My Role
Product designer - Visual design, User flows, Interaction design, Rapid prototyping
Team & Timeline
April 2024 - October 2024
Stack
Figma, Adobe CC, Lottiefiles, Whimsical, Google docs, Jira, Slack
Clean and Distraction-Free Interface experience
Redesign of Homepage that show Practice Features - Leading to increase 22% in landing to registration ratio
To better communicate the platform's core value homepage features a dynamic video that gives you a direct glimpse into the Varsity Live session showing the interactive practice based learning, Live instant mentor feedback and community learning aspects.
Program details page - Improved UX in program registration flow
By enabling users to select their preferred language, date, and time with ease. Replacing the dropdown component with radio buttons makes options visible front and center, simplifying cohort registration. Eliminating the pre-selected option bias for many.
Track user progress seamlessly with a session indicator, monitoring up to 15 sessions per user.
Optimized for mobile first, as over 76% of users access Varsity through their mobile devices.
Overall 18% increase in User Engagement through Dashboard
Dashboard provided a seamless learning experience by displaying minutes learned and leaderboard points using intuitive, visually appealing graphs that boosted user engagement through increase in average time spent on the platform with insightful statistics.
Unified Interaction Rail: All Key Actions in one place reduced confusion improving experience
We moved chat, leaderboard, and stats into a single right-side rail to reduce clutter and guesswork. Now, new messages are easy to spot, and switching between views is instant. This design decision cut confusion by 19% and boosted feature usage.
Gamification of real-time stats with subtle micro-interactions
We redesigned the progress UI to make learning feel more fun like a game. Instead of a static bar, users now see live cumulative points, rank shifts, and instant feedback on how fast they answer compared to others. The old setup hid these stats and left users guessing. Resulting increase in engagement by 18% with completion of session.
Mobile Responsive with quick navigation for Chat, Leaderboard, and Stats
Since 76% of users are on mobile, we designed a bottom tab bar with Chat, Leaderboard, and Stats as the core UI elements. Everything is one tap away no clutter, no confusion, just quick access to what matters in a live session with zero interruption to video feed.
Interactive Trend Line Practice : Single line, multiple and Horizontal
An intuitive, real-time trend line practice format for Varsity Live, enabling users to draw, adjust, and learn technical analysis directly on live charts. The experience drove record engagement and hands-on learning, making complex trading concepts accessible.
Option Chain Practice: Immersive simulation of the options chart
Designed the Option Chain Analysis format to break passive learning. when triggered users see the question clearly, scroll and analyze just like on the real NSE, and select their strike prices with a tap. We made sure to keep the interface frictionless, visually direct, and as close to real market context as possible—so users learn by doing, not just by watching.
Leader board for boosting user engagement throughout the session
Live practice sessions made learning feel like a game where users wanted to win. Whole session had animated interactions with dynamic leaderboard. This kept users excited and motivated, Varsity Live gave special rewards to the top 3 winners - they got to have private one-on-one chat sessions with mentors.
This case study barely scratches the surface as it was made for recruiters to scan through.
There's a ton of stuff we tried, failed at, learned from, and eventually nailed — things that I have not added here.
